Get Some Sleep

Am I the only baby boomer wandering around at 3:30 in the morning? I don’t think so. Apparently baby boomers are more susceptible to sleep apnea at this stage of their lives. If your blood pressure has been dropping and you’re tired all the time, or (you’ll love this one!) you stop breathing momentarily in your sleep, you should see a doctor.

Insomnia and sleep apnea occur more often as you get a bit older and heavier. Things get flabby and the parts start to loosen up – like your airways!! Yikes.

If none of these symptoms hit home, maybe you’re just as stressed out as the rest of us who are awake in the early hours. According to those who measure things, about three fourths of baby boomers surveyed say that they get less than eight hours of sleep a night, and one in six has difficulty falling asleep. You made it through crying infants and out–all-night teenagers and now this?

Just the noise of the cat puking in the living room can wake you from a sound sleep. Then as long as you’re up cleaning the floor you might as well get a glass of water. And after the water it only makes sense to go to the bathroom. Maybe then it’s a good time to plan that fantasy trip to the Greek Islands. Should you go with two or three days in London on the way to Athens? Has anyone sent you email in the middle of the night? You never know. If I’m up they could be up. It’s only midnight in LA…but they go to bed at 8 pm don’t they? You could get off the computer and go out on the sofa to watch TV. Home improvement shows are perfect for putting you to sleep. You start watching Amy the carpenter on Sweat Equity reruns and wake up twenty minutes later with drool on your chin (sorry about that Amy).

All the health gurus say you should get eight hours of sleep but what if you never slept that much? What if you’ve been getting by for years on six hours?

I’d like to help you with this problem, but I’m going back to bed.

(This is a Best of BoomSpeak post from some time around 2014)

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon. But that’s not all. You can also purchase the Best of BoomSpeak on Amazon.

Early Bird Pact

More important than “to love and cherish” or “in sickness and health” is the vow we made to each other many years ago – no early bird dinners. I’m not sure how it all began, but it may have had something to do with watching some seniors shuffle into the local Horn and Horn Smorgasbord Cafeteria at 4 o’clock in order to get the cheaper Early Bird dinner. One of us looked at the other and we vowed at that moment, to never, ever go to one of those things.

It’s a lot like the “shoot me if I get like that” promise that spouses extract from each other. There’s something about a herd of seniors being corralled into a cafeteria to eat at 4 pm (whether they’re hungry or not) that’s very unsettling. The restaurant views them as a captive audience that can be manipulated easily by the promise of a discount because they’re living on fixed incomes. Maybe that’s why there are so few guys wearing ascots or women wearing diamonds at an early bird dinner.

Does eating dinner at 4 pm mean you’re in bed under the covers by 8? Why does being older mean you have to miss all the fun? We want to eat at 8 pm and stay out until 10 or 11. Where’s the fun in sitting at home watching reruns? I would rather eat less and pay less than be rounded up like docile cattle for the chow line because the restaurant wants to fill some seats and get me out before the high rollers show up (if there areany high rollers going to cafeterias).

Even the elder hostels give me pause. Sure, the programs are great and they take the guesswork out of the planning, but there’s that herding thing going on again. Like lemmings following the lady with the red umbrella at the museum. I’m too much the nonconformist to go there.

I’ll take the discount for seniors at the movie theatre, museums, for bus/train fare, and at the supermarket. That’s only fair. We paid our dues by paying full price all these years. And it’s okay if a younger person allows me to go ahead of them (age before beauty is a reasonable accommodation). But, we have promised ourselves that there are no Early Bird dinners in our future, and it’s a promise we intend to keep.

(Best of BoomSpeak from 2009) 

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon. But that’s not all. You can also purchase the Best of BoomSpeak on Amazon.

Peak Burden

No one would blame you if you’re one of the people who thought “peak burden” is when you’re exhausted from carrying around a mountain. Alas (a word that should be used more often), the phrase refers to rapidly approaching “peak 65” when the youngest boomers turn age 65.

Who cares? Maybe you should if you’re on the leading edge of the generation. We (the leading edge we) are mostly prepared for retirement if we have not already done so. The peak 65 group? Not so much.

Around 53% of “peak boomers,” who will turn 65 between 2024 and 2030, have less than $250,000 in assets, a new study found. Research also indicates that more than a quarter of the workers that are nearing retirement have no savings and few years left to put some money away.

Bottom line, peak boomers will be hard pressed to maintain their standard of living in retirement. That in turn means they will rely on Social Security as their primary source of income. It’s estimated that one-third of these younger boomers will rely on Social Security benefits for at least 90% of their retirement income when they are 70.

You should already know that Social Security was never meant to be a retiree’s total income. More like 40%. The idea was that it would supplement what retirees had managed to save over the years in a bank account or 401k. The average benefit is $23,000 per year, which is hardly enough for a comfortable retirement. It’s more like a small step up from sleeping on the street in a cardboard box.

How or why should the peak burden worry older boomers? The stress put on the economy by these peak burden retirees will impact everyone. Productivity could slow as they leave the workforce. Likewise, consumer spending could decrease as they lack the funds to spend. In effect, everyone could feel some pain, not just the peak burden people.

There’s a saying that pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. Not buying it. Many retirees could be seeing some hard times ahead.

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon. But that’s not all. You can also purchase the Best of BoomSpeak on Amazon.

Thanks Smartphones

Turns out that smartphones have ruined us. Maybe not baby boomers so much, but smartphones have had an adverse effect on us as well. According to a boatload of different studies, many of the skills we had have bitten the dust. Here’s a sampling.

Great Memory – We used to know other people’s phone numbers and addresses. Now, we’re lucky if we can recall our own. Excessive screen time (you’re watching TV while scrolling on your phone – we all do it now) has a negative affect on cognitive ability, memory, concentration and focus.

Reading Social Cues – Boomers grew up with many face-to-face experiences. Our ability to read body language helped us to make friends in-person, and feel comfortable in social situations and job interviews. Younger generations avoid in-person interaction and hide behind those little screens.

Focus – Growing up before smartphones came along, we were able to be more productive when it came to truly concentrating on a task. That was before a harmless notification “ding” could sabotage whatever we were trying to focus on and drop everything to check on who was contacting us.

Patience – It should be obvious, but the immediacy of smartphones has killed our ability to wait things out. It’s a now world now. We have to respond ASAP to every email and text.

Silence – We were capable of sitting in solitude without external stimuli but younger generations raised on smartphones have no clue what that was like.

Entertaining oneself – We had no choice. There were often times when reading a book or taking a walk was a far better experience than checking in on Facebook.

Great handwriting – We’ve been here before. There’s hardly anyone left who can write longhand (or knows what that word means).

Independent thinking – There was a time when we came to our opinions based on discussion and debate along with a healthy serving of news. Social media promotes a groupthink that stifles original thought.

Delayed gratification – Social media is in the moment so what’s the point of waiting to do something if you can have it NOW.

Storytelling – Sure, there is storytelling on line, but it’s not the same as face to face sharing that can bond people together.

Resourcefulness – It’s just too hard to ignore the allure of social media when that distraction is so tempting. Boomers had to overcome problems and develop a routine on their own, without cribbing ideas off the internet.

The bottom line is that we may have been better off in terms of intellectual and personal development, but we’re just as vulnerable when it comes to the harm a life lived on top of smartphone can do. It could be time to put it down for a whole day and see what happens (after you get over the panic of not knowing where it is).

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon. But that’s not all. You can also purchase the Best of BoomSpeak on Amazon.

The Real Deal

I never stopped to think about it, but apparently the baby boomer generation has been labeled as more “authentic” in how we relate to our world.

Really? Yes, we are more real. Okay, I can think of worse things that we’ve been labeled but how did psychologists come to this conclusion?

First off, we grew up with fewer distractions. No social media, no digital anything really. Without all that chatter we had to focus on real interactions. That won’t be the last time you see the word real. We listened to each other and had to communicate face-to-face.

Next, we grew up without Google. That meant we had to look things up and learned a lot of things by trial and error. So add self-reliance to how we are more authentic.

We also grew up with a lot more face to face contacts than later generations. That was how we played and socialized and it helped us entertain ourselves.

We never had to experience the performance pressure that later generations felt. The absence of social media meant we could figure out who we were and who we wanted to be without excessive external pressures.

Another major factor in our world view were the major societal changes that affected our maturation. Womens’ liberation, the civil rights movement, and the war in Vietnam all had an impact on our world view. These events helped us clarify our values and world view.

In the absence of social media, we were able to develop a sense of self that didn’t rely on some curated views. We modeled ourselves on people we knew and admired in real life. It helped us remain true to ourselves and gave us a sense of security.

There wasn’t much oversharing as we grew up. We kept a lot more of our lives private than generations do now. We were a lot more measured when it came to deciding what we would share and what would remain private.

The last factor cited for boomer authenticity is trust. We met and encountered people for many years and really got to know them. Because we stayed in the same neighborhoods or with the same company/organization, the bonds formed could run very deep.

Ultimately, many boomers sense that they are more authentic because we are less filtered – less influenced by digital distractions. Boomers can’t claim to be the most authentic generation, but being nurtured in a world without social media and digital diversions certainly helped. As someone observed, the lesson we can take from the way we grew up is that being genuine means being present.

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon. But that’s not all. You can also purchase the Best of BoomSpeak on Amazon.

Boomers to the Rescue

Guess what? We can solve the housing crisis. Seriously. Millions of single-family homes (and boomers own most of them) are underused and on spacious lots. If they were retrofitted they could be converted into “roommate houses” and accommodate backyard cottages.

A developer in Dallas converted his 2,400 square foot home into four studio apartments, each with an outside entrance. Each has connecting doors to the rest of the house that remain unused. He didn’t do it for the income. His purpose was to allow him to claim he lives in a single-family home and is in accordance with local zoning. He calls it a suburban retrofit.

America needs between four and eight million more homes. Meeting that need by building new homes and apartment complexes is too slow and ponderous. But we have 145 million homes that already exist and two-thirds of them are single-family. The loophole then, is to allow the single-family homes to become multifamily.

It’s not clear how many of these single-family homes are owned and occupied by baby boomers, but if they started renting out their empty rooms – voila – big problem solved. Many boomers are already living with one or more of their offspring who are unable to buy homes of their own. How much difference would it make to take in boarders the way people did post-depression?

I’m looking at you baby boomer living in 3,000 sf 4-bedroom house. Why not take in one or more renters? The space is going unused and the extra income can go a long way to reducing your property tax burden. Co-habitation a little to crowded for you? At least consider an accessory dwelling unit out back. More and more communities are altering zoning to accommodate this trend.

Boomers have often been tagged with the bad rap of being selfish, but if we opened up our homes to renters, it might prove to everyone that we can be part of the solution rather than the problem. Just saying.

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon. But that’s not all. You can also purchase the Best of BoomSpeak on Amazon.

Cereal Killers

I’m not feeling sorry for Kelloggs or General Mills, but cereal sales have fallen off sharply. Apparently baby boomers who grew up eating cereal for breakfast and snacking cannot make up for millennials who rarely go in for the milky crunch.

We had Rice Crispies, Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes, Cheerios, Raisin Bran, Wheaties, Puffed Rice, Sugar Pops, and loads of other brands I can no longer remember. We ate them with milk and if they were covered with sugar, we ate them as snacks.

According to recent surveys, millennials forego the cereal habit because “it’s too much work.” Read that again. Too much work. You have to clean up the bowl and spoon afterward. Almost 40% of those surveyed gave that as the number one reason they prefer the convenience of protein bars or fast-food biscuits. I’ll grant you that some of the cereals we ate back then were just slick sugar delivery systems, but as we got older we turned to Wheat Chex, Rice Chex and other somewhat healthier alternatives. Then we added fresh fruits as well, all in the name of eating smarter.

Cereal makers have not given up on trying to attract millennials and the inducement of healthier offerings is still being used as a lure. Kellogg has come out with a variation that has quinoa in it. Can Kale Bran be far behind?

If it’s too much trouble to get out a bowl, spoon and milk, can we count on these people when we’re no longer able to feed ourselves? Are they going to put us on protein IV drips for breakfast? That may be the same way they get their morning nutrients, but for folks who grew up listening to their Rice Crispies making snap, crackle and pop noises it’s going to be a real downer.

Convenience is a great selling point for just about anything. Internet access, cruise control, electronic bill paying, ATMs, and more have made our lives easier and more pleasurable. But the pleasure of cold milk hitting a bowl of crunchy grains and scarfing it all up while the cereal is still crunchy – that may be an indulgence that future generations (thinking about the Matrix here) never get to experience.

Sugar Pops are Tops!

(This is a Best of BoomSpeak post from some time around 2016)

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon. But that’s not all. You can also purchase the Best of BoomSpeak on Amazon.