Just when you think you have accomplished a lot, you meet someone who shames your ego.

Senior Tip - Look for others that still have a zest for life.

When words fail the task of describing it, you know you are in the presence of genuine talent. Yesterday, I was in just such a presence of talent. Awesome. Extraordinary. Inspirational. Fascinating. Motivational. None of these words adequately describe the talent of this 72 year old retired teacher. 

He took a painting class. I saw a dozen world class ink painting he had done. He took a sculpturing class. I saw a dozen or more world class sculptured objects out of stone and wood. He took a class in welding and made several remarkable outdoor metal welding figures. His paintings, his sculptures and his welding objects are suitable for display in any art exhibit I have ever seen, and I have seen many from California, to New York to Australia. His name is Victor Druten and he attended the same high School that I did, however, he was a year behind me and light years ahead of me.

You can Google Victor Druten. Do it now. You will not be disappointed.

The image is a poor photo I took of his ink painting of Clint. I forgot to eliminate the camera reflection. My error.

After my visit with Vic, I am stoked.

If you can talk to the Lord, so can I.

Senior Tip - Humor is never quite dead, so I will beat it up once more..

There were several submittals for the shortest joke, which I will post next week. For now, here is  a submittal for the longest joke. The originator of the story is Kansas Governor John Anderson Jr. He died a few years ago at 97.  He was also Attorney General in Kansas, owned a large farm in Kansas and was known as a marvelous litigator. He used the other person's claims to make his own case. The following story is an illustration of this technique in a humorous way,

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Farmer John hired a new man to help him on his farm as he had many times in the past. As part of his pay, the hired man and his family were allowed to live in the house behind the main house. As farmers are prone to do, especially in the busy time of the year, they work 7 days a week. Come Sunday, Farmer John was in the barnyard tending to things while waiting for Tom, the new hired man, to come out and begin the work day. After waiting quite a while, John went to the house out back where the hired man and his family were living. John knocked on the door to the house and Ethel, Tom’s wife, answered and the conversation went like this:

John: Good morning, Ethel. Where’s Tom ? Time to go to work.

Ethel: Oh, Tom’s not coming to work today.

John: What’s the matter ? He sick ? 

Ethel: No.  In a conversation with the Lord this morning, God told Tom not to go to work because it was the Lord’s Day.

John:  Oh. What time did he talk with the Lord ?

Ethel: About 45 minutes ago.

John: Well, that explains that.

Ethel: What do you mean? 

John: Well, not 15 minutes ago, and after you and Tom already had talked with the Lord, I too had a conversation with the Lord. Do you           

            believe that ?

Ethel: Oh, Yes, the Lord will speak to anyone who speaks to Him. 

John: Well, anyway, I was having a conversation with the Lord and He said: “John, looks like rain, better go get Tom and get that hay up before it rains.”

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Clever?

webtalkwithbob@gmail.com

What is the shortest joke you know?

Senior Tip - Humor is one of life's best friends. Tell a friend a joke and put a smile on his/her face.

Three brief jokes submitted by a Senior Tip reader that I market tested for humor.

A dyslexic man walks into a “bra”. 

A priest, a rabbi and a minister walk into a bar. The bartender says: “ Is this some kind of joke ?”

A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: “That’s the ugliest baby I ever saw. “  The woman, fuming, goes to sit down and says to a fellow passenger: “ That bus driver just insulted me. “ The passenger says: “ You go on up there and tell him off. I’ll hold your monkey for you. “

Submit yours for our editors to review. Image is your blogger and wife in Japan.

webtalkwithbob@gmail.com

What is so special about keeping books that you have read? Nothing.

Senior Tip- Send your books to your friends and relatives. Become book free and keep your books in transit.

When I moved into a smaller house about 15 years ago, I gave away more than 3,000 books to a local non-profit organization, As a result, I picked up a nice tax deduction. At that time, I vowed never to buy another print book. I have broken my vow and I now have accumulated more than 250 books. 

But this time I have another solution, however, without the tax deduction. I am sending the books to people I know with the message to read and pass the book to another person. My goal is to send two books each day until all my print books are gone. I sent two books yesterday and I sent another two books today. I never read them the second time anyway and some books I have never even read the first time. Sure I have a few books that I read or consult from time to time and I expect I will keep those for awhile, but eventually I wish to be print book free. Now I keep my books in electronic form in my iBooks folder so that someday I can delete those books with a single click. As I write this blog, I have about 50 print books on the shelves behind my desk, I could not even tell you the name of any of them without looking. I do have a dictionary that has been trumped by spell check, grammar check and meaning check. 

I have a book written and autographed by the grandson of Ty Cobb. I met him at a party in Palm Springs. That book will go to my grandson who is in love with baseball. I have another book autographed by a famous coach at UCLA, but I have forgotten his name. I have other books that will go to my sons and a few books that I am sending to my friends. You may get one from me. Some are autographed, but I do not read those again either. There  is something special about having an autographed book on your shelf, even though I do not know what is so special about it. I suspect there is some mysterious, magical pride of book ownership that comes with knowing the author. 

I have none of my books from school. I am not sure if I ever read those either. Yesterday, I took out a stack of paper and started to write down everything I learned from my school books. I could not fill a single sheet of paper. I need to accelerate my plan to go book free and spend more time at the beach.

webtalkwithbob@gmail.com

A flip on a senior tip.

I just finished scanning the September issue of AARP. It was approximately 38 pages long with more than 50% of the pages devoted to advertising for insurance, estate planning, saving for retirement, age spots, suicide prevention, national grandparents day, foot pain, back pain, numerous unidentified pain locations, medical alert monitoring, restless leg syndrome treatment, customized stairlifts, special computers designed for seniors, home security issues and a provocative ad for a video titled "Sex. It's never too late to learn something new." 

However, what caught my attention was an article on "The Value of Older workers." It reminded me of that scene in Dumb and Dumber where Jim Carey says something like, " I see older people still can make a contribution to society." AARP also had an article on a new movie where Robert De Niro (71) plays a 70 year old senior intern at an e-commerce start up. I can only imagine the cheap comedy aimed at the prospective culture clash. 

I love De Niro but I suspect I will be offended by the movie premise which is the same premise embedded in all the stories in the AARP newsletter. e.g. Surprise. Surprise. Older people can still work, contribute, learn new languages, and even help manage a new business. Before I tossed the newsletter in the trash, I saw an article on how older people can still adapt to the new technologies of smartphones. It is a good thing this article was not first or I never would have read any more.

There is a senior tip here somewhere, but I am not sure where. Maybe you can uncover it and let me know via my high tech email account. I agree the photo has nothing to do with this blog, or maybe it does and I just forgot.

webtalkwithbob@gmail.com

What are two great apps for traveling?

Senior Tips - Uber and Pinpoint Search.

Light at the Ground Zero memorial taken from an apartment in Brooklyn on September 11, 2015.

Two things I learned on my trip to Ground Zero and the US Open in New York. First, I used an iPhone app called PinPoint Search to help me navigate and second, I used  the Uber app to get me around without hailing a taxi in the middle of the street. A brief word about each app. 

I loaded all the places I wished to go including restaurants and sites into my iPhone contacts. Then I used Pinpoint Search to place all of these contacts on my map so I could see where each place was relative to the other places I wished to go. That way I could easily visualize what was walkable and what was not and also what was the best sequence of restaurants and sites to see. It worked great.

I used Uber to call a car to pick us up and get us around town. They were never more than a few minutes away and always had comfortable cars. You do not tip Uber drivers and the receipt is emailed to you within minutes. There are some other advantages, but I leave that to discover for yourself if you wish. I loved it.

What apps do you use that make traveling easy for you?

Before you plan anything, check to see if there is an app that will make your planning easier.

Senior Tip - There is most likely an app for everything you wish to do when you travel.

My wife and I  were in New York for some work  and to attend the US Open. We took some time to see the ground zero memorial on September 11. The photo of the memorial light was taken from an apartment in Brooklyn.

The Ground Zero memorial was somber. I swear that when I visited the bottom floor of the memorial, where some of the people are still interred in the rubbish behind the memorial walls, I could smell smoke.  Visitors like me shuffled around in respectful silence at the recovered debris and pictures of the tragedy on display.  I was in the Office of a friend of mine, Robert Lastelic, when it happened. Like the Kennedy assassination, people remember where they were when the planes hit the towers.

There is an app for everything when you travel, the bus schedule, ferry boat tours, the subway schedule, food, shows to see and even the 9/11 memorial.

Is this a happy thought?

Senior Tip - Relax and enjoy it. You earned it.

Sometimes words are simply inadequate compared to a picture. I can stare at this picture for hours and the image takes me to a wonderful place.

You get the idea. Somewhere on a lake in Michigan. 


Send me you favorite senior picture that speaks volumes.

webtalkwithbob@gmail.com