RETIRED AND READY TO "GO GREEN", not gray!

What can retired people, actually all people, do to leave a lasting legacy?
What are the things that I can do for my children and my children's children!
A lasting legacy is more than a financial one; more than a gift that will not
survive through more than one generation.

We seem to live in a society where more is better, bigger is better and the corporate entities who supply our more and bigger products are happy to accommodate us. In fact they provide the ads and incentives to fuel those attitudes.

Just think back to when the family car went from sedan to station wagon to mini-vans to SUVs and large vans. It became a huge demand for bigger and the automakers were happy to supply the more. Today with the cost of filling up our 1999 Honda coupe going over $50 to $53.14; suddenly the demand for the larger vehicles has diminished to the place where those same automakers are either not paying even close to blue book value for an SUV or giant truck or not even accepting them. Their lots are full.

In an effort to do what I can for the Earth and the environment and now for my own financial health; I am always looking for the ways that we can make even little strides in conservation and frugal ways of living that will add up to large savings for us personally and even larger savings for our communities if done by many.

How To Go Green!

BLOGGING AND BLOG CONTESTS=FUN!

I have indicated before that I love to blog; writing them and reading them. Some of the best information that I have found whether it be about new info in my areas of interest (health, aging, learning, internet marketing, gas prices, travel-and the list goes on) or in just reading what bloggers are thinking about and writing. If you do not have a blog yet, I would encourage you to get one. Use it as a journal, a memory keeper for the things that you want your children and grandchildren to know about you, or as a means to monetize a product or service to provide you with a supplement to your cash flow. Blogger.com is an easy way to do this and it is free to do.

But this post is about blogging contests. I love them. I love the idea of possibly winning one of the prizes being offered but especially I love them for the new things I learn about blogging by participating in them.

One of the recent ones that I am participating in right now is Jason Henderson's Big Marketing Blogging Idol contest.

Jason Henderson, is running a large blog contest on his site. Jason has gotten a lot of private consultants sponsoring their time as prizes for the contest and other prizes that especially a new blogger would like to add to their library.

If you check out Blogging Idol Contest you will see what all is involved and all the prizes.

To enter, all you need to do is subscribe to his RSS by mail, as well as the additional methods of entry (such as making a blog post like this one). If you are interested in winning some private consulting with some industry gurus, this contest might be for you.

The contest is ending soon; but just visiting Jason's Big Marketing Blog is worth the look-see.

READY FOR THE WEEKEND!

All day today has been Friday and when I try to do Friday things, like calling about an account status, I get a voice mail message telling me to "call back during regular business hours". Oh yeah, I remember, this is Saturday. I have been so ready for the weekend! Now here it is and I have spent my early Saturday morning trying to do early Friday morning things. But thanks to that voice mail message I am back on track and I am saying, "Hello Weekend! Nice to see you."

Even though I am retired when each day can often run into another and I have to look at the calendar to see what day it is, I almost always know when it is the weekend. There was always magic in the weekend when I was working full-time and I have taken some of that magic with me into retirement.

What the weekend magic is for me:

**Saturday mornings are for Farmer's Market, with it's tastings, shopping and people watching.
**Saturday afternoons are for being laid back, time out doors and reading for fun.
**Sunday mornings (late) are for reading newspaper (only certain sections), listening to light
classical music and champagne and strawberries.
**Sunday afternoons are for cooking something gourmet special, writing out next week's things
to do list and, if I am lucky, getting to talk with one of my kids.

One of the blogs that I look at especially on the weekends when I have more time for just surfing the Internet is Grammology.com and this is what I found there this morning:

Happy Weekend
www.grammology.com - Saturday, 02 August 2008

© www.grammology.com

In case you might have forgotten, it is the weekend. Hope yours is a good one!