Helpful Tip - Medicare Physician Search

Phone rings. I recognize the phone number, answer, and not one for lengthy conversations, I say,

“Hi, Mom. What’s going on?”

And mom, equally one to not mince words, says,

“I need to find a new gynecologist. I just got a letter from my old one saying that she no longer accepts Medicare assignments. It’s so frustrating. I guess the doctors are receiving less from the government and because of the considerable paperwork as well as the lower payments, some docs are opting out of Medicare.” She continues to grumble, “I don’t blame them. Everyone’s got to earn a living. But I’d rather be bowling, playing cards, or watching 'Everyone Loves Raymond' than figuring out what to do and where to go.”

I’m not ready for Medicare yet but I am familiar with the angst accompanying the search for a new doctor when I relocated to a new city just 4 years ago.

It would only make sense, I reasoned (even with my recurrent skepticism about government efficiency), for the U.S. government to supply an up-to-date directory of Medicare-accepting physicians. So to my surprise and dismay and delight and whatever, I discovered the Medicare Physician Search.

When I supplied my lovely 88-year old, computer-literate widowed (but currently available for friendships and dating) mother with this site, she called me brilliant, resourceful, and all kinds of good things (very ego-gratifying, I might add).

As our conversation came to a close, I moved on to a more favorable topic,
“Well, Mom, tell me again how magnificent your great-grandchildren are.”

Then we talk endlessly about how happy Jonah is, how big Asher is, how sweet-natured Nicole is, and how bright Haley is. Did I ever tell you how much I love to talk on the phone?

Gold Fever: Golden Websites for 50+ers

When I was knee-high, I went to my best friend’s house to explore his backyard. When I returned home, my dad asked what I had in my bulging pockets.

“Gold. I found them in the hills behind Bobby’s house” I replied proudly as I l laid the rocks on our kitchen table, thinking of all the possibilities (most of which included toys) this could bring. Dad looked over my stash.

“Susie," he said, "The only gold in that backyard is Bobby.” My bubble burst wide open.

After more than ½ century of venting, I’ve returned to digging...but this time I hit the jackpot!

Check out a few of my favorite websites for baby boomers and seniors ("Golden Weblinks"):

• Familydoctor.org provides clear and concise senior health information.


• Fisher Products supplies ample specifics, often accompanied with photos, about many different sorts of home health care products.


• At HOMEMODS.ORG you will find plenty of resources to help you create a safe environment at home.


• SeniorShops.com shares 8 games loved by seniors which you can purchase at a discount.

When the Dog Eats Your Slippers...or worse!

1ST SCENARIO - You’re sitting in your recliner on a cold, winter day, watching Gone With the Wind, warmed by the old afghan and the burning embers in the fireplace. You have a craving for a cup of hot chocolate and lower your feet to the floor expecting to slip into your warm, fuzzy slippers. The right foot slips in easily but the left foot finds only the cold floor. You scan the room and notice Sadie with her back to you occupied on her new comfy Costco doggie bed. You stand to view the object of Sadie’s attention.

2ND SCENARIO - You wake up before dawn one morning. You’re dressed in your flannel pjs and sneak out of the house to retrieve your newspaper on the dewy lawn. Little did you know that the neighbor’s German Shepherd had already been there.

3RD SCENARIO - You’re hunting for your slippers, which were last seen under the kitchen table. You find them next to the twin grandkids’ toy box. You notice that Emily and Jacob had securely tucked their dripping sippy cups into each slipper.

THE SOLUTION: You flick on the computer and search for your next pair of slippers: Only Slippers has “Old Friend Step-ins”, 100% Australian sheepskin handcrafted slippers with an adjustable opening, ideal for indoor or outdoor use. Only slippers carries even hard-to-fit sizes.

Another great user-friendly website is Foot Smart, you find slippers, even for sensitive feet, by brand or by style. Check out the socks/hosiery, foot aids, and gifts.

Zappos sorts their footwear by popularity, brand, and price. In addition to being a member of the Better Business Bureau, they offer free shipping both ways, with a 110% price protection, and a 365-day return policy.

Now, get back to your movie. And if you’re anything like me, you wonder how Scarlett O’Hara could ever prefer Ashley Wilkes over Rhett Butler!

Who are "They" Anyway ?

Did you ever wonder about the “They’s” of this world, how they sit in judgment of everything we do, how it’s impossible to please a “they”?

“Well, dear, they’re all getting the new iPhone.”

“That’s what they’re saying.”

“They say you have to do it this way.”

“They say it’s a good movie.”

I, for one, have had it with the “They’s. What are we anyway--a bunch of lemmings following the “they’s” down the trail of ordinaryhood?

Whatever happened to logic, trusting in your own judgment, and chocolate chip cookies?(Everything sounds better with chocolate!)

Use your good old-fashioned common sense as a 50something, and know I'm working on compiling a resource to give boomers and seniors resources in one easy-to-use place (at http://www.50something.info/) —except chocolate chip cookies, of course. :)

Soon "they" will be "we" - WE will all be a part of the 50something.info community!

I welcome any boomer resources and tips - please post your ideas!

50something Book suggestions

After reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, I can’t imagine a better story than that. But Mom, the insatiable reader of West LA, the queen of dollar hardbacks, assures me that A Thousand Splendid Suns is EVEN BETTER.

I have little time to read these days. I squeeze in bits and pieces of chapters just before bedtime.

But it wasn’t that long ago when everything fell by the wayside when I got absorbed in a book. I’d stay up all night reading. I’d carry my book everywhere in the event that I’d have to kill time. Honestly, I’d be tempted to read even while I was having a phone conversation (but I won’t say with whom). And meals? Well, they could wait, couldn’t they?

I really like blood and guts mysteries—the Tess Gerritsen type. But I learned not to buy the 2 books-in-one volume because neither story is as good as her usual fine writing.

The Lovely Bones was one of those I-can’t-put-it-down books. How often do you get to see a story through the eyes of a dead person?

The Red Tent: A Novel made the biblical story of Leah, Rachael, and Jacob come alive. Growing up I never put a personality to each of these characters. Now I think of them as real people with real problems.

Hirsi Ali’s Infidel tells without restraint about her traditional Muslim childhood including female mutilation. This is a must-read nowadays.

Waking Up: Climbing Through the Darkness, memoirs by my cousin Terry Wise (names have been changed), should be required reading. You couldn’t begin to fathom what a brilliant wit Terry has (it makes me wish she and I shared the same DNA) by reading the book because the topic, suicide, is so tragic. She effortlessly writes from both sides of the psychologist’s desk, giving the reader both perspectives. And the best part of it is that we get to watch her transform into a brave and compassionate woman as she faces each of her demons.

Danielle Steele books? I stay away from them. Too predictable—woman is deeply, passionately in love with her soulmate. Something awful happens to soulmate, then a painfully lot of agony, and finally woman finds another soulmate. (Come on--can you really have more than one soulmate in a lifetime? I thought there was a moratorium against this. Maybe Danielle knows something I don’t.)

It is obvious that Philippa Gregory researches her subjects well before writing about them. The reader is instantly transported into another century. I’ve enjoyed every book but The Other Boleyn Girl has remained my favorite so far. That King Henry VIII had quite a harem. These days you could be facing the death penalty or worse (divorce) for all that he did under the guise of royalty. History would be so much more appreciated if it were taught in the form of historical fiction.

And finally, you’d have to be comatose if you couldn’t comprehend the hardships pioneer homesteaders endured or the despair rampant in Depression-era households by reading deceased author Barry Broadstreet’s collection of eye-witness stories. Rarely have I found tales so riveting.

Being "Good" to being a "Best" Boomer

I love mom and dad. Really I do. But I’ve always wondered about one thing: When they escaped the frigid prairies of Canada to settle in sunny California, why did they leave behind their perfectly respectable surname?

After all, is “Good” any better than their former “Finegood”? And if they’re going to shorten the name, why not use “Fine”? After all, “Fine” has significantly better connotations than just plain “Good.” Finally, if Dad’s upholstered furniture factory had been named “Fine Furniture,” instead of “Good Furniture,” couldn't he have been able to up his prices?

Growing up with the “Good” name made me feel rather ordinary except when some people would, at my expense, mindlessly play on the words— “Are you really Good?” “How Good are you? “Shouldn’t your name be ‘Bea Good’?”

But I was one of those overachievers who always pushed herself to be better, just a pitbull-like tenacity that refused to quit. Sometimes I reached “Better” but rarely “Best.”
Until now.

I’ve researched nonstop to create the best senior and baby boomer directory, one that would surpass anything out there.“What gall,” you say? “She dares to enter that inner sanctum of ‘Best’? On her first try, she bypasses ‘Good’ and even ‘Better’?”

“Yup, the best so far,” I claim, "because this website will never be finished. I will constantly be adding, editing, and deleting."

50something.info, the best senior and baby boomer website. Look no further. Soon you’ll know why.

Ms. 50-something enters the blogosphere

Hello Boomers and Seniors! This is my first step into the web world and blogosphere and here's my story:

I remember redeeming my Blue Chip stamps for a ping-pong table.

I wish I had the exact recipe for my family's Blum’s coffee crunch cake.

I curled my hair to make it straight.

We took Sunday drives.

I loved strawberry flavor straws.

I went to Ohrbach’s and Woolworth’s.

Then I graduated high school, attended UCLA for a bachelors and graduate degree (and got married somewhere in-between), had a baby, worked as a librarian, operations manager, and office administrator, had another baby, greeted my baby’s baby, and eventually started to develop my own website, http://www.50something.info/.

I am building 50something.info because I couldn't find all the information online that relates to me, my generation (and our wants/needs) in one great place.

When I got frustrated searching the web for resources and information with little luck in finding ONE great resource, my librarian skills kicked in and I started compiling data, LOTS of data for boomers and seniors. I started my 50-something blog to voice my stories, experiences and great boomer/senior tips during and after my website gets built (stay tuned as I blog about all the geek-speak I am learning while I build my website!)

Here's to being a fabulous 50something...and if anyone has a personal recipe for Blum’s coffee crunch cake, I'm all ears (correction - I'm online now...all eyes)