The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

At last: Federal officials are reconsidering the recommendation for the general public not to wear face masks during the coronavirus pandemic

Since late February, I’ve wondered why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn’t been recommending the general public wear face masks. I wrote about it in my article “What You Need to Do to Get Ready for a Possible Covid-19 Outbreak in Your Community.” I said:

So, while it’s unknown where covid-19 will strike in the U.S., or if it will, I think getting some N95 masks is a good idea, if you can find them. I wonder if buying them isn’t recommended at this time so there won’t be a run on them, making them unavailable for health care workers.

Sure enough, a couple of weeks later, on Feb. 29, there was an email tweet from the surgeon general about not buying masks. A New York Times article quoted the tweet as follows: “Seriously people – STOP BUYING MASKS!” the surgeon general, Jerome M. Adams, said in a tweet on Saturday morning. “They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if health care providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!”

Baby boomers concentrate on keepin’ on during the coronavirus pandemic

I’m working on my book about my journalism career, so these days of staying at home are going by quickly for me. I have plenty of food (and toilet paper) and just found out I can order groceries, expect frozen food, from my local food co-op. I was ready to try Safeway or Fred Meyer thinking eating nonorganic food would be a lesser risk than going to the co-op to shop.

Then, I wrote about the Dirty Dozen, a list of the produce with the highest pesticide residues offered yearly by the Environmental Working Group. Topping the list are strawberries, spinach, and kale. The EWG recommends that whenever possible, consumers purchase organic versions of produce on the Dirty Dozen list.

Raisins, which hadn’t been tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture since 2007, had the most pesticide residues. The EWG recommends eating organic raisins or prunes. Prunes, USDA tests found, had much lower pesticide residues than either conventional and organic raisins.

Meanwhile, boomer bloggers are writing about:

Baby boomers dealing with the strange new world

Things have changed dramatically for Americans due to the coronavirus. Most baby boomers are sheltering in place and waiting to see what happens next. What will it be? It’s all unknown.

Meanwhile, boomer bloggers are writing about ways to cope with it all. Articles include:

• How to manage anxiety and to meditate.

• The benefits of a stacation.

• The importance of avoiding charity scams.

• A nature walk in the neighborhood to break up self-isolating at home.

• Tips for dealing with isolation.

• New things to try at home.

• Good things that have come from the pandemic.

Carol Cassara of Heart•Mind•Soul writes about these articles in the Best of Boomer Blogs #642. Click here to get the links to the articles. And be sure to join in the conversations. It cheers up boomer bloggers to chat with their readers.

Copyright 2020, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

Baby boomers are being impacted by COVID-19

Like most people for now, the coronavirus is turning my life upside down.

I wanted to get my new glasses Monday, but a delay caused an error in one of my glasses prescriptions, I’m getting regular glasses and computer classes, screwed everything up. By the time the ophthalmologist’s office said they had faxed the correct prescriptions to Costco, Costco had closed its optical department.

So, instead of shopping at Costco, I went to my local co-op and Safeway to stock up again. I wore my face mask and disposable gloves.

In addition to the canned goods shelves being nearly bare, the sugar and flour shelves at Safeway were empty, too.

People age 60 and older are to stay home, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee said. So that’s what I’m doing now.

The baby boomers in our blogging group are being impacted by the coronavirus. They’re writing about:

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day

Last week, I looked up when Saint Patrick’s day was so I could write this greeting.

However, with the pandemic crisis, I forgot all about it. I went out yesterday to the credit union and to my local food co-op and Safeway to stock up on more food. When I got home, I followed the Consumer Reports recommendations for washing off my groceries, a time consuming process. Then I wrote about how to do it, also time consuming.

About an hour ago, I saw the governor of Washington state, Jay Inslee, on television wearing a green tie. Strange, I thought. Then, I remembered. It’s Saint Patrick’s Day.

Baby boomers have coronavirus on their minds

Two weeks ago, I went to my local co-op to stock up on food due to the possible need to stay home due to the COVID-19 outbreak. I bought two weeks’ worth of food.

Then, I heard that older people may need to stay home for more than two weeks. So I set out for Costco for a shopping trip. I spent $262. Costco was out of hydrogen peroxide, which I use to wipe chemicals off things. In addition, it was out of medium-size disposable gloves, so I bought two boxes of large.

I bought eggs, chicken thighs to freeze, carrots, beets, cheese, pine nuts, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and a large bag of “power” greens. Since I normally don’t buy Costco’s large sizes, I was looking around for something for dinner. I bought a large plastic container of shrimp. (Pretty exotic. I was able to eat it all and none spoiled.)

California funeral homes that hide prices are charging more than homes that disclose prices, study shows

California funeral homes that use a legal loophole to hide prices tend to charge more for basic services than funeral homes that prominently disclose prices, a study showed. For example:

• For the basic services fee, the $1,835 median price of price hiders was 36 percent higher than the $1,348 median price of price posters.
• For direct cremation, the $1,695 median price of price hiders was 31 percent higher than the $1,295 median price of price posters.
• For immediate burial without a casket, the $2,595 median price of price hiders was 37 percent higher than the $1,900 median price of price posters.

“Many funeral homes charging high prices use a legal loophole to hide these prices from the public,” said Josh Slocum, executive director for the Funeral Consumers Alliance. “The California legislature should close this loophole so that consumers can comparison shop among all funeral homes.”

Baby boomers contemplate grief, quarantine, hoarding, and love

You never know what's going to happen next in life. One day, you could lose someone you love or you could be in the middle of a pandemic. So, enjoy every day to its fullest.

That's the recommendation of our boomer blogging group. This week's articles are as follows:

Over at A Healing Spirit, Carol Cassara wants to counteract the negativity in the world by doing her version of random acts of kindness. Cassara calls them "love bombs" and offers a variety of ideas you can easily use to make the world more loving in "How To Love Bomb Someone for Free."

For Laurie Stone of Musings, Rants & Scribbles, it’s hard to believe almost four years have passed since her dad died. Four winters, springs, summers, and falls have come and gone. He was a good father and they were close. She thought his death would become easier with time, but instead it gets harder. Numbness eventually turned to grief, but each time she thinks of him the sadness goes deeper, the loss is more real. Here are eight things she misses…

It has been a busy week with presidential primaries and a possible pandemic dominating the news. The prospect of being quarantined got Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting pondering whether, and how, to prepare. Baer remembers a past brief time spent at home while contemplating future confinement.

The snowbird season is over. At least it is for Tom at Sightings Over Sixty. March is here, and so in his post "Homeward Bound" he says goodbye to the southern beaches and turns his sights to the north . . . and to the season ahead.

When a hoarder passes away, his or her family is left to sort out the mess. Rebecca Olkowski, with BabyBoomster.com, has been spending time getting rid of stuff so she can move. It’s amazing what a person can collect who has trouble letting things go. 

This is the Best of Boomer Blogs #639. Click on the links to read these informative articles. And be sure to leave a comment. Boomer bloggers enjoy communicating with readers. 

Copyright 2020, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

What you need to do to get ready for a possible COVID-19 outbreak in your community

It was helpful Tuesday when a federal official advised Americans to prepare for a possible coronavirus outbreak where they live.

“It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more of a question of exactly when this will happen,” Nancy Messonnier, M.D., director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a New York Times article.

Messonnier said that cities and towns should plan for “social distancing measures,” such as dividing school classes into smaller groups of students or closing schools. Meetings and conferences may have to be canceled, she said. Businesses should arrange for employees to work from home.

What do you need to do to be prepared? One federal official said to get ready in your home like it was a snow storm or hurricane. Recommendations include:

Do you think you’ll miss a credit card payment in 2020?

The average American household owes a near-record $8,700 to credit card companies.

Forty-six million Americans, nearly one in five adults, think they will miss at least one credit card payment due date in 2020, according to a WalletHub credit cards survey released Tuesday. The researchers think this indicates that cracks in the foundation of consumers’ finances are beginning to show, under the strain of mounting debt.

“The reason that roughly 46 million people expect to miss at least one credit card due date in 2020 is that we’re stretched too thin – in terms of both time and money,” said Odysseas Papadimitriou, WalletHub CEO.