I just recently made up that German word. Google will redline it all the time but it will not with Kummerspeck (?) which means (literally, grief + bacon): "A playful term for weight gained from emotional eating or comfort eating". Sincere apologies to my German readers but they'd understand how I came up with Bleibzuhauseseniorenwohen.
The English language has a way of evolving that is unique to it, that makes it a model of efficiency when coming up with a new word, often using portmanteau - combining parts of real words, such as motel from motor + hotel; from smoke + fog, we get smog. Unlike in German which simply strings together several whole words for a new lengthy compound word with either a more precise meaning, i.e., blitzkrieg which is from two German words: blitz - lightning; krieg - war, which means "lightning war" or rapid assault as a battle tactic or in playing rapid-move chess or as a defensive play in American football; or, indirectly implied as in “Handschuh” (hand + shoe) to mean "glove" in English.
Before we get to the heart of this musing, let's get a couple more real German words here. "Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän: Translating to “Danube steamship navigation company captain,” it’s famously cited to show just how lengthy German words can become. How about, Backpfeifengesicht?, (slap + face): Literally, “a face in need of a slap.” A cheeky term for someone who’s being annoying.
Wasn't that fun? Just so the reader knows how I came up with my own new German word.
My made up word, Bleibzuhauseseniorenwohen, means "stay at home senior living" and that is where we are going. Folks with the good fortune of having lived long, thus far, who elect to stay at home, more often than not, deserve the new lengthy made up word - an allegorical reference to long life. There are challenges, sure, but we find that those can be outweighed by a lot more joys if we seek and practice them.
First of all, anyone who has achieved eight decades of being alive has at least earned the right to muse about the joys of a homebound life. At this point many of us octogenarians and over have had their shares of travel, of leisure outside the home, the obligatory social mingling, church and other forms of social interactions that no longer need to be constantly padded or deemed necessary.
Advice to go out more, see "what's out there", find ways to be out of the house, usually comes from those younger by at least a decade or two, mainly friends and relatives alike. They are well intentioned but not necessarily "wohlmeinender Ratschlag", which means literally, well meaning advice, again in German.
Instead, let's explore, literally and figuratively, the joys of a home-bound-life. But first, we are not talking about living as a hermit. We will still need to do the obligatory grocery shopping, trips to the hardware and garden centers, to the pharmacy, the much needed doctor's visit, the dreadfully but regularly scheduled moments at the dentist chair, and the regular exercise (walks around the neighborhood, at the mall or trips to the gym (for those among us who can). The good news is that we can be fair-weather-practitioners of all of these. There is absolutely no need to do groceries at the slight indication of rain, cold weather or when we're under the weather. I go to the gym when traffic is the lightest, and not during the hour when young kids are let out from nearby schools or when I simply don't feel like it. Oh, the blessings of retirement and the copious amounts of not having to do anything.
However, just the idea or reality of not having to do anything can also mean a lot of opportunities to do a lot of things. But it must begin with one thing. Attitude! Attitude is the primer, the motivator and ultimately the power to move anything from anywhere nearby to somewhere nearby; from the state of idle restfulness to the beginning steps of a reasonable journey not dictated by distance from home because there are things far deeper in home-bound living.
Guilt-free napping is one of the joys allowed, even encouraged, in Bleibzuhauseseniorenwohen! However, one study had shown that naps do have health benefits even for active workers. Examples of big corporations that allow naps at work, labeled as power naps, are Google, Zappos, Procter and Gamble, Facebook, etc. Actually, naps can be essential at recharging brain power or boost post mid-day cognitive ability. Imagine that, seniors. Your favorite couch, between noon and one thirty today, is the most craved after by every hard-charging executive or every muscle-weary assembly line worker. That alone is enough to give you power over countless folks who are prone to marginalize your existence, either intentionally or by omission.
Take the ordinary cup of hot coffee. Remember when you were still an aspiring climber of the corporate ladder or pipe welder or bean counter in accounting when a cup of coffee was merely a required elixir to get you going from a state of forced wakefulness to a partially functioning commuter or carpooler? Now, you are enjoying the rich and full bodied aroma of steaming coffee, the warmth between your two cupped hands as the sun begins to filter through the window on a cold morning. Or, how about enjoying the coffee as the news on TV confirms the kind of morning weather to expect as you listen to the distant rumble of thunder and the intermittent flashes of lightning from somewhere over the horizon.
One early and chilly April Monday morning in 2007 I woke up to the unmistakably heavy pitter patter of raindrops on the roof. I was pulling the blanket away from my body to get up when it suddenly dawned on me, pun heavily intended, that I had just started a new way of living. It took some getting used to for a while but I did eventually get the hang of it. I started my retirement just two weeks earlier, after thirty five years.
Like a lot of retirees, there were the usual travel itineraries, the company alumni get-togethers, organized luncheons and theater and sports attendances that later became less and less regular for my wife and me as the years piled on.
Then a complete halt to those activities when my wife was diagnosed with Parkinson's four years ago. I had to mention that as a way to make note for the readers of a certain age that sometimes a diagnosis has an untimely way of intruding like a rude awakening to spoil the view of the sunset of our lives. But that is okay because, again, we go back to what I wrote a few paragraphs back about what could be our silver bullet - Attitude!
From a previous musing I wrote about embracing the role of caregiving after my wife's diagnosis. That role naturally became the linchpin that made Bleibzuhauseseniorenwohen the natural segue to the new stage of living. Of course, the transition for me is made less difficult because my woodworking hobby is a home-bound past time, caring for orchids indoors is even less distant and naturally household chores speak for themselves. Cooking may not necessarily be a chore if one turns it into a hobby of discovery. Other than the other chores mentioned earlier, my time at the gym to swim gets me out of the house for just an hour at a time.
The relatively wider financial legroom we have now - something we never fail to be grateful for - makes it possible for someone to come every Saturday to clean the house and help with the weekly laundry. She is actually by now a member of the family. There is so much to be thankful for, indeed.
I can't possibly go through every example so if I must put everything in a nutshell, I go back to Attitude! I turn unloading the dishwasher into a time and motion study. Someday I aim to unload it in less than 4 minutes. That includes putting them back in their proper places in the cupboard. So far, I am not breaking the 4-minute mark but it's a challenge. Woodworking is for now an infrequent activity except for the occasional project. I have not updated it lately but the blog : https://easywoodworking-tolerba.blogspot.com/ is still getting a lot of views. Soon, readers will see the latest knife project on the Damascus knife. I've always wanted to have one but not until I found a blank blade for sale that required fashioning a handle for it. It took longer than usual to pull off but it's done.
Damascus blade is made from forging two different steel material - one soft and the other hard steel, folded over many times that result in its distinct wavy face.
Now, how do I manage to spend time at the workshop and able respond when my wife needs my help. Commercially available are several alert gizmos that come with a caller at the press of a button and a doorbell ringer plugged into strategically desired power outlets. I put one in the workshop and another in between the living and family rooms. My wife has a caller she wears around her neck.
As a household project, I recently installed additional LED sconce lights in the family area that allows for a wide coverage with soft daylight in the family/breakfast area. For anyone my age, I must say, please take great care with this undertaking where ladders and electricity are involved. Trust me, I did it at a virtually glacial pace. My fascination, almost an obsession with lights, as I explained to my wife, goes back to the time growing up in the Philippines when we did not have electricity until halfway through high school. It meant that for a good part of our education, my sisters and I studied and did our homework under kerosene lamps. The reader will note from my woodworking blog several projects on light fixtures.
Cooking I do not find to be a burden but one to be taken up just like any hobby. The motivation is actually strong: after all I have to eat too.
Below is my own version of a ginger-based Filipino meat and veggie soup - "tinola" - that, if I say so myself, has become one deliciously sumptuous lunch fare, served with white boiled rice on the side and perhaps with eggroll or some adobo.
Again, it is Attitude! Attitude!
Happy "Bleibzuhauseseniorenwohen" everyone!
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