Making Changes and Moving On

Well, what a year 2008 has been, and it’s only July! Talk about living in interesting times! It is impossible to even try to predict what the next six months will bring but one thing does seem certain – whatever the changes are, they will cost more. Newspapers, radio and TV are filled with the gloom and doom side of the high price of oil and the cost of global warming, so there is nothing new to be said there. Maybe we should look at the other side of the coin, instead. I doubt very much that folks in the Third World lie awake at night worrying because we in North America are having to buy smaller cars and use the bus more.  We all accept that there is real hardship on those who have lost jobs and those people who have to commute by car – no one disputes that there will be victims of this trend. However, we have to accept the truth that we have been living the good life here in North America for the past four decades, at least.   We have consumed and spent, shopped and thrown away, traded in and traded up – maybe changing these habits will be a good thing? It may be that town planning will come back into fashion and strip malls, with their endless acres of paved parking accessible only by car, will fade away. Dare we imagine that one day people will go downtown to shop because they can park their car and walk from store to store? Better yet, walk out of their apartment or condo and go straight into the heart of their community? Shopping downtown is a totally different experience from shopping in the big box stores. Downtown, a person can stroll from shop to shop, buying fresh produce at butcher shops and bakeries, then relax with a cup of tea or coffee at a sidewalk café, watching the people go by and greeting friends. Remind you of anywhere?     Canadians spend millions of dollars traveling to Europe and come home raving about the life style – then spend more millions creating the big box ugly landscape that is as far from the enjoyable European experience as can be imagined! Why did we ever let developers plan our cities for us? The optimists among us are saying that many of the changes that are coming will be good things.   One change that is coming to the CHOICE is that we are going to move our magazine online, and be a website magazine only. We will still welcome a buyer for the printed-paper and help them launch their version of the CHOICE – if you dream of being a publisher/editor now is your chance!  We, however, are going to semi-retire and put our efforts into building up the web publication and making it into a unique online Seniors’ paper.   Our June issue contained a questionnaire on what readers liked best in our paper and we took your opinions seriously. The features that were most important to you are those that we will expand and improve on our website. More articles on Health, Legal Topics and Financial Advice, as well as daily recipes, news, etc. all with a Senior focus. More on Travel as well, and of course, jokes! One obvious advantage of a website is that we can update stories and add news on a daily basis – so, stay tuned! There is a ‘Zoomers Blog’ that is open to everyone. Things will be happening here at a much faster pace!   No computer? No worries. Every public library offers free, or nearly free, Internet access and the library staff are always happy to get new users started. Give it a go! You’ll be thrilled with what you find. Visit our website at www.seniorschoice.com and take a look at our feature, “ Silver Surfers’ where we have set up user friendly links to over 250 sites we thought our readers might enjoy. Jump in, the water’s fine! As the July issue will be the last one for my column I do want to thank all you great supporters who have written in over the months with suggestions, appreciation and humour – four pages letters, sometimes! Thanks are due in a big way to the sales people who made the paper possible, and the advertisers who were so loyal. Also, all the writers who have contributed their time and talent to searching out stories they hoped you would enjoy. Our questionnaire tell us that you did enjoy them, and we hope some of these folks, who write for the love of it, will join us on the website as well. A special thank you goes to the lady who created the new look for the CHOICE newsmagazine – our graphics magician, Val Fortey. She also gets the credit for the pet pages that so many of you checked as a favorite part of the paper. We feel we all made a good team and we produced a good product – time to retire and go on to the next chapter.   Have a wonderful Okanagan summer and be good to each other!

 

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