A proliferation of self-help styled books has blanketed the market – a seemingly endless stream over the past three decades. They come from all corners of the globe. They are offered by everyone, from respected educators and esteemed writers to redeemed born-agains and stand-up comedians. Some are pithy and densely written while others are light and breezy. Many are worldly-based and of late, many are personal, somewhat vain and narcisstic exposes. I think the most educational ones are those that reveal life-lessons gained through real-world experiences – both good experiences and bad ones.

One common theme that jumps out from any thumb-thru of this genre is that you should always follow your bliss and find your passion.

The question is – how in the heck does one find their passion? Where do you start looking? Where do you go? Do you go it alone or take along your friends? Will it be out there to be found? How will you know it when you find it? Are there any short-cuts to take? How much time should you plan on looking? What do you do once you find it? Will any of the process be blissful? Are you lesser of a person if you can’t find it? Have you failed your destiny without it?

Simple-mindedly, I always thought you were born with an inner, innate passion – and that some folks were and some weren’t. This conclusion can be easy to reach when you consider a child-prodigy or an athletic prowess – one whose never-ending practice and all-consuming attention to their craft defines their being. If this is so – where does it leave us “regular folks” – those of us that try out all sorts of things along our life’s travel-path?

According to a new Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll, most baby boomers would like to retire somewhere close to family, medical care, a warmer climate and convenient to services and amenities. However, the economy has waylaid their plans. In fact, 60 percent of boomers said they lost money during the recession as a result of workplace retirement plans, personal investments and real estate all taking a hit. Many baby boomers reported they expect to stay where they are given the economy. Seventy-three percent said they planned to keep working into their retirement years, up from 67 percent in a March poll.

A population some 77 million-strong, baby boomers are comprised of the generation born between 1946 and 1964.  Boomers who plan to or want to move when they retire seek the following: a smaller place (40%), be closer to medical offices or hospitals (39%), live in a different/warmer climate (30%) or switch to a more affordable house (25%). Fifteen percent said they planned to move to be closer to family, and 10 percent wanted a city with more services.

What if an apartment just isn’t for you? Well, at Glenmoor you have options! Choose between apartment, cottage, or patio home living with five unique apartment floor plans and six spacious home designs. You can choose the space you need with floor plans of one, two, or three bedrooms.  Even assisted living has private rooms and bath. This is your retirement dream and Glenmoor is happy to help make it a reality!

Combine those comfortable living options with an incredible location and you’ve got retirement made! Glenmoor is located on Florida’s First Coast in the heart of our St. Augustine golf course community (World Golf Village). Take advantage of the special pricing for Glenmoor residents on our two renowned golf courses or if golf isn’t for you how about a short trip to the city of St. Augustine?

My neighbors and I have a joke that we never leave the hood.  I was just thinking how true that statement is. I can give you so many reasons why we don’t “need” to leave our St. Augustine golf course community. Although each neighborhood within World Golf Village has unique characteristics, the overall feel our community is cohesiveness and full of activity. Whether it’s an annual get together like the barbeque at the Swim and Tennis Center this Saturday or the annual 4th of July parade at Glenmoor, the young, old and everyone in between are always getting together.

But it is not the annual activities that I find keep me close to home. Whatever your interests are, surely you can find a group to join or start your own like the Turnberry Walking Club. A great feature of the Swim & Tennis Center is that our pool is heated, so even though it’s starting to get cooler, the Water Aerobics group can keep exercising Mondays through Saturdays at 9 a.m. If you are interested in taking tennis lessons – lessons are available! Or join the Ladies Tennis group; they meet on Wednesdays and Saturdays. We even have a King and Bear Fit Camp which is a boot camp class that meets Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays on the green. Zumba Gold classes are on Saturdays and Yoga on Mondays. Obviously we have golf lessons, too!  Can you tell we have it all?

To conclude our three part Energy Star series, we had Frank Cirillo from Providence Homes and Michael O’Donoughue with Jacksonville Building Science give us a behind the scenes look at the testing of Energy Star Homes. Frank explains that Providence Homes uses Michael to verify that their designs meet the Energy Star criteria before a homeowner moves in. The three tests they conduct are very interesting and important if you want to save money!

Michael tells us in the video above that these energy tests are required to insure that the homeowner has a tight house, their ducts don’t leak, and they have even distribution of air. He then demonstrates the blower door test, the duct blaster test, and the room by room load calculation with a flow hood. The blower door test detects how much air is being drawn out of the house and measures how tight the house is and the duct blaster test determines how much air is coming through the ducts in each room. The flow hood shows the air flow coming out of all the supply grills and back into the return grills, which is a unique test to Providence Homes. So, not only does Providence Homes take the time to teach us all about Energy Star they also go above and beyond with more testing for their customers!  

Tavi Sport will celebrate his 4th birthday aboard the St. Augustine pirate ship Black Raven.  No doubt the young World Golf Village resident will don head-to-toe pirate gear for the event. “Tavi has been fascinated with pirates for about two years now,” says his Mom, Paula Sport.  “In fact, he wears something ‘pirate-like’ every day,” she added. Tavi Sport will turn four on November 28th.  His special pirate-ship birthday party was organized by the non-profit organization Dreams Comes True because Tavi has been fighting Leukemia for about a year.  His fondness for pirates is just one of the things that makes Tavi special.  He also has a joyous, delightful personality that puts a smile on faces wherever he goes. 

The Sport family moved to Grovewood in our St. Augustine golf course community five years ago when Tavi’s Dad, Lewis Sport, was transferred with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. “My husband is a golfer,” says Paula. “We love the beautiful drive back to Grovewood and seeing what kinds of animals we can spot.  Our favorite is the fox squirrel.”  The Sport family also includes Tavi’s 12-year-old brother Tanner who attends Pacetti Bay Middle School and pets, Bandit and JT (Jack Russell Terriers) and Rex and Scooby (Yellow Bellied Slider Turtles).

Living in Florida has many benefits that we all enjoy and living here in North Florida has an extra benefit – during our annual hurricane seasons. Being part of the most western coastline on the Eastern Seaboard, our area has historically proved to be naturally sheltered from most storm activity. We reside in a sort of cove – nestled to the west of the Gulfstream’s steering currents. Those warm currents, tracking south to north, well offshore of us – tend to help steer the paths of passing storms away from us. For over 100 years, direct hits from major storms have been rare in the North Florida / South Georgia coastal zone.

Still, I have always advocated that each of us should know enough about the subject to be educated, stay vigilant and remain calm – each time the weather-entertainers start beating their drums. Over the decades, it seems that any storm-source from the television is overblown and hyped to the limit. Weatherpersons want to entertain more than educate – even though all of their reports are framed in the purpose of generating a sense of readiness.

Take for example the early tracking of Hurricane Irene. In the first 48 hours or so of reporting, the projected landfall moved from the Georgia / Florida state line, to Brunswick, to Savannah, to Charleston and then on to Myrtle Beach. The next morning, when landfall was moved up towards the Outer Banks, the national radio weather reporter closed out his segment with the following: “Residents in Florida are making preparations and getting ready”. Then they threw the microphone to a fellow in Miami (yes, Miami) who was interviewed at his local hardware store as he bought shutters and plywood. Now mind you – as the landfall continued to move north and east, the track continued to move east – so that the folks in Miami could spend their weekend at the beach drinking pina-coladas.

School started, finally!  After a wonderfully hectic summer, my girls are back in middle school.  I was looking forward to a regular schedule, when I learned about their Community Service requirements.

I have to admit that I was not comfortable dropping them off at the homeless shelter, animal shelter or any kind of shelter for that matter. I wondered – Would their community service become MY community service?  Blimey, I thought!  If I have to organize and cheer- lead, it’s going to be something interesting.  I sought out the advice of my colleagues…

Amanda French, Realtor at Davidson Realty, Inc. came up with some great ideas for me to consider; reading to younger children at school, writing letters to soldiers who are serving in the military or to children who are hospitalized, and trash pick up at the beach to name a few.  I also received some other great ideas from various Davidson Company Realtors and Staff; Nursing home volunteering, community gardening, church projects, helping at the library and washing dogs at the animal shelter – hmm I’d probably end up bringing one or two dogs home!  Matt Davidson told me that volunteering at the elementary school was something he did as a Middle School student and he quite enjoyed it.

BINGO – a fantastic idea!  I contacted the school and now both daughters are having a great time helping out in the Media Center and grading papers at their previous elementary school, Otis A. Mason.  In fact, they are enjoying it so much that they have decided to do two hours a week instead of one.

Rick Hollabaugh started Trusted Tranzitions about four years ago when a personal experience left him thinking there was a need for personalized senior moving and downsizing services.  “My wife and I were living in California and my Mother-in-Law who was in Florida passed away suddenly. In addition to dealing with her grief, my wife had to stay in South Florida several months dealing with her Mother’s estate, a long tedious process.”  Hollabaugh added, “Very soon after, we relocated to Ponte Vedra from California and moving cross country even as healthy pre-retirees was a daunting task.”  Both experiences spurred Hollabaugh, an experienced entrepreneur, to start Trusted Tranzitions.

Rick and his wife Bobbie started Trusted Tranzitions with a focus on senior moving . Whether  across town or across country, Trusted Tranzitions helps retirees relocating to Florida, seniors moving into independent living and assisted living facilities and seniors downsizing from larger homes.  “We make the process stress-free,” says Hollabaugh. As their business grew, so did their menu of services. Today, in addition to senior move management, Trusted Tranzitions also provides reliable more expansive estate administrative services and reliable referrals for reputable trust, estate and wealth management professionals.  Says Hollabaugh, “We can provide a nearly A to Z approach for clients – from helping them manage the move into an assisted care facility like Glenmoor at World Golf Village, to helping them sort through and downsize their belongings at a bigger home, to providing trusted referrals for estate sales, handymen or other help getting their home on the market, and then handling all the hassle of packing and moving so they can smoothly make the transition into their new home.”