The Easy-to-Find Information Center
Developed for those 55 and older (but anyone can use it).
Released March 1, 2008. See the box to the right for daily updates.
What happened the last time you used a search engine? 23,000 entries on 10,000 pages? There is a huge amount of information on the Internet, but it's not always easy to find just what you are looking for.
Slightly Creaky has been developed by a former AOL manager with considerable online research experience. We spend hundreds of hours every month searching through thousands of links looking for the ones slightly creaky people would use. Besides the obvious medical and health links, we provide information on travel, lifestyles, and home repair, while providing hundreds of suggestions for new hobbies, activities, and ways of being productive and keeping busy.
The index to the left shows an overview of these things, but we go far deeper. For example, in the "On the Table" category we include links to recipes, caloric counters, nutrition articles, and, well, whatever we may find and like. Many of the items have been submitted by viewers.
We annotate every entry so you know what the site contains before you click. Our 800-plus support group and medical information links provide alphabetical lists of ailments, including "orphan" diseases, with links to support and informational sites. Since it's doubtful you could tell what the "The Magic Foundation" is, for example, simply by its name, we give you an in-depth description. In most cases we copy the mission statements or purposes directly from the site. We try not to editorialize.
More than just links, Slightly Creaky wants to provide first-person experiences of slightly creaky people, those who are feeling the ailments of their age, but still remain active. Thus we seek volunteers to write brief (200 to 400 word) columns on a variety of topics, from geocaching to storm chasing, to thoughts on medical practices and pharmaceuticals. In fact, we encourage all of our readers to submit articles on any topic at any time.
Suggestions are always welcomed.
This month's's Main Feature: "Retired and Living in Colombia." Part 5 can be found below.
Here is a complete list of our contents
with easy to access links.
Active Living. Home page for activities for active people. Not sure what to do today or looking for a new hobby? We provide hundreds of ideas.
- Life Styles. There are many environments in which to live: urban, rural, overseas, on a cruise ship, traveling in a motor home, or in a care facility. We provide basic information about all these places so you can research the possibilities.
- Travel. Specific vacations, cruises, tours, and similar activities.
- Recreation. Indoor and outdoor activities to give you ideas of things to do. Many of them you have never considered but are easy and fun. Others are quite challenging. Have you tried geocaching, locating places using GPS devices, a wonderful way to find new locations in your area? Interested in learning bocce?
Quick Links: Main Page
Amusement Parks & Places Sporting Activities
- On The Road. Whether you travel by train, bus, car, motorcycle, or motor home, there are destinations you do not want to miss. We have a huge listing of both the popular and the unusual.
In the Home. Home page for activities around the house.
- Entertaining. Whether you have one person visiting or five dozen, we provide links to sites to make entertaining easier and unique. There is also a suggestion about planning events outside your home, in your yard, a park, or a formal banquet hall.
- On the Table. Providing a listing of web sites that provide generalized or specific recipes and cooking suggestions. Each week we also feature a viewer's Favorite Recipe. Send yours (original only, not copied) to recipes@slightlycreaky. If you try any of the items on this page, please submit a review.
- Leaky Pipes. Covering many types of household (and outside the house) repairs.
- Pets. Mice, horses, cats, fish, dogs, and dozens more. We provide information about care and feeding, boarding, medical and health. Have you ever thought about putting a GPS tracer in your dog or cat (or iguana)?
- Hobbies & Interests. Indoors or out, this section looks at the way people spend their leisure time. Designing model train layouts, knitting, gardening, collecting, exercising, and even creating web sites. We also have a special page for Online Games.
There are 14 web pages in this section, To access them, go to the Hobbies & Interests Main Page.
- News & Information. Newspapers, news magazines, and a considerable amount of information is now available online. If you are interested in reading the New York Times, looking up what is showing on TV, or checking out information in an encyclopedia or dictionary, there are a huge amount of resources here.
- Virtual Communities. This is a Slightly Creaky exclusive, bringing you web cams from around the world with monthly special features and updates. Watch cruise ships, traffic, take tours of zoos, and even peek into nightclubs and resorts.
Medical & Health. Home page for information about "the human condition." You can link directly to subcategories below.
- Medical Information. Links to medical information, dictionaries, encyclopedias, drugs and home remedies, advocacy, and groups that support many conditions.
- Support Groups. Six pages of annotated links to sites that support people and families with specific medical ailments and conditions. From the most common such as heart disease, diabetes, and vision problems, to orphan conditions that get very little attention. They are all here. Links to Support Group pages:
A - C D - G H - L M - Q R - S T - Z
- Family & Relationships. We can choose our friends, but not our family. Sometimes relationships are difficult, whether between spouses, parents and children, and siblings. This section provides links to sites that offer suggestions to improve and repair such situations.
- Nutrition. From the food pyramid to calorie counters, nutrition guides for general living or specific medical conditions, you can find links to helpful sites here.
Consumer Information. Information about things we buy and use. Each section contains annotated links to appropriate web sites so that you do not need to use a search engine. You will probably find things here that you never considered researching.
- Consumer Assistance & Scam Watch. Links to consumer information pages on the Internet where you can find product reviews and comparisons, safety suggestions, and product recalls. Includes links to scam recognition and assistance locations.
- Finance. Making handling money just a little bit easier. Our links and articles include writing and probating wills (and how to avoid problems), providing for a power of attorney, investing, scams, living wills, and dozens more topics. It also includes links for tax preparation and Social Security.
- Energy. Every day electricity, gas, and heating fuel get more expensive. There are alternative ways you can provide for these modern needs without having to depend on the mega-corporations. If "green" is the energy word of the 21st century, you'll find assistance here.
- Legal Information. With every state, county, town, and city having conflicting legal rules, we can not possibly provide all the information you might need. We do, though, have links to general law sites that update their information as needed. Also provided are dictionaries of legal terms. (We provide the links, but do not guarantee what you find is accurate. Consult a lawyer.)
Message Boards. It is our hope that the topics, information, and weekly columns will generate discussions.
About Us. Information about the people behind Slightly Creaky, our philosophy, goals, and volunteers. This area also includes our safety guidelines and a chronology explaining the development of this site.
Contact Us. We have a variety of E-mail addresses if you wish to submit an article, suggest a new link, or to otherwise get in touch with the Slightly Creaky team.
Volunteers. We need assistance in many areas (see the orange box to the right). This page explains in detail who, what, why, and how to become a volunteer. We also provide a list of those contributing articles and otherwise volunteering.
Legal Stuff. The required disclaimers, policies, etc.
This Month's Featured Article
(July 17, 2008)
We found an attractive spot and after a 2-month period of negotiations and creative financing propositions an agreement was reached. When we told the family about where we were looking at a lot, they had never been to the Valle de Tenza much less Somondoco. In fact only one person in the large family had even heard of the village other than as one of the Emerald mines.
The papers were signed at a Notary on November 13. The following weekend we met a person that MaEl and Ernesto recommended to start our construction. That meeting with Heinor Torres started a relationship that is still going strong. We met Heinor at the lot and we discussed the potential building sites. I then spent many hours over several days sitting and getting to know the land.
A humorous thing happened that we only recently found out about. While I was just sitting in a folding wooden chair the neighbor, a man significantly older than I am, reported to his grown daughter that Papa Noel was sitting in the vacant lot... The daughter could not believe what her father had reported, that provoked a visit and our first meeting of our new neighbors.
We blocked out where the house would fit and be best located in regards to the views, sun and breezes. We then needed to have a visit of a big backhoe, here called a retoescavadora. Four hours with this machine changed the rough land into a muddy but more orderly lot... When this had been completed, Heinor brought a crew to build the placa. They moved big rocks from an old border fence to help fill the deep places that the slope required. The thickness of the placa ranged from about 6 inches to nearly 3 feet. The big stones cut down many bags of concrete. The construction here is essentially floating on the ground. There is no freezing but no bedrock either. To reach bedrock you would have to go down 1500ft and it just isn’t done.
The crew finished the placa in about a week and then left it to cure for another 2 weeks. Then construction could proceed.
On the 18th of December we waited for the trucks to arrive. Gloria stayed at the entrance to town while I led the trucks, one at a time to the lot. The house arrived in 2 dump trucks and one stake truck. The next morning construction started. We had to supply 4 local workers and 2 oil drums. I also had Heinor join in to help out. Servivienda sent two technicians who arrived at 6 am. We watched what was happening as they got organized then we needed to go to Guateque for some business.
We came back about lunchtime and were astonished to see the walls of the house were almost half done. The use of the oil barrel was astonishing. One of the Technicians stood on each barrel and used them as ladders. To move from one place to another they moved them by dancing on then and moving then without getting down. By the end of the first day all of the walls were in place. The next day, using the barrels and a couple of ladders, they installed the supports, trusses and then the roof. So at the end of day 2 the house had a roof and all the walls finished.
Sunday morning the crew arrived and installed the windows, interior and exterior doors and the porch railing. We had a completion lunch with a lot of food from Heinor’s mother and several cases of beer. OUR HOUSE WAS BUILT IN 34 WORKING HOURS!
The type of construction has proved to be very appropriate for here. There are no extremes of temperature so insulation is not used. The elevated placa protected from any ground water. The floating placa and the loose attachment of the walls to the placa allowed for the structure to flex and move in the case of earthquakes. Our house has 3 Bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a very large kitchen, a living/dinning room and a laundry room
After the original house was built, we still needed to do a lot of work. We did that as we could afford it, bit by bit. We ran an extension cord to bring us a little electric for lights and a microwave. Heinor installed the bathroom fixtures and on December 24 we were ready to spend the night. However that was a day of family celebrations in Bogotá as was Christmas. We returned to our house on December 26 to spend our first night in our house. We spent our night in the house 38 days after paying for the lot...
Bill Turley
Somondoco, Boyaca
Colombia
All of Bill's articles can be found in his archive area.
Brief Disclaimer
The obvious legal statement.
The folks at Slightly Creaky are volunteers. None of us get any salary or compensation in any form. We are not a corporation, just a few folks working out of our houses. If anything on this site bothers you, if you notice mistakes, please let us know.
While we do maintain editorial rights, things slip past, especially on the message boards. The submitted columns and news articles, as well as the postings on the message boards, belong to the contributor(s), not to the Slightly Creaky team. We are simply a vehicle bringing you information to the best of our ability.
Be sure to read our complete Legal Information and Policies