Lifestyle

Dear Amy: For over a decade my family and another very close family of friends, “The Smiths,” have vacationed together on our favorite island off the Southern coast.Our children view them as family and adore the parents and their children (who are exactly the same age as ours).The Smiths are much more affluent than we, and owned their own home on the island for many years while we rented a house nearby.Last year they sold their home (for an enormous profit, I might add), so now they must also rent a home for our beloved trip.Imagine our surprise when we learned this year that they booked the very same rental house we have used for several years for themselves.This is incredibly hurtful, but especially because we have been in a very tumultuous financial situation and depended on the significant “repeat renter discount” we received from the unit owners to rent their home.While we obviously understand that we have zero right to control a rental unit, we are extremely sad and frankly heartbroken that our friends seemed to have no sense of this possibly being hurtful or undermining toward us.We are unsure of how to move forward.Should we say something about our hurt feelings just to clear the air?Should we say nothing and take the hint that maybe they don’t feel the same way toward us as we do about them and not go on the trip this year?Or should we just act like nothing’s wrong and pay for a more expensive rental and let it go?– Sad and Confused in CTDear Sad and Confused: It is almost impossible to imagine that these savvy homeowners on a vacation island are unaware of how attached annual renters become to their usual rental property.

Many people say I make words look easy.

Dear Rusty: My full retirement age (FRA) is 66 and 8 months, which I’ll reach in September 2024.

Dear Amy: My husband “Ben” and I have been married for more than 30 years.He and I are both in our 60’s.He has been messaging a 35-year-old very attractive and single female that he became friends with over Facebook.To the best of my knowledge, they have never met in person.I have surreptitiously checked his phone and have seen that these messages have become increasingly lengthy and personal and have included several pictures of themselves.Granted, none of these are X-rated, but one of my concerns is that the intensity of this online relationship has grown quite exponentially in a very short time and could very well lead to actual X-rated.What would someone my husband’s age really expect to get out of such a relationship, and what is driving this woman to pursue a relationship with someone old enough to be her father?She is now writing that she is always thinking about him and is sending him hugs and kisses.I am not sure what to do because I really cannot confront my husband regarding this as I know it will only end up in a massive argument with denials on his part about it being anything but innocent.Your take?– Alarmed wifeDear Alarmed: You seem to draw the line at “X-rated” messages, and yet if sexual messages are passed back and forth in this completely virtual relationship, what difference would their rating make?I’m suggesting that the relationship is already happening, that it is already interfering in your marriage, that you don’t trust your husband, and you are surveilling him in secret.Some people seek online romantic relationships because they want that thrilling, “You’ve got mail” rush.

You know how themes sometimes repeat themselves throughout your day, week, year or life?It happens to me a lot.

A few years ago, I wrote a series of little essays in which I selected and examined four-letter words, of the good kind, choosing one word for each letter in the alphabet.

It is true that Beyond Reason has, on two occasions, picked on pickleball.

Dear Amy: I’m a woman in my 70’s.

“You don’t really appreciate what you’ve got until it’s gone.”These wise words came out of the mouth of my 16-year-old son; surprisingly, he wasn’t referring to a Snicker’s bar.