This Month's Features

Northborough - Senior citizens who have questions about their iPhones, iPads, Macs and PCs can find answers at Technology Afternoons, held from 2:15 to 4 p.m., two Thursdays a month at the Northborough Senior Center. Eileen Parker, Algonquin Regional High School math teacher, leads the school’s Community Action Program (CAP), which provides student volunteers for a variety of activities, including Technology Afternoons.

A television ad that has run frequently in past months features “Beatrice,” an older woman who doesn’t quite get the concept of how Facebook works. Beatrice tells her two friends that she “posted” her vacation pictures on her “wall,” the term used when putting items on your personal Facebook page. In reality, she put physical copies of her photos on a wall in her home.

Acton resident Niela Miller, 81, is a multi-talented artist, musician, author, life coach and therapist. As if that wasn’t enough for one life, Miller has embarked upon a new adventure, taking her myriad skills online. In “Second Life,” a virtual 3D program on the Internet, Miller has created a whole new world with her alter-ego or “avatar,” Marly Mirena. She uses all aspects of her creativity - photographs, paintings, music, theater improv and movement - as tools for awareness, problem-solving, community building, spiritual development and building cultural bridges.

Westborough – “Gray” divorce rates are definitely increasing. From 1990 to 2012, the rate has doubled for those ages 55 to 64, and tripled for those 65 and older, according to researchers at Bowling Green State University. Many have attributed this pattern to longer life spans, more financial independence, lessening stigma of divorce, and the higher likelihood that second or third marriages will end in divorce.

A view of the Czech Republic countryside Photo/submitted   By Victor Block Part two of a two-part series Last month, we visited the majestic city of Prague, one of...

Not only can technology make your life easier and more fun but it also may allow you – or your loved one – to retain an independent, healthy lifestyle. Here are just eight of the many innovations now popular:

Most visitors to the Czech Republic confine their stay to Prague, and with good reason. Known as “the city of a hundred spires,” although it’s actually decorated by nearly a thousand towers and steeples, it challenges the most magnificent capitals of Europe in its beauty, and boasts a history that stretches back over a millennium. In addition, since the Middle Ages Prague (Praha) has been recognized as one of the most vibrant cultural settings on the continent.

Arlington – The Retired Men’s Club of Arlington (RMCA) offers a number of unique activities including the Singing Grandpops, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. The vocal group performs regularly at senior centers, civic clubs, nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Its musical director, Frank Vaughan, has been active with the group since its founding in 1990.

Boston – Monday through Friday, Aziline Booth, 66, looks forward to seeing her “grandchildren” at the CAAS Head Start Program in Cambridge. For the past four years, sometimes leaving at 6:30 a.m., “Miss Aziline” travels by three different buses from her Cambridge home to the program at the Frisoli Center.

Some vacationers soak up sun on beaches with white, black and even green sand. Nearby, skiers speed down snow-covered slopes of a dormant volcano. Other people check out a surreal moonscape of hardened pitch-black lava and hike through a lush tropical rainforest. If this sounds like a continent-wide choice of activities, it’s because the island of Hawaii in ways resembles a miniature continent. Since it shares its name with the state, it’s often referred to as the Big Island to avoid confusion, and with good reason. It’s almost twice the size of the other Hawaiian islands combined.