Why did God go to all the trouble to create the universe? By any standards that was a massive undertaking. I am one who believes in the day age interpretation of the Bible.  In the last century or so God has given us the scientific understanding to know that the creation of the universe took millions if not billions of years to complete. Why did he go through all that trouble? One explanation for God creating the universe and an infinitely small corner of it called the Earth was that he intends it to be a proving ground for what … Continue reading Earth As A Proving Ground???

This post is a continuation on reports of our recent vacation through West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Tennessee. As mentioned a few posts ago Maryland was generally not quite what I expected after reading the book “A Journey Through Hallowed Ground” by David Edwin Lillard. The book centered around a trip down US 15 from Gettysburg to Monticello. From the book’s description I was prepared to see a number of small towns  gushing with history along this Maryland route.By just looking at a larger area map I should have been prepared for what we encountered but I guess the dreamer in my just wanted … Continue reading The Thing About Maryland….

While the governor of Indiana, where I currently reside, is not a Tea Partier he does seem to think along the same line. First of all we were told when he first came into office that the reason that more businesses did not move to Indiana was because they thought we were backwards.  The reason for us being backwards, at least according to him,was that we did not change our clocks two times a year as most other States do.  We quit doing that about twenty-five years ago. It just didn’t make much sense for us ordinary Hoosiers to be … Continue reading Some "Great" Ideas From My Governor….

I couldn’t leave our trip to West Virginia without mentioned on very interesting thing. The State of West Virgina was formed as a result of the Civil War. Considering that Richmond Virginia was the heart of the Confederacy it is surprising that the good folk in the northwestern of that state chose to remain loyal to the Union.  Part of that probably had to do with not many people up there could afford a slave, even if they wanted one, which most evidently didn’t. They were rewarded for their loyalty by becoming a separate State from those who chose otherwise. We didn’t … Continue reading One Last Thought about WV

Sundays continue to be a strange time for me. Up until last November I could always be found in a church pew on Sunday morning. At that time I was told by my church of eight years that my views of God no longer aligned with what their denomination expected of members. Instead of going through an inquisition I choose to separate my self from them. But I must admit that the very restricted and almost solo message of that congregation became somewhat numbing. You can only say “Christ did it all so nothing is expected of us” so many … Continue reading Sundays???

I tried to find one picture that would sum up my feelings about West Virgina. This is what I came up with. It is somewhat typical of the many small towns we came across during our visits. The franchises were far and few between in most of the areas.  And that is a good thing. Continue reading Summing up West Virginia

Ok here is what is making the news today.  See the full article via the link at the bottom of this post. It seems that some of these Tea Party electees think that not only is healthcare for the poor optional but so is clean air to breath and water to drink for all of us.  They have declared that many of these environmental issues are just too much of a nuisance for our poor business corporations who seem to be struggling to make more than a $billion in profits each month. So the rest of us will just have … Continue reading At State Level, G.O.P. Seeks Big Environmental Cutbacks – NYTimes.com

When we were visiting West Virginia the John Denver song kept creeping into my mind. It is indeed a unique State. Both in its landscape and how it was formed.  The picture above was from the State museum showing what the town looked like in the 1950’s. For those who did not live through that era this was probably a somewhat foreign picture. But I can remember my first visit to a drugstore soda fountain. It was a most enjoyable experience. Continue reading West Virginia… Country Home….

Ok, I admit this is not much of a barn but I’m sure it was a good one in its day. The photo below is somewhat typical of the many WV towns we encountered during our travels through the State. It is indeed a beautiful State. Continue reading West Virgina April 2011

We made it back from our “Journey Through Hallowed Ground” yesterday. As was the case with Dickens there were some joyful times and there were some disappointing times. :) I will spend a couple of posts here describing parts of our visit. Being a U.S. history buff this trip had a lot of meaning for me. Our first stop was in Charleston West Virginia where we, as usual, toured the capital building. We got there on a Saturday and went to enter the building and to our surprise we found no guards or inspection stations.  I think this was the first time … Continue reading We Are Back….

There is a lot of talk about the federal government deficits these days. Yes, we need to get that under control. One of the ways to do that is to reign in our obnoxious military spending. We spend many many times more per citizen on our military complex than any other country in the world. As a matter of fact we spend more than the rest of the world combined!!  If we reduced our spending to only ten times more per citizen than any other country we could cut more than $3 trillion dollars in ten years.  Yes, I am … Continue reading About Those Deficits….

At a time most employees can barely remember their last substantial raise, median CEO pay jumped 27% in 2010 as the executives’ compensation started working its way back to prerecession levels, a USA TODAY analysis of data from GovernanceMetrics International found. Workers in private industry, meanwhile, saw their compensation grow just 2.1% in the 12 months ended December 2010, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Source: http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2011-03-31-ceo-pay-2010.htm Ok, what is going on here?  I thought maybe the big shots learned their lesson from the financial meltdown but I guess not. They are still giving themselves ten times the raise that … Continue reading The Rich Get Richer….

I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little more as I grow older. (Catherine Drinker Bowen) I got the above quote from a fellow blogger a few months ago. I don’t remember exactly who is was but the quote hit me head on. As I grow older I seem to dare and say some things that I would not have said earlier in life. When we are younger we think we speak the truth but we always hold off some things as we don’t want others to know … Continue reading A Little More As I Grow Older….

I know this isn’t a barn but I guess you could label it a “historic” building?  It is the Longaberger Basket Company headquarters in Ohio Continue reading Longaberger HQ – Ohio 2008

This is a picture of me at the Great Salt Lake in 2009.  I am currently using it as a header for my homepage blog   RJ’s Corner. Continue reading The Great Salt Lake – 2009

Note: I am going to cross-post here from one of my other blogs. I couldn’t decide which one was the most appropriate so I will post at both. (ha) Since the Republicans seem hell-bent on rolling back Obama-care I wanted to talk a little about one of the effects of this action. I recently had to have a rather expensive blood test run for a potentially life threatening condition. My past employer who maintains my pension and insurance fund constantly tells me that he is under no “legal” obligation to continue providing me health insurance. If I had been a … Continue reading Going Backwards…. Again….

Since the Republicans seem hell-bent on rolling back Obama-care I wanted to talk a little about one of the effects of this action. I recently had to have a rather expensive blood test run for a potentially life threatening condition. My past employer who maintains my pension and insurance fund constantly tells me that he is under no “legal” obligation to continue providing me health insurance. If I had been a union member instead of management he could not make these threats. (That sounds like a topic for another near-term post :) ) So long story short I still have … Continue reading Going Backwards…. Again….

I saw an article recently about how people in the future will likely typically live to be 100 years old. At first thought that sounds kind of nice. I align with the old saying “Everyone wants to get to heaven but no one wants to die to get there”. I certainly don’t want to die, at least anytime soon. I still have many things left on my life’s to-do list. But it seems when I turned sixty my body warranty expired. Things just don’t work as well as before.  My back continues to deteriorate with more compression fractures. My knees … Continue reading Living to be 100???

  The Republicans are at it again. All the presidential hopefuls are coming out in force to say how terrible Obama-care is but offering no solutions themselves. I guess they think they got the house back with this strategy so they think they can win the presidency that way too. They seem intent on giving insurance companies back the right to deny coverage for “pre-existing conditions” and taking away possible healthcare from those who cannot currently afford it. They seem intent on making healthcare a privilege for only those who can afford it and denying it from everyone else. The rest of … Continue reading At It Again…

Found this one during our Wisconsin barn search last year. Not only is it an old barn but it appeared to be an abandoned converted barn :)     Continue reading Northern Wisconsin – October 2010

Its like stepping back in time. Yeah, that’s me walking down main street. Continue reading Virginia City NV–June 2009

As mentioned on a previous post we are getting ready to head off on a Spring Vacation through Maryland, Virginia, and probably a few other States.  So that means loading up our HHR with all the “necessities”. We bought the HHR for our Westerly trip in 2009 and have used it for several others since then. Pulling down the back seat makes more than enough room for even my wife’s luggage. She says she doesn’t know what the weather will be so she must take a little of everything. Our little HHR is just perfect for us at this time … Continue reading We Still Love our HHR….

This is definitely a place where a picture, in this case a poster, is worth a thousand words so I don’t have much to add. Someday we will join the rest of the industrialized nations and provide universal healthcare for all our citizens. We could very easily do that if we only brought our military budgets in line with every other country in the world. Sadly but what do I know… Continue reading Don’t Be Silly

What is considered to be old is, of course, a matter of perspective. I have always been a dreamer in that throughout my life, although not so much lately, I have thought about where I would be and what I would be doing in the future. As a teenager I spent many a night staring up at a seemingly endless star field and dreaming out where I would be in the distant future. In those days the distant future was around the year 2000 or so! When we are young being old is about when we are forties. When we … Continue reading It’s a Matter of Perspective…

This picture was taken during our month-long trip to the west coast. We didn’t discover many barns in the west. This was on of the few we even managed to snap during that trip. Continue reading Kansas City, MO -2009

What a sad day when one religious organization burns a copy of another’s holy documents. This supposedly Christian Reverend did a huge disservice to all of Christiandom. Where is the outrage among the mainline Christian denominations? Do we really want to start a round of totally “dissing” each others views of God?  Sad, sad, sad. Quran burned at Rev. Terry Jones’ tiny church – Faith & Reason. Continue reading Quran burned at Rev. Terry Jones’ tiny church – Faith & Reason

I have spent most of my life in the Midwest but did finish out my professional career in the NYC area. Before I moved to the Northeast I had frequent business trips there. It seems that many people I interacted with in that area, they call it the tri-state area (NY, Conn, NJ), had a definite opinion of us in the hinterland. They tend to look at our cities and towns as “cornfield with lights”.  They say what is there to do there? They think life is much slower when you get away from the tri-state area. They proudly say … Continue reading Life in the Fast Lane?

It warms my heart that two European countries have taken the lead in keeping the dictator of Libya from destroying his own people. Maybe humanity does mean something to political powers. I am also relieved that the U.S. has finally agreed to help them in that effort.  This goes a long way to proving that we don’t have to be the policemen of the world. While President Obama has dissappointed me in so many areas this is  not one of them.  He let others closer to the conflict take responsibility for stopping the innocent killing. Good for him. But, I … Continue reading Way to Go, Britain and France….

Those of us who are older remember many barns with the Rock City ads on them. They are quickly disappearing from the countryside. Continue reading Rock City Ads (Indiana) – 2010

The title of the post is directly from the title of the article I am going to discus.  Basically what the Republicans seem to be saying is that banks should have all the control on how to foreclose on a loan and the government should get out of that and other financial transactions that are best left to private industry hands! In other words let the free market rule. The symbol of the Republican party is an elephant. Of course the thing most remember about elephants besides the fact that they are huge and have very tough skin is that … Continue reading Republicans: Consumer bureau too powerful

When President Obama was campaigning in 2008 he made it a point to say that there were some circumstance where he would use the military might of the U.S. to right something that was morally wrong. See the article referenced by the link below. It seems that Libya forces who are backing Gadhafi are rounding up dissidents in the middle of the night and making them “disappear”. This seems very similar to the killing fields of Cambodia, Sudan, and several other countries where George W Bush and some of his professors basically sat on their hands. When President Obama was … Continue reading Moral Duties….

It was interesting to see this mural that was being painted on the side of the Walnut Tavern in Yankton SD. The town had a lot of history relative to Missouri River commerce in the 1800s. Continue reading Yankton SD – 2009

The above sculpture was on the front of one of the government office buildings in Omaha NE. I’m not sure what the underlying meaning of the sculpture is? But it certainly got my attention! Continue reading Omaha NE – 2009