Stories about my life and maybe some lessons learned
When my wife died eighteen months ago, I moved from a 2400 SF century old farmhouse and a 1500 SF barn, into an 850 SF apartment here in my RetCom (retirement community). That was quite a shock for me, but since I now had no one to fall back on, it made the most sense, and it still does. But, what I miss the most … Continue reading I Love Puttering…
I was a single guy of 30 years when I took this adventure. It was on a mountain top in western Colorado, although I don’t remember exactly where now. I spent the year before outfitting my recently purchased Chevy van as a camper. My freshly minted roommate and I left Indiana one morning and were at the 10,000 ft elevation twenty-four hours later. That same … Continue reading The Adventures Of Youth… Colorado Mountain Top
I have finally realized that I have been chasing rainbows all my life. I was always looking down the road when I could have an exciting adventure of one sort or another. I did actually manage to make some of those dreams come true, but they were never as satisfying as I had hoped. I seem to always been disappointed at some level or another. … Continue reading Chasing Rainbows
This post will be a personal story about ambition, but I kinda think some of you might be dealing with the same issues. Most of my life has been driven by ambition. From an early age, I believed that my life was meant to be lived with a purpose. I wasn’t just put here to suck air for a number of years and then become … Continue reading Lost Ambition…
Before I go any further, I should probably tell some of you that Neurodivergence means is that we don’t think or perceive the world as “normal” people do. Our brains are just wired differently than most. But, then again, what is “normal”, really? Being a neurodivergent person, normal, or neurotypical, is being like most other people. Why would I want to be like everyone else? … Continue reading Why I Talk About Neurodivergents
I can’t even imagine why, but yesterday early morning I woke up with Willie Nelson’s song “Of All The Girls I’ve Loved Before” stuck in my thoughts. I would wake up a dozen times between 3am and 7am and the song was still there. But I had managed to change the words to show my love for my wife of 35 years. I worked on … Continue reading Yvonne’s Song
All my life, I have always been envious of people who could take up a brush or pencil and create things from their minds. I tried that some in my youth, but never really got to a level that didn’t embarrass me. I tried it recently with the same result. Drawing and painting is just something that isn’t in my talent base. But, that got … Continue reading I’m An Artist, I Paint With Words
I have been trying to get some of the folks here in my RetCom (retirement community) to think about putting their life experiences on-line so that others might learn from them, or at least be entertained by them. Some of the stories I have heard are simply amazing. I realize that not everyone has the talents to accomplish such a task of telling their life … Continue reading Sharing Our Life Stories
This particular picture was taken looking out a window in the Salvador Dalà Museum in St. Petersburg FL. I love geometric shapes, so this one pic drew me in. Of course, looking out the window gives you a strong sense of Florida. This Spring my older brother suddenly came to mind. The last time I visited him was twenty years ago in 2002. At that … Continue reading The Last Time
For the vast majority of my existence, I have always believed that my commitments have dictated that I live on other people’s terms. In the last year or so, I have reached that point where I can live as I choose without considering others. In some ways being able to live on your own terms is scary…. I just don’t seem to know how to … Continue reading For The First Time In My Life…
My paper copy In-Box is always overflowing, much of it with now useless stuff. Recently I decided to clean it out. That’s when I came across a copy of a March 2013 post from my friend Bob Lowery at satisfyingretirement.blogspot.com. The post was an interview about my life as a deaf person. As I scanned the copy, it came to me that I have never … Continue reading An In-Depth Story about One of My Disabilities…Part 1
The last ten years of my wife’s life, I was in the caretaker mode. That became a bigger burden as the years went by. Towards the end I started dreaming of being able to use the rest of my life as I finally wanted. But, now that more than a year has passed since her death, I have come to realize that She wasn’t holding … Continue reading I Thought She Was Holding Me Back…
I am a lifelong dreamer. I seem to constantly be thinking about how my world could be better if only… But, if you spend too much time dreaming, can that eventually become your reality? That is what this post is all about. Nothing too ambitions huh? By not going down a road, it will always remain a road ahead. A personal example of that is … Continue reading Can Dreams Become Reality?
Each one of us has a story sometimes filled with mourning and grief along with occasionally happiness. Isn’t that what life is all about. It is not a stagnant thing that stops because of a loss or embarrassment. We simply can’t, nor should we want to stop time. Like a surfer on a big wave, Life carries us on to make room for tomorrow and … Continue reading Life Carries Us On…
Good patches come and go, but in the end it is all about laying in the sun. Of course, the quote above came from an avid sunbather, but it does have a more profound meaning. Presently, I am suffering from some not-so-good times. Too many memories flooding my consciousness. Too many realities that are not so pleasant. I barely knew him, but I miss my … Continue reading Good Patches Come And Go…
Today is the first anniversary of my wife’s death. I still think of her everyday, but maybe a little less often now. Just before we got married, she asked me if we were making the right decision? I told her “only time would tell”. Well, we lasted for 34 years, I guess I can say it was a good decision. When I went deaf two … Continue reading Remembering The Love Of My Life – Alone Together…
In the last few weeks before her death in hospice, my wife and I managed to have a serious conversation about coping with life, particularly mine after she is gone. It was fortunate that the conversation happened when it did as she soon thereafter she sank into a malaise and was unable to communicate via signing or anything else. I had several Aspie meltdowns in … Continue reading Remembering The Love Of My Life – Advice & A Secret Revealed
My wife was just not a person of action. She would rather just enjoy each day as they came along. Her card and board games, picture puzzles, naps, and TV shows were her daily activities throughout our married life. She hated change, and when I forced it upon her, she didn’t appreciate it at all! But, after it happened, she most often grudgingly admitted she … Continue reading Remembering The Love Of My Life – GDL & New Jersey
It was a year ago this Thursday that my wife drew her last breath. Of course, I am having some serious emotions about that. I decided that to commemorate her life, I will write some heartfelt posts about her this week that will allow you to get to know her. Writing is what I do best, so I think that is the most appropriate way … Continue reading Remembering The Love Of My Life – Her Early Years
I have one more bucket list item that I want to tackle in 2022. Well, I actually have a few others, but those are so much in the pipe dream category as not to count. The bucket list item that is left is that I want to be more artsy. This is something that has been on my list for years now. After I left … Continue reading The Final Bucket List…
I don’t know if this is a “man” thing or just unique to me, but I kinda think most of us have these thoughts at sometimes in our lives. Proving Your Worth All my life I have always been afraid that I wouldn’t amount to anything. I was constantly worried that I was just sucking air, and not giving anything back. Unfortunately, I inherited a … Continue reading Proving Your Worth
Sometimes we are forced into a group not of our choosing. In the working world, we most often don’t get to chose who our workmates are. They are chosen for us. It’s been a while since I was in that situation, but due to my deafness and Aspie traits that was about the only time I was eventually welcomed as a valuable member of a … Continue reading Forced Associations…
One of the things that has almost been a constant here at RJsCorner for the last few years is my statement that I embrace change and loathe routines. My recent On-The-Road journey across the South and Southwest U.S. has proven that to be for the most part inaccurate. I still like to experience change once in a while, but I have come to recognize that … Continue reading Oh, Those Dreaded Routines…
I sadly have pretty much lived my life based with too much caution. I spent twenty years in a profession that I never really liked because I was afraid to be without a paycheck. I never really managed to live my life on my terms until these last few years. I always wore a mask that others expected me to wear. That is the story … Continue reading Life Exists, But It Is Never Fulfilled By Too Much Caution
Here I am sitting at my keyboard again, when I should be having dinner. Let me explain a little more. Some of you know that I have Aspie traits that make social situations uncomfortable. For that reason, I usually go to dinner here in my retirement community during the last fifteen minutes of the meal hour. I go down then because there is usually a … Continue reading RetComLife#33 – I Am Tired Of …
By featuring this book as its own post I think I have made it abundantly clear how it has influenced me during my traveling life. I originally read this book in 1962, soon after it was published and have re-read it about a half-dozen times since then. In 1962, I was in the middle of my high school years. That was the time when I was … Continue reading Travels With Charlie
I am a writer. I don’t know why I am obsessed with that craft, but I have to put my thoughts into words and get them out there. It’s not that I am seeking fame or fortune. I think I do it because my brain will explode if I don’t. 🤪 But seriously, it is more than that. I write to codify my thoughts and … Continue reading Being A Writer
The above graphic has been in my IN-box for way too long. I don’t have many words to say about it but I kinda think it speaks for itself. In my earnings years I found it hard to keep a healthy work/life balance. I was one of those who spent way too much time in the office and not enough for “What We Will”. Starting … Continue reading Work/Life Balance
One of the most peaceful places I know is the Pleasant Hill Shaker Village near Lexington KY. I have been there more times than I can count. I go there in times of my deepest depression. It is a place to unwind and put things in perspective. As this election process is winding down I feel like I need to spend a month there to … Continue reading A Huge Sigh of Relief & A New Direction
I thought I would use this Saturday’s post as a little lesson in deafness, mine at least… 🙄 When I started my engineering life in 1970 I had at least some functional hearing in my right ear. It was enough for me to pass in the hearing world. Ironically, my first assignment was about measuring sound and that involved an anechoic chamber as shown above. … Continue reading Deafness = Sounds of Silence… Nah
One of my many hidden ambitions is to be a life coach. Someone who gives advice on the direction you might take to in your future. But, in some ways that is what RJsCorner has always been about. It is about me telling you stories about my life and its ups and downs and challenges along the way. I jokingly say my goal is to … Continue reading A Hidden Ambition…
The phrase in the title above comes from Friedrich Nietzsche who was a German researcher of philosophy in the mid 1800s. He was considered a child prodigy who unapologetically spoke his mind on a number of topics. I kinda live by that strategy myself. 🤓 He had many controversial quotes attached to his name, but I seriously cling to the one above as being fundamental … Continue reading Adversity Builds Character
For this Saturday post I give you my now completed µRV. It is a 1992 truck with a cargo cap on the back that was used in my furniture making business at the beginning of this millennium. I started changing it to my one-person RV about six years ago. For those who don’t know the letter µ is Greek for micro so it is my … Continue reading My µRV
It’s funny how some images and stories stick in your mind forever. That is what this post is all about. I remember where we lived but not particularly how old I was then this story happened. I think it happened when I was about ten years old. Mom had just abandoned us so that left dad as a single parent. He was still in his … Continue reading Just Stories – A Cheese Sandwich
I remember June 8, 1970 very well. It was the day I joined the working world on a full time basis. I don’t know how that could have been so long ago. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I had graduated from Purdue on Saturday and went to work the following Monday. I hardly had a dollar in my pocket as almost all … Continue reading 50 Years Ago Today…
In 1965 I was a high school senior in a very small-town rural school. The building was built about 80 years before and the creaking stairs and just about everything else showed the wear. The basement used to be the gymnasium but that had sometimes since moved next to the International Harvester repair shop downtown. We were the biggest graduating class in the schools’ history, all sixty-nine of us.
Continue reading “In To The Looking Glass – 1965 – 1980”
RJ's Corner 