On Vacation Until ??

I’m taking some time off from RJsCorner to do some yard work and other special projects. One of those projects is to bring up a new website for my photo portfolios.  Flickr and such just don’t meet my requirements so I am designing a site of my own.  My Information Technology (IT) experience comes in handy even in my retirement years. :) I’ll let you know when that is up and what the URL is.  I expect it to be finished in a couple of weeks. I don’t know how long I will be gone from RJsCorner.  If Congress can … Continue reading On Vacation Until ??

The One Thing I Hate The Most…

I am proudly a follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ. His words are the very foundation for my spiritual life.  But, don’t read that as to mean that I am religious. I have for the most part given up that quest. All this so far leads into the point of the post but is not the topic. In the last two years,  #CO3 has elevated ridicule to a higher level than anyone I have ever known. No one wants to be ridiculed, especially me. I simply lose any sense of reality when someone mocks me or ridicules my beliefs. … Continue reading The One Thing I Hate The Most…

Thinking About Life

The picture here from my Facebook friend The Idealist brought back some rather pleasant memories. In the past and to a much lesser degree even today I have often sat out on a starry night and talked to myself about life. These were often times where I was approaching meltdown due to having so many people around me.  One of the main purposes was to be alone with my thoughts so, no, there was no one with me. Many of those 2am nights were while I was attending college at Purdue University. It seems I was never along except for … Continue reading Thinking About Life

Robots And Henry Ford

This post is primarily about my recent visit to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan. But first, I want to get some things off my mind in relation to Ford’s contributions to America. It is pretty well known that Henry Ford established the middle class here in America, or at least the easiest path to the middle class. He allowed someone with little or no training to earn enough to afford some of the luxuries of life. But to do that required mind-numbing hours on an assembly line doing the same thing thousands of time a day. One of … Continue reading Robots And Henry Ford

About Our Personal Mortality…

My father was one of those people who could not deal with his own mortality.  When a discussion was about death issues, he would say “this is too gruesome” and leave the room. He just didn’t want to think about it. I, on the other hand, have no qualms about discussing my own death. In fact, I am ready to accept it as each day comes and passes. That doesn’t mean that I welcome death, I would like to have a long and fruitful life still ahead of me, but if that doesn’t happen then so be it. I just … Continue reading About Our Personal Mortality…

The Hardest Years…

I suppose the title of this post has different meanings to different people.  From recent comments, it is used to describe the “post-truth” era that many seem to think we are in.  To many, the hardest years are the ones that they are currently living in.  Being a history guy I have a longer view than that.  But this is not at all what this post is about. :) These are the first words from a quote from Helen Hays shown below I couldn’t agree more. At the tender age of ten, I had just taken up a Jack London … Continue reading The Hardest Years…

Autism and Meltdown

Being a person with some strong Aspie traits, I just don’t handle stressful situations well.  Fortunately, I don’t totally lose it as the word meltdown infers but I quit acting like an adult and instead am a panicked kid. In autism studies, these episodes are called meltdowns so I will call them that for the purposes of this post. One of my most prominent stressors is criticism. I am plainly oversensitive. I often perceive my wife’s criticism as calling me a complete idiot. When those situations occur I frequently go into at least some level of meltdown. I start shouting … Continue reading Autism and Meltdown

Why White Evangelicals…

It is a well-publicised fact that 81% of white evangelicals voted to put the current occupant in the Oval Office. On that subject, I ran across this interesting book entitled Believe Me. It is written by one of the 19% who voted the other way.  Here is a small segment of an interview with the author: Finally, you dedicate your book to the 19 percent of white evangelicals who did not vote for Trump. What do you want to say to them with this book? I dedicate the book to the 19 percent not because they’re my primary audience, but because they … Continue reading Why White Evangelicals…

Veggies vs Flowers…

Most of my life I have had a veggie garden to tend. They have varied in size from 75 x 125 feet to patio pots. There is just something about raising your own food that is primal with me. My wife, on the other hand, is a flower garden person. Every year, even though she is in her upper 70s she, with the help of a good friend, puts out a flower garden. This is one of those pictures that tug at the strings of my heart.   Continue reading Veggies vs Flowers…

Autism & Sensory Sensitivity

It has been a while since I put out a post about Autism concentrating primarily on Aspbergers’ Syndrome. This post will be about sensory sensitivity.  Of course, that means being sensitive to sight, touch, taste, sound, and smell and is often a symptom of Autism. I continue to discover new traits in my life that point me to Aspbergers. This one came from a billboard that I saw several times a month while traveling back and forth from my small town to a larger one with more services and medical options. Let’s go through the list with my stories: Sight … Continue reading Autism & Sensory Sensitivity

Wanting It All NOW!!

One thing that seems to be pretty prevalent in American life today is that everyone wants what it took my generation years to get, NOW.  They simply don’t want to wait until they have earned enough, or become wise enough for it to happen. I know our world is going faster now but sometimes you just need to mellow a little longer before you get what you want. I see on the cable show House Hunters where twenty-some-year-olds are looking for 3000+ square feet homes and just won’t settle for less. They say they are going to have maybe two … Continue reading Wanting It All NOW!!

The Best Doctor In The World…

“Best doctor in the world is a veterinarian. He can’t ask his patients what’s the matter. He’s just got to know.” – Will Rogers This quote from Will came to mind recently while my wife was going to doctors trying to determine the cause of her recent ailments. In the last couple of months, she has had three emergency room visits, two of them by ambulance.  We were in the ER practically all day each time. They racked up over $14,000 in tests and billing for their time and still can’t determine the cause for her symptoms.  They just say … Continue reading The Best Doctor In The World…

We All Like To Think We Are Special

We all like to think we are special, especially during our teenage years.  We are trying to find our own identity but due to the lack of creativity in us we pretty much all end up being the same as everyone else. In some ways, the feeling of being special is very isolating and sometimes even harmful. It is much easier to just go with the crowd and meld in with everyone else. It takes a special person to be well, special. What makes a person special is not how they look or what they wear, instead it is about … Continue reading We All Like To Think We Are Special

More Is Not Always Better.

It seems there are many people who always want more and more.  Of course, that is basically the foundation for our economic system here in the US. Given the fact that our population has plateaued in recent decades, each of us buying more is the only way for our GDP to constantly increase year over year especially now that our government is doing everything they can to prevent others from coming to our country. Let’s look at a few glaring examples of this syndrome of always wanting more and more. I see more and more of those restaurants that want … Continue reading More Is Not Always Better.

Don’t Take Life Too Serious…

I think its time to pull one of the header quotes from Will for this post. “Do the best you can and don’t take life too serious.” I discovered this quote several years ago and practicing it has helped me cope with daily life. I don’t think I am unusual in taking my personal life too seriously.  If we were to concentrate on what our FaceBook friends say, we can become convinced that we are the only ones struggling. But once we realize that the FB media is a facade and doesn’t reflect any deeper meaning, we can dispell that … Continue reading Don’t Take Life Too Serious…

Bad People Can Make Beautiful Things.

I heard the quote in the title above on an IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) segment of the PBS Newshour. It was basically linked to another quote that is pretty common in the art world, “Separate the Art from the Artist”. The first thing that came to my mind was Bill Cosby. Looking at his various TV series it is hard to even imagine that the star was a habitual sexual abuser. But, given that big egos are part of this trait it is looking back understandable. Getting to the point of the post, should we be able to view … Continue reading Bad People Can Make Beautiful Things.