Category: Trials and Tribulations

Whatcha think, Joe was perfect?

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USA is pitied

Note:  For the most part, even though I am the home of “The Little Known Blogger” with a minimal readership,  I try to honor intellectual property rights. A friend sent me this opinion piece from the Irish Times.  I could not find a link to it that was not behind a pay wall.  Because I found this oped so spot on until such time…

Irish Times
April 25, 2020
By Fintan O’Toole
Editorial

THE WORLD HAS LOVED, HATED AND ENVIED THE U.S. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE PITY IT

Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity. Continue reading “USA is pitied”

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I’ve become Melvin Udall

If you remember the 1997 movie, As Good As It Gets, you might remember who Melvin Udall is.  He is an OCD  misanthropic author, played by Jack Nicholson.  Melvin had several compulsive behaviors in the movie including excessive hand washing.

I’ve always been a bit of a hand washer. This habit is partly for good reasons, and partly because of some kink in a neuron somewhere in Continue reading “I’ve become Melvin Udall”

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Caught the tip in my zipper

Let me preface this little piece with the caveat that you may need to be a man of a well experienced age to fully appreciate it… or perhaps to relate to it.

Yesterday I was part of the problem.  I was not practicing social distancing by staying at home.  I had to go out to a couple stores for what were, only by stretching it a far piece, necessities.  I was out of vodka so I needed to hit the liquor store, and I wanted to buy some paint.  My ADHD wife is getting a wee Continue reading “Caught the tip in my zipper”

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I Scored Some Toilet Paper!!!

I find it very interesting that my bride, who, on occasion, views shopping as a recreational activity, has been sending me out there amongst them for groceries.  I understand why.  She has health issues, including a couple of auto-immune problems. She must feel that I am less likely to be affected by the virus.  Who knows. But I am doing my dangest to be safe when I shop.  Someone has to do it.

This morning I went to Aldi and Trader Joe’s.  I mention this because Continue reading “I Scored Some Toilet Paper!!!”

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Trend Micro had me flagged, but all is better

If you are using Trend Micro as your anti-virus software, they had my site flagged as containing a virus.

I ran my site through a utility that is available to WordPress web sites.  No viruses were found, but there was a fair amount of old code that the utility did not like.  I’ve been doing this blog a long time.  I cleaned all that up.  Scanned again, and got a absolutely clean scan.  I submitted my site to Trend Micro and they agreed it was clean and unflagged it.

All the major search engines except Yandex do not have me flagged,and have not ever had me flagged.

I am still working on Yandex. Yandex is based in Russia, and apparently is one of the big four search engines according to my WordPress SEO plugin.  Their requirements are little different.  I find that a bit ironic as a couple years ago my site was under a brute force attack out of Russia and eastern Europe locations.  Why my site, as it is truly the Home of the Little Known Blogger, I have no idea.  Much of the bad cyber activities originate from this region of the globe, however.

Ah… the joys of maintaining a web site.  Especially, as all I really want to do is write silliness and rant about things.  It is enough to turn someone into a curmudgeon.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #6,833

yeah I know you did not ask!

My bride, Robin, has a minor hobby.  She likes to go to estate sales, not often, she may average a little more than once a month.  She frequently buys nothing, or perhaps some little gewgaw.  Once in a great while she will find a real bargain. She invariably goes on Sunday when everything is half priced, but has been picked over. She really seems to enjoy the hunt.

Perhaps once or twice a year she manages to talk me into going with her.  When I go I am mainly looking for books of classical literature or history, maybe fishing gear.  Once I did find an nice erotic painting that is now hanging in our bedroom.  My main problem with going to estate sales is that they absolutely depress the hell out of me.  I will unfailingly find myself muttering as we leave, “You are born, you live, you die, and in the end strangers pick through your shit for pennies on the dollar.“

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Headline Stress Disorder

All my adult life I have been a news junkie. That ended November 2016 after the election of the criminal we now have in the White House.  I tuned my clock radio from the NPR station it had been on for 30 years to a music station. I did the same in my cars , but not my bride’s Outback.  For many weeks, probably going well into 2017, I did not look at the news in all the various forms that it comes at you.  Of course, this is not entirely possible to do, but I did do  my utmost to avoid the news.  The election of 2016 truly depressed me Continue reading “Headline Stress Disorder”

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Smarter than the whole bunch…

I just finished 3 days of backpacking with my son and one of my brothers, Mike, in Arkansas. One of the things I have been doing for years after a hike in Arkansas, if I am anywhere near Jasper, Arkansas, is to treat myself to a meal at the Ozark Café.  This particular café is more than a hundred years old, seems to be a favorite with the locals, and is written up frequently in the Arkansas Times. The food is almost invariably very good or better, the coffee is even more so, and the service is in the same category.

Jasper is not very big, the population is 440 souls. It is however, right on the Buffalo National River.  In season the area is very popular for canoeing, backpacking, trout fishing, hunting and many types of outdoor activities.  They reintroduced elk into the area a few decades ago and they are thriving there.  While we only heard of a report of black bears from other hikers, we did see bear sign more than once. It is a fun area to hike with the scenery and wildlife.

I am eating my meal at the Ozark Café, and catty-corner from me is a table where there is sitting Continue reading “Smarter than the whole bunch…”