My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on July 28, 2026

Back row: Chris, Dad H, Mom H, Ann, Jerry, Middle row: Mark, Brenda, Lynda, Aaron,
Front row: Ben, Justin, David and Rich (1985??? click for larger)

Brenda and I are anxiously awaiting getting together with our extended Howard family after a long stretch of not really seeing everybody. There was a time we were together twice a year EVERY year (and special occasions), but as all family do, our children grow up and start their own families — all great! Still, I do miss the old days of getting together and realize just how fortunate I have been to have married into a great family and having had MomH and DadH as in-laws. 

Family reunion aside (I suspect more will be posted), I did try again to scout out charging location in my wife’s hometown “IF” we take her 2019 Tesla Model 3 on a road trip to Western NY. I really don’t think it is going to happen … but I’m entertaining the thought of checking with Turo if we were to rent a newer Model Y for the extended range test? How crazy would that be???

The 20th-ish annual ‘Howard Bowl’ football game – no injuries this year!

Category: Automotive, Memories, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: family, howard, jamestown, new york, reunion, roadtrip, turo

Posted By RichC on July 27, 2026

As promised last week, here’s another unusual pick for Music Monday: 3EB’s “Never Let You Go” from the year 2000 (non-music listening years for me — hint: Menieres). Also, Third Eye Blind isn’t a band I would generally pay much attention to … but accidentally flipping to the PopRocks channel over the 4th of July had me commenting to myself that it was nice to hear something different. 

Category: Music, Video | No Comments »
Tags: 3EB, menieres, music monday, music video, musicmonday, Never Let You Go, siriusxm, third eye blind, wikipedia, youtube

Posted By RichC on July 26, 2026

This year’s midterm November’s election will slate candidates about as diametrically opposed as we have ever seen in the United States. If the news is to be believed, Democrats have candidates that aren’t just flirting with Marxism, Socialism and Communism … they are advocating for it! 

Category: Politics | No Comments »
Tags: capitalism, communisim, democracy, democrats, election, midterm, Republicans, socialism, wikipedia

Posted By RichC on July 25, 2026

It has been a raucous week to say the least. First, it was a week of an up and down recovery for me after Monday’s robotic inguinal hernia repair surgery. Second, the energy/oil and financial markets that we all watch were in turmoil due to the events in the Strait of Hormuz (Friday’s Dow and Nasdaq close below).

The most important thing, the surgery went smoothly … even if it was a little more complicated than expected according to the surgeon (2-1/2 hours). Thankfully I have only a few “punched holes” and soreness to show for it … and it didn’t require cutting me open — that’s the good news.

The latter being continued unrest in the Middle East and impacting markets and our nation’s economic and political mood. Iran continued its resistance to seeking a peaceful way to resolve demands from the U.S. not to pursue a nuclear weapon or dictating the flow of trade (primarily oil) in and out of the Persian Gulf. Unfortunately they escalated again this past week and fired more missiles and drones hitting U.S. bases and killing 4 more Americans (and also striking neighboring countries and ships). The likelihood President Trump will continue to strike back is 99.9 percent … and now the Yemen Houthis are getting involved. 

(more…)

Category: Financial, News, Personal, Poll | No Comments »
Tags: dow, economy, hernia, houthis, iran, middle east, nasdaq, nate silver, president trump, richc, stock market, surgery, war, yemen

Posted By RichC on July 24, 2026

Interestingly, I haven’t really given all that much thought until pondering the wave of new socialist politicians making inroads in today’s Democratic Party. There is a clause in the U.S. Constitution (Article II, Section 1, Clause 5) that states
“No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President…”

Well that brings to mind our early U.S. Presidents and who was the first to actually be born after the founding of our republic? That would be our country’s 8th president, President Martin Van Buren of Kinderhook, New York.

Tidbit: “He is the only president to have spoken English as a second language and was the co-founder of the Democratic Party.”  – LINK

The clause ALSO created a grandfather exception for those who were already U.S. citizens when the Constitution was adopted (which included the first seven presidents, all born as British subjects before independence).

Martin Van Buren was born in 1782 after the Declaration of Independence and therefore was the first president born as a U.S. citizen and thus the first to qualify under the “natural born” requirement without relying on the grandfather clause.

All presidents since Van Buren have been born as U.S. citizens.

Category: History, Human Interest, Politics, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: constitution, grandfather exception, martin van buren, natural born, Politics, presidents, united states, wikipedia

Posted By RichC on July 23, 2026

After putting things off for awhile now, it was good to finally get a robotic inguinal hernia repair on Monday . I have been laying low since the procedure and can’t say I’m feeling like doing much. Which is a good things since I’m not suppose to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk.

 I think all went well and hopefully it will give me some relief and ability to do a few more things. Let’s heal fast. 

So for now, I’ll leave you with this “POSITIVE POST.” 😊 

Category: Archive, Health, Humor, Medical | No Comments »
Tags: hernia, positive, richc, surgery

Posted By RichC on July 22, 2026

Likely I’ve added way too much on knots and knot tying in previous posts, but because “who knows how I’ll be feeling,” I’m pre-posting another knot tying video. “NOT” (groan) bad, if I can only remember them when they are needed. 😉 

Category: How-To, Video | No Comments »
Tags: .mp4, filler, knot, knots, pre-posting, video