When surfing or on a SUP, a dolphin can be a bully too

| July 31, 2019

Dolphins and humans have a few things in common – there are bullies in both species.

Falling back on fiberglass and autobody skills for house repairs

| July 30, 2019

The summer of 2019 around our house has meant more repairs and maintenance updates than usual. This means weekends have been busy with house projects and in also finding and hiring help to complete the updates that are too overwhelming for this one “aging” guy to handle on his own (although my 60th birthday celebrations […]

Music Monday: If You Love Me Let Me Know – Olivia Newton John

| July 29, 2019

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Wrinkly-Nosed Tooth-Faced Shark – accurate, but not polite

| July 28, 2019

Who wants to go swimming?  The Great White Shark can detect blood in the water up to 3 miles away! Just look at those expensive teeth. I watched several science programs regarding space and the Apollo 11 moon landing these past couple of weeks … and one the other night explaining the Big Bang theory […]

A story with 2 of my favorite subjects – photography and space

| July 27, 2019

A lot of things needed to go right when NASA sent three astronauts rocketing towards the moon in July of 1969 … but one real close call happened after their safe return to earth. It seems, some of the iconic photographs were “almost lost to posterity,” explains Zeiss, the company that provided the lenses for […]

Tech Friday: Quantum computing and cryptography

| July 26, 2019

The race for quantum computing superiority has been on my mind and in my discussions lately. State actors like China, North Korea and Russia are all running projects sponsored by their governments to be the first to harness such computing power that will make today’s encryption nearly worthless. Here in the US, our biggest tech […]

An old newspaper clipping and a great summer job #TBT

| July 25, 2019

When talking about the wide spread damage in the Dayton area by a tornado earlier this year with the guys putting on our new gutters (Raspberry Pi cam picked up one of the guys’ legs and tweeted it to me) …  I mentioned that I once did some tornado repairs in my hometown. I couldn’t […]

Do you recycle or think about your environmental footprint?

| July 24, 2019

As a conservation minded “conservative” and as someone who has always balanced the cost vs benefits of decisions, I once thought “recycling” was as simple as “not littering” and cleaning up pollution highlighted by the 1971 ad campaign (Iron Eyes Cody photo above). From an early age we were bombarded by pointing out how careless […]

It has been HOT and an update on the New Gutters for the house

| July 23, 2019

The weather has been super hot and humid so far this July over most of the eastern half of the country. It is pool and grilling weather to be sure … although when the pool water temperature is 90 degrees, it really doesn’t feel all that refreshing anymore. Since I was clearing off the porches […]

Music Monday: Cheeseburger in Paradise – Jimmy Buffett

| July 22, 2019

What would summer be without Jimmy Buffett music and cheeseburgers? How about remembering summer fun with Jimmy Buffett‘s Cheeseburger in Paradise song from back in 1978 with a relatively new personal connection twist? Besides me being a nearly life long listener, this past year or so I have another connection to Buffett as mentioned before. […]

What do you do when you lock yourself out? Use a hammer?

| July 21, 2019

I am calling today “embarrass your wife day,” as she admitted to the questionable decision to open a door with a hammer when I was out of town last week (although she hid the damage for a day). Now that a few days have passed, it is a bit easier to chuckle and admire the […]

Anniversary: 50 years ago we landed on the moon – July 20, 1969

| July 20, 2019

As has been highly celebrated and reported in every form of media this week (and mention in not just one, but two earlier blog posts), today is the 50th anniversary of the landing a man on the moon. It was the historic Apollo 11 eight-day mission to the moon and back with the goal of […]

Tech Friday: Photo manipulation is disturbing and creepy #faceapp

| July 19, 2019

Disturbing and “creepy” (as Katelyn messaged) … although I don’t mind looking a bit younger. 😉   Photoshop in the old days was fun to play around with, but nowadays, video and photo manipulation is beginning to frighten me. Taylor sent me this age-changing photo from our weekend at Put-In-Bay using FaceApp. Although there is […]

Archive: Condo1718 electrical updates and mirror thoughts

| July 18, 2019

I’m archiving the last few photos from my iPhone from this past weekend updates to Condo master bathroom. I finished what I was able to do without an extra set of hands and will do the rest the next time Brenda is in Florida with me (it is hard to set a toilet with a […]

The condo master bathroom is slowly coming together

| July 17, 2019

Finished up the vanities in the master bathroom at the condo this past weekend and all went well in putting in 5 new valves and 2 drains. I shocked even myself in that all “went as planned.” Unfortunately the struggle began when mounting the polymer rather than wood molding across the back to top off […]

Fifty years ago NASA launched Apollo 11 in our race to land a man on the moon in the 1960s

| July 16, 2019

In the space race with the Soviet Union (USSR) during the 1960s, the United States “rocketed” ahead on July 16, 1969 as NASA sent the three men of Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins into space at 9:32AM EST. The Apollo command module and Lunar Module (LM) sat atop the huge 363-feet […]

Why not just stick with American Standard, Delta or Moen?

| July 15, 2019

My wife does not appreciate the common everyday American branded sinks, vanities or faucets … and wanted something a little more unique for the Condo master bathroom (sort of like the other bathroom update last year – see photo at bottom of post). I really didn’t think that much about it until realizing that not […]

Music Monday: A one hit wonder – Oh, Oh, Oh It’s Magic

| July 15, 2019

Heard this one-hit-wonder this past week and thought it would make a great addition for Music Monday. The once Bay City Roller members, David Paton and Billy Lyall, formed the group Pilot in 1973 and in 1975 “Magic” hit the charts.

Book: Moondust – In Search of the Men Who Fell to the Earth

| July 14, 2019

As we approach the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon in 1969, I’ve been enjoying both television anniversary shows, articles and the book Moondust – In Search of the Men Who Fell to the Earth. The Andrew Smith book, in particular, has been enjoyable as it blends events from the author’s memory […]

Art: “Inner Beauty” can mean different things #stingray

| July 13, 2019

Tropical Storm Barry expected to make landfall as a Hurricane

| July 13, 2019

As of Friday night 7/12/2019, Barry is a slow moving tropical storm baring down on the US Gulf Coast. According to projections, the wind is not the primary concern, although it is expected to be at hurricane strength as it makes landfall. The bigger problem is the already high "near record" Mississippi River height with […]

Tech Friday: The challenges of policing speech on social media

| July 12, 2019

There are challenges from users and governments facing several of the companies who make money advertising to the millions of eyeballs and the marketing of users personal data. We all want “free services,” but most people dislike the collection and selling of their personal data or having to sift through advertising … especially when it […]

Twitter is a dead bird at the moment …

| July 11, 2019

I tend to use Twitter $TWTR as my daily newsfeed and choice of social media comment platform, but on Thursday afternoon this week, it is not working. For me, it is no big deal, but for reporters and politicians, it is the way they communicate nowadays. It will be interesting to hear what caused the […]

Beautiful early morning summer driving in Ohio

| July 11, 2019

For decades I drove the Cincinnati to Cleveland/Akron/Warren Ohio drive at 4AM each week, but in recent years business has changed and the drive is no longer a regular thing. Part of me misses that early morning trip, but the other part that remembers snowstorms, construction and traffic delays does not. This past week I […]

Children are online A LOT, so how do we protect them?

| July 10, 2019

Oh for the good ol’ days when we read cereal boxes in the morning and just wanted the trinket inside or collected box tops while learning “delayed gratification.”   Kids online: ”81% of the world’s children and 92% of US children now have an online presence before they turn 2. In the US, 95% of […]

Catch up post after our 2019 Fourth of July Family weekend

| July 9, 2019

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Congratulations – 130 yrs for the Wall Street Journal newspaper

| July 8, 2019

As a newspaper oriented guy from years ago, I have a soft spot for ink on paper and digital journalism (started as local newspaper photog when in high school and worked for Knight Ridder in the 1980s). Even my eventual career path followed from what I learned working for newspaper companies. But as a subscriber, […]

Technology, communication, parenting and The Lord’s Prayer

| July 7, 2019

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A big thanks to Taylor for planning a Reds-Indians family day

| July 6, 2019

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Tech Friday: My Fitbit encourages exercise, including swimming

| July 5, 2019

So far the Fitbit Versa “watch” that I received for my birthday has been great … and I’m using it far more than expected. It has already encouraged me to be a little more active as I work hard to hit the 10,000 step goal each day. Thank you Katelyn and Drew! This past weekend […]

Happy Independence Day 2019 – tainting another symbol

| July 4, 2019

Most Americans love their country and enjoy celebrating our country’s “amazing” 243 year history and success. We are thankful for the rag-tag group of patriots from the 13 original colonies who boldly fought for their independence from Great Britain. In school, my generation (and previous) learned about our forefather’s near impossible struggle for freedom and […]

Amazon delivery may be taking a page from Santa Claus?

| July 3, 2019

Our front door security camera picks up the strangest visitors #deer.

Our countries founders and past presidents, no matter their political party, would be “turning over in their graves”

| July 2, 2019

VP Joe Biden, Sen Bernie Sanders and Sen Kamala Harris – DemDebate2 6/27/2019 After watching the two night Democratic Debate last week, I couldn’t help, but notice that the socialist wing of the party has moved every candidate WAY left. All of the current 20+ candidates running to be the DEM’s nominee have made previous […]

A Mellow Music Monday: A few songs from The Carpenters

| July 1, 2019

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Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
My Desultory Blog