My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on May 11, 2024

On Friday May 10, 2024, I started noticing the beautiful northern lights (aurora borealis) photos showing up on my X.com social media feed. They were so impressive that I told Brenda that we would need to go outside in the evening. While glancing at my skywatching info, I also notice that the International Space Station (ISS) would be passing overhead at a little after 10PM as well (photo below break) … so we made it a date. 

Since I finally fixed the Kubota Zero-Turn diesel problem with new filters, fuel and injectors, I was also able to finish up the back lawn as it was getting dark (thankful for the extra hours of daylight). My conclusion was that the fuel must have been tainted as that’s the only conclusion that I can come up with? Thankfully it was not the injector pump ($$$) or even worse a bent valve or damaged seat in the head. At about 800 hours, I was not ready for an engine rebuild.

Back to the northern lights photo — I think Brenda’s iPhone14 must have enhance the image a bit since it was not quite this impressive in person (although still very beautiful) or on my aging iPhone 7 Plus (poor photos). I did not put my Lumix GX8 on the tripod, but might consider doing that if we have another clear evening?

(more…)

Category: Archive, Cellphone, Diesel, Environment, Photography, Photos, Repairs, Social Networking, Space | No Comments »
Tags: aurora borealis, backyard, diesel, gx8, international space station, iphone14, iphone7plus, iss, kubota, lumix, northern lights, skywatching

Posted By RichC on May 11, 2024

As someone who has spent their career in printing and publishing, I should know this, but why do so many creative people and graphic designers make reading magazines and some newspapers so painfully difficult? The typography in some is ridiculous.

I enjoy reading in the evening when my eyes are tired and the lighting is often less than optimum, so I’ve wondered why so much of what I read is not designed to ease the discomfort. One magazine that my buddy Jeff gives me when he is finished is Foreign Affairs and it is nearly perfect for reading. It would be nice if more publications took their queue from them.

On a completely different topic, thought I would archive (before tossing) an original facility design drawing that I made when helping Brenda build out the Soma.com fulfillment facility in West Chester, Ohio (LINK). The Seattle-based startup was eventually purchased by the drugstore chain CVS and become their CVS.com online presence — unfortunately the fulfillment facility was shutdown shortly after their acquisition. 

Category: Business, Human Interest, Memories, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: brenda, cvs.com, design, facility, foreign affairs, magazine, printing, reading, soma, typography

Posted By RichC on May 10, 2024

Sometimes I know that I’m just tempting fate … like when it comes to switching mobile phone carriers … in my case, MVNO companies. 

Last year, I switch my aging iPhone 7 plus over to USMobile on a trial. I ended up finding it preferred to Mint Mobile (T-Mobile) and found the service to be excellent, at least the Verizon Warp5G service (they also have GSM and will be adding AT&T this year — inside info).

Last fall, I switched to the “pooled data” plan with the intent of adding Brenda’s iPhone14 from Mint Mobile on her renewal date IF Mint refused to give me renewal option. They did not give her the $45 credit as they did last year, so it was an easier call. So the “port out” process was started. 

UGH .. not so simple. Her phone number got stuck in “porting Armageddon.” After an afternoon of “round and round” with pointing fingers, US Mobile finally gave Brenda a temporary number to use and said to give them another day.

To finalize this apocalyptic event … all is well with the US Mobile porting and so as of Thursday night, it will become a Tech Friday kind of post. As of now, everything is running as it should on the Warp 5G pooled data plan (although I’m not sure about Brenda using my 6 GB of data with her iPhone14 5G speeds? No video watching please!) 😊 

Perhaps I’ll up the data plan to 12 GB for the months we’re traveling more (away from WiFi) and then back to 6 GB at other times. The nice part about managing is that it is month to month … and additional GBs can be added mid-month for $2 each (vs 1GB for $10 with Mint Mobile). 

So here’s a referral link in case you want your own apocalypse event … although my recommendation is the same as I gave to my kids … “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” 😁

Category: Advice, Cellphone, Financial, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: carrier, Cellphone, iphone14, mint mobile, smartphone, tech friday, techfriday, usmobile

Posted By RichC on May 9, 2024

Being a great parent isn’t always expensive … it just takes a little time and attention to your children. Here’s someone spotted on social media being a great mom … and a pretty cute little girl enjoying the ride! 

Category: Human Interest, Social Networking, Video | No Comments »
Tags: mom, mp4, parenting, twitter, x.com

Posted By RichC on May 8, 2024

Late spring yard work and continued Kubota diagnosis and repairs continued over the weekend, but on the 7th, another year for me is in the books; can’t say I’m feeling all that different?

But THANK YOU to my family and friends for wishing me a Happy Birthday … and some doing the traditional Howard family singing. Someone asked how I celebrated … I replied, “with a dentist appointment” (although I did have some strawberries with whip cream for dinner’s dessert to made up for it).
 

No sense in wasting a post on me, so will archive a few photos from the weekend: Taylor was in a wedding for his friend Will (and Ali) and forwarded a couple nice photos. Very nice. 

Katelyn sent a cute video of Annalyn reading her French to us (she is a learning machine) and a great photo of Ellerie working on her car (something tells me we have a hands-on kiddo here — and the “tool stool” put to good use).

Category: Archive, Audio, Friends, Holiday, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: dentist, family, happy birthday, kubota, pond, repair, richc, singing, yardwork

Posted By RichC on May 7, 2024

The sunsets across rural Ohio never really get old. I’ve driven home to Cincinnati this time of evening more times than I care to remember while coming home from NE Ohio … but those days are now behind me. This time it was returning from a spring vacation in April and I realized that there was a photo and personal “that’s my husband/dad” kind of joke that might be worth archiving. 

It seems that when Brenda and I were pretty much alone on our beach walk, a young man and his girl ahead of us were planning something special. As we walked closer, we saw the guy bend on one knee and propose. The girl  “accepted” with a leap and a hug (thankfully).

I could not help myself but to “sneak” a photo and say “CONGRATULATIONS” as we walked by — yes, received a polite “thank you” from the couple — but a sneer from my wife. 

On another subject, part of our time was spent chatting back and forth with Brenda’s sisters and their husbands about planning a trip to Utah together. It has become almost humorous as to the number of times they have had me “noodle” (Gary’s term) the airfares and times so we could coordinate our flights, etc. 

We still haven’t come to a final conclusion as to what will work, but Gary and Ann finally booked their trip from Atlanta and it is now our turn to fit travel to their schedule. Just FYI, I’ve done everything but buy the tickets for the rest of us, but am trying to be patient enough to have them all agree (I should probably just book Brenda and my flight and be done with it … but we do still have time). 

Category: Advice, Archive, Aviation, Misc, Personal, Photos, Travel | No Comments »
Tags: airlines, airtravel, delray beach, florida, proposal, sunset, tickets, vacation

Posted By RichC on May 6, 2024

If you’ve followed Music Monday entries in the past, you might have noticed a post or two have been generated by Fox Business segment breaks. On Friday, Stu Varney’s producers slipped in “The Saga Begins” a parody song by Weird Al Yankovic from 1999. I thought to myself, the short 15 second audio-only segment does not do the song .. or Don McLean and “American Pie” … justice (see 2017 post).  

So I looked up the video on YouTube and decided to send a comment on X.com to Varney & Co and decided it was blogworthy even though May the 4th was Saturday (Star Wars Day)! 

Category: Entertainment, Humor, Music, Social Networking, Video | No Comments »
Tags: al yankovic, american pie, don mclean, foxbusiness, music monday, music video, musicmonday, Star Wars, the saga begins, varneyco