Posted By RichC on July 7, 2026
I wish I could say that Brenda and I did more than hang out around home and watch fireworks for the 4th of July (the lawn is cut), but at least our family was doing the right thing in marking memories for 
our nation’s Semiquincentenial.
Besides the Oostra family checking out the fireworks and in-town celebration, the checked out a fantastic barn painted up with the US Flag and Mt Rushmore portraits. Very patriotic.
They also enjoy some time at the Cedar Point Water Park and made a quick stop to check out my brother Ron and his wife Claire’s new Lake Erie house — the one on the property we grew up on as kids (my parents would be so pleased). Fantastic memories as I’ve mentioned before.
Not to be outdone, Taylor and Megan took in a tribute band concert and enjoyed the VERY hot Cincinnati evening. They had a really good time, at least that is my read from Megan’s text messages!
Category: Archive, Art, Holiday, Personal, Photos |
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Tags: 4th of july, archive, artwork, barn, family, mural, NW Ohio, oostras, painted, Semiquincentennial
Posted By RichC on July 6, 2026
Besides being a Music Monday (Pink Floyd and “Obscured by Clouds” from 1972 below), it was time to get an early handle on my cloud storage and backup accounts. I was planning on holding off in making the “cloud storage” switch until my Microsoft OneDrive was up for a yearly renewal in August, but the constant deletion and shuffling of stored files with our shared iCloud account with Apple in order to preserve space became too much. Video, photos and iPhone backups storage alone these days eats up the majority of our shared $2.99/mo 200GB of space, leaving little left for iCloud files, etc.
So … opted to start the conversion from OneDrive (and eventually will eliminate iDrive for automated backups) early and will opt to pay the current $9.99/mo for the 2TB iCloud plan.
The standard U.S. pricing structure is as follows:
- 50GB: $0.99 per month (ideal for single users with light storage needs).
- 200GB: $2.99 per month (best for small families or multi-device households; supports up to 5 HomeKit cameras).
- 2TB: $9.99 per month (for power users, photo enthusiasts, or large families; includes unlimited HomeKit camera support).
- 6TB: $29.99 per month (for professionals with large media libraries).
- 12TB: $59.99 per month (for high-volume professional workflows).
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Pink Floyd – “Obscured by Clouds” | 1972 |
Category: Cloud, Computer, Music, Technology |
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Tags: icloud, idrive, music monday, musicmonday, obscured by clouds, onecloud, pink floyd
Posted By RichC on July 5, 2026
With our nation’s 250th birthday plus one, here’s an Ohio oriented aviation story that was pretty cool. I’m not sure what kind of planning it took for the pilot to take his Cessna Skyline 182 RG to fly this kind of six hour “map drawing flight,” but it did take a few gallons of fuel (likely 70-80?) and a lot of precision flying.
The Cessna celebrated America’s upcoming semiquincentennial with a six-hour journey from Norwalk, where the Cessna 182 etched its own unique flight map in the skies between Toledo in the west and Cleveland in the east. For the pilot, the flight preparation must have taken some time to ensure the flight path followed would exactly outline the map of the contiguous United States, including all its bordering lakes and peninsulas, and panhandles, while including the words ‘USA 250th’ in its interior.
LINK
Thanks for forwarding the story, Drew … and yes Katelyn, it is “bloggable.” 😉
Category: Aviation, Human Interest |
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Tags: bloggable, cessna, flying, map, ohio, simpleflying.com, usa 250th
Posted By RichC on July 4, 2026
As we celebrate another Independence Day, America stands at a pivotal moment. 
Our nation, forged by the courage and sacrifice of patriots who risked everything for liberty, continues to shine as a beacon of freedom and opportunity. As a conservative who deeply loves this country, I remain profoundly optimistic about our future. Recent polls underscore this divide in national sentiment: a NBC News survey found that 90% of Republicans express pride in being American, compared to just 29% of Democrats. This gap highlights a resilient conservative commitment to our founding principles amid challenges. With strong leadership and a renewed focus on individual liberty, limited government, and American exceptionalism, our best days are still ahead.
Yet we must confront the real pressures threatening that promise. Elements on the far left of the Democratic Party push socialist and communist-inspired policies – centralized control, wealth redistribution, and identity-driven division – that erode the self-reliance and free enterprise which built our prosperity. These ideologies clash with the American spirit, fostering dependency rather than empowerment and weakening the exceptional nation that has inspired the world.
President Trump captured the American Spirit powerfully in his June 25 speech: “We owe everything to the patriots who risked all to create the greatest and most exceptional nation the world has ever known.” As conservatives, we honor that legacy by rejecting radical experiments and recommitting to the timeless values of our Founders. This July 4th, let us celebrate our nation’s Semiquincentennial (250th anniversary) with renewed confidence: America’s future is bright because patriots will always defend her greatness. Happy Independence Day – may God bless the United States of America.
* POSTED on TheHustings, a 3-column website for Civil Discourse of News & Politics
Category: Holiday, Politics |
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Tags: 4th of july, independence day, patriotism, Semiquincentennial, thehustings, wikipedia
Posted By RichC on July 3, 2026
How many years have I been using a Mac and saving Shift-Cmd+4 screenshots to the desktop (although MacOS has changed over the years)? That said, there’a simple solution for those running newer Apple Macintosh operating systems. Personally I’ve never really given it much thought until consolidating my cloud storage this summer … although more on that later.
Really I just wanted a better way to take a quick screen shot on one computer and have it available on another without actually moving the file from the desktop. Here’s what MacWorld advises as the best way to change the saved screenshots location:
Category: Advice, Productivity, Technology |
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Tags: cloud storage, full, icloud, macos, macworld, Productivity, screenshots, tips
Posted By RichC on July 2, 2026
Since I follow our local Cincinnati WKRC-TV weather guru John Gumm on X.com, I’ll share his post on what to expect this July in Cincinnati based on our weather history:
Welcome to July in #Cincinnati! Our average high is 86 and stays there all month long. We average just under 4 inches of rain and lose about 40 minutes of daylight. Our warmest July was in 1901 🥵 and our coolest was in 2009 🥶 with our wettest ⛈️ coming in 1926. @Local12
Category: Social Media, Weather |
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Tags: john gumm, july weather, wkrc, x.com
Posted By RichC on July 1, 2026
Some time ago, I check out too many ebooks from the library and as hopeful as I was at the time, never got around to reading “The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World” by Daniel Yergin. Newer books by Yergin have been published, but this one from 2011 still triggered an interest for me, 
so I opted to buy a used book for $7.00.
The information at the beginning of the book will never change … as it presents history that helps readers understand the predicaments we find ourselves in today. When I was younger and watching the USSR fail (socialism/communism … but that’s once again a current problem), we in the west were glad to see the Cold War end. What we didn’t realize is that restructuring Russia in an attempt to embrace free market capitalism wasn’t going to be easy. Greed uncheck does was it usually does in creating “the haves and the have nots” and the problems that ensue.
What I need to be refreshed on … and read details about … was how failed capitalism helps the political left consider socialism again. If it ever gains ground outside major blue cities in the U.S., I hope that it will not be in my lifetime.
But I’m not going to solve the big problems and I’m keeping my current goal simple – finish reading “The Quest” by the end of summer. 😉
Category: Books, Energy, History, Politics |
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Tags: Books, daniel yergin, energy, Politics, reading, the quest
