While adding a photo to a post about Katelyn, Drew and Annalyn on Put In Bay earlier this week, I had a few more from our pre-kid days that might make for a good Throwback Thursday #TBT post. So here are a couple more sailing on Lake Erie from 1985 aboard Brenich our Baba 30. […]
My son Taylor posted a few photos of his weekend with friends in Vermilion, Ohio and the background canals and homes triggered a Throwback Thursday #TBT memory for me. Before kids, Brenda and I owned a beautiful sailboat we named Brenich and kept it in Vermilion for the first year (subsequent in Huron) and haul […]
Today, Sunday March 24, 2024 is Palm Sunday … the Sunday before Easter. For Christians around the world, it commemorates the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. On this day, a cheering crowd greeted Jesus along the road, spreading their garments and palm branches before Him. For us today, it is time to get our […]
Political ideology has always interesting me. I was aware of different philosophies early on since an intellectual best friend from high school was way to the left and interested in Socialism and Marxism. Charlie Matthews (Kamikaze) seemed like a leftover from the 1960s and even back in the 1970s and 80s supported the Marxist […]
The weather up north is … well wintery and cold … so we are not complaining this year in our escape to Delray Beach, FL. We are disappointed as usual to see the substantial amount of plastic washing up on the beach during our walks. It reminds me of growing up in the 1960s and […]
Depressing for those of us who grew up in the Jimmy Buffett mindset and have enjoyed his music, concerts, ambitious lifestyle and attitude for our college and adult lives, but his passing on September 1, 2023 hit home. Unfortunately it is starting to feel like the norm (but 76 is way, WAY, too young)? I […]
EXCERPT => “On November 23, 1942, the Royal Navy destroyer SS Benlomond was torpedoed by a German submarine. Poon Lim, a Chinese civilian seaman aboard the ship, found himself stranded in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Against all odds, Poon Lim survived 133 days at sea before being rescued by Brazilian fishermen.” This Carl […]
Besides nursing duties and doctor visits with Brenda this past week, I’ve been working with a customer who would like to deploy a non-CMS website and completely forgot to post something on Thursday — making it up today. Although I’m partial to using an inexpensive Linux server with Apache and MySQL, he would like to […]
There are two projects sitting semi-started in the workshop this winter (delayed with Brenda’s hip fracture), although I’m still struggling to accept the VERY HIGH lumber prices. To be fair, I’ve always complained about buying lumber as no matter where it is purchased, it always seems far to high. But nowadays with inflation raging, it […]
This past weekend I started what is going to be a slow, but deliberative process of moving out of the basement and back into the upstairs home office. No window blinds yet, but we did move the oriental rug from our first floor to the upstairs (Brenda would like to get something new for the […]
Not that I was bored or anything while running on generator power for 24 hours, but last week’s outage had my small load-sharing Raspberry Pi “server farm” (semi-joke) that I run at the house (see Brenich.com), in need of service. One thing lead to another and I ended up tinkering a bit more with this […]
As the warm evening and nights of summer arrive, I catch myself looking up at the sky again. It may have started with a purpose back when Charlie (Kamikaze) and I were locally sailing the “Fiberpile” and studying celestial navigation before there was much more than radio directional finders (LoranC was too costly and wasn’t […]
A poor quality scan of our 1982 wedding with DadH, MomH, MomC and DadC Often a 40th Wedding Anniversary triggers a husband or wife to make the comment “thanks for putting up with me” or something to that effect. Although there is truth to it, spending the rest of your life with another person is […]
While doing some the pool house garage cleaning and reorganizing over the past couple of weeks, a piece of the old shag carpeting I duct taped onto the old wooden ladder I acquired in the 1980s fell off. As usual, it triggered memories. First, the good times Brenda and I had with our sailboat Brenich, […]
When I was growing up, I had a passbook savings account that was a teaching tool used by my parents to instill responsible money management. I deposited a small amount in it every few months or so when my mom would go to the bank and got my passbook stamped with an update as to […]
It was a tiring week with the drip, drip, drip Coronavirus news and highly-reactive financial markets. Although frightening, investors rightly or wrongly responded with a selloff of historic proportions. The entire meltdown seemed more like hysteria and panic and had me wondering how our country and nation ever faced plagues, a weak economy due to […]
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When chatting about our recent vacation to Florida with a long time customer (friend) in Akron, Ohio, he asked why we picked Delray Beach, Florida as an area to buy a condo (I detected he is beginning to think about retiring). Although I realized that I really haven’t given much thought to how we ended […]
Although we have recently returned from a nice two week vacation (Part One, Two and Three) and finishing up projects at the condo, I was reminded when looking at a post from 5 years ago for Throwback Thursday #TBT, just how relaxed we were and how much we enjoyed our time together sailing Encore (it […]
Although the Throwback Thursday #TBT memory of celebrating my late parent’s 50th wedding anniversary in 2007 leaves me bittersweet, I’m so thankful we had our time together (photo above and below the break is with them on Kelley’s Island in 2007). I’m not sure where the time disappeared … but I honestly thought that both […]
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As my son Taylor said, “ladders will be our family’s downfall.” So true … The old wooden ladder I inherited from the late Harry McKee when we bought our first sailboat Brenich in the early 1980s is still in active service. It is no longer chained to the old boat cradle we kept in Huron, […]
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The early 1980s were challenging as manufacturing headed overseas, inflation ate up the buying power of every dollar and the cost to borrow was at an all time high. In fact, Brenda and I were giddy to have acquired a 12% mortgage on our first house in 1982 because our friends were applying for new […]
After searching through directories of a couple older computers looking for a document unrelated to the photo above, I ran across this picture of our family on our sailboat Tulla from the miid-1990s. I may have posted something (???) in a sailing related post years ago, but don’t think so? Anyway ia #TBT (ThrowBackThursday) post […]
Got to love Facebook for connecting people who love the same things … in this instance, a naval architect and sailing guru Robert Perry has posted a couple of his favorite photos of one of his early designs — the Baba 30 (our first sailboat, Brenich). It was a beautiful boat and enjoyable to […]
We had another outstanding summer weekend weather-wise and enjoyed every minute of each day. I spent my Father’s Day afternoon working on the BMW X5 35d and installing a 2" hitch receiver (upcoming post). Getting all the snapped and clipped on trim off was the biggest hassle … but it is done. We enjoyed grilling […]
Another year older and hopefully wiser (birthdays seems to happen too often) and am still trying to live and love life to the fullest. On this ThrowBack Thursday (TBT) I’ll include a couple photos and even an Elton John YouTube song from “just” a few years ago (cough, cough). The Brenich photos were from […]
An “easy to put off” project on any sailboat is marking rode or chain for the anchor. I added a purchased yellow tab to our previous boat Brenich’s nylon rode, but haven’t figured out how I was going to mark the all chain on Encore. Earlier this year I save a copy (testing iCloud Pages […]
I’ve probably read every book the Pardey’s ever published as the information help me learn about cruising and our first boat and caring for a spruce mast and boom. They were, and are, inspirational when it comes to “go small, go simple and go now” philosophy even though it has been challenging to incorporated the […]
In wrapping up the “work trip” (cough, cough) down to Florida … I figured the trip would not be complete without at least a walk on the beach. Sunday afternoon sunshine made a good excuse to see how the sand felt on my feet – nice (panorama with the iPhone 5 above – click for […]
Those who are regular readers of My Desultory Blog realize that besides posting commentary on newsy items, be it tech, cars, aviation, politics or whatever, that I also include personal entries and photos relating to my family. This blog, now 4000 posts, is a continuation of a journal that I started in 1977 as a […]
Our first boat “Brenich” in Huron Ohio back around 1984??? I’ve been hankering to find a reason to include another old photo from the 1980s after sifting through the pile in my desk for the archive post the other day – there isn’t a good reason so this will be a “desultory” post. About the […]
Although I love our house and like living in Ohio, winter is the time I envy those who have sailed south and are spending their days exploring the islands of the Caribbean. Jen and Maxwell sailing in the Bahamas on sv Anastasia January 2012 A sailing couple spending the winter in the Bahamas aboard their […]
As mentioned before, I’m not an active Facebook user but I do check in on my account whenever I receive the cursory email (too many from FB BTW). After noticing an incorrectly tagged photo …twice ….yesterday I made a couple wisecracks to my nephews about it. At about the same time I was sorting through […]
A good friend, Clyde Witt (My Witt’s End), teased me with a few interesting and historical photos from the east coast over the holidays. His friend has a home on the shore which ‘had’ an old wooden mast used now to hoist a flag. It was ‘stepped’ securely in the rocky shoreline and has mark […]
Christmas has come early for me as we finalized the closing on the “new to us” sailboat – 1986 36’ Westerly Corsair called Encore. Although Brenda and I have been looking at boats for years, we realistically planned on putting off owning our next boat until both kids were out of college and comfortably on […]
I realize that the post title could be a bit misleading as I’m not “preparing as a presenter” at the 40th Annual Annapolis Sailboat Show, but “visiting” the show. Traditionally my wife and I would take a yearly trip to Annapolis toward end sailing season and enjoy the ambiance of the old city. We’ve detoured […]
When I heard about the passing of renown conservative William F. Buckley, Jr. on February 27th 2008, I started to reminisce about the impact he had on my life. I am able to put a finger on a few people who have played a significant role in developing my personality, my interests, my views and […]
I enjoy Ben Eriksen’s sailing blog enough to include one of his video clips below … although I don’t think many reading my blog are sailors? His recent single handed sail back from Maine aboard his Nor’Sea 27 will probably be enjoyable just the same, as he has done a pretty good job of capturing […]