RichC | June 16, 2018
Frustration in tech land! Power out – now the cable modem or router won’t reboot properly! If you haven’t following along with my updating the progress on the Florida condo, I’ve been adding bits and pieces to “home automation” besides the normal “construction updates” to the kitchen (and eventually bathroom). Most of it has been […]
RichC | June 11, 2018
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RichC | June 10, 2018
It is hard to believe that my son Taylor is 29 years old today!?!?!? It doesn’t seem possible that he has been pretty much living on his own now for third of his life? He has certainly made us proud at the way he has grown up and handled a difficult decade that faced him […]
RichC | June 7, 2018
Several of the parts for our now 10 year old Kubota ZD326s have arrived so I started the process of cleaning, greasing and replacing the "broken and beat-up parts." I’m still waiting for the air filters to arrive from China, but have the Kubota branded oil filter and Chevron Delo 400 SDE 15W040 diesel oil […]
RichC | June 5, 2018
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RichC | June 4, 2018
It continues to surprise me how coyotes can continue to live in and around relatively populated areas like Liberty Township, Ohio … but as mentioned several times in the past, we continues to see them boldly hunting rabbits and other small animals (keep an eye on your small dogs and cats!). While mowing the lawn, […]
RichC | June 3, 2018
Brenda and I enjoyed a retirement luncheon celebration on Saturday for my brother Ron (again) after his career working "mostly" at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. We had a great time with some of his co-workers, friends and family (his granddaughter Teagan with Keira and Ben above) at the 571 Grill in New […]
RichC | May 31, 2018
Since the Quartz countertops were finished early and I was still available for the install, it was time to move on it now. Better to have them installed than stored somewhere until my next trip to Florida (a few more photos for the Condo1718 archive below).
RichC | May 30, 2018
Adding a few more gadgets to the condo update this weekend as we are one step closer to getting it looking as if we’ll have a kitchen again … or at least a livable abode for the winter renters (or next owner). Hopefully the few extra upgrades I have opted to add will not go […]
RichC | May 29, 2018
Spent a little more time working on the condo kitchen over a stretched Memorial Day weekend since a replacement range needed to be received (gas version was shipped by mistake on first order). Thankfully was also able to get the templates made for the countertops after adding the stub wall support and some final cabinet […]
RichC | May 21, 2018
It is hard to believe that my YOUNGER brother Ron is retiring at 56 years old?!? Shocking, but I’m sure welcomed after a long career with the US Air Force working first in Ogden, Utah and the last 30 years at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. We were very close brothers when […]
RichC | May 20, 2018
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RichC | May 15, 2018
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RichC | May 13, 2018
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RichC | May 12, 2018
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RichC | May 7, 2018
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RichC | May 5, 2018
Just a couple more panarama catch-up photos for the archive from the updates to the condo kitchen. Brenda has been a great help and we both "enjoyed" working together.
RichC | May 2, 2018
The new Hitachi miter saw put to use on the condo kitchen crown molding … and a little paint finally being applied by Brenda. Wanted to get these couple new Ikea kitchen photos archived before they are lost.
RichC | May 1, 2018
New tools are my jewelry when it comes to presents … and Brenda agreed to buy me a new 12" Hitachi sliding compound miter saw so I could more easily work on a couple of projects (after promising to do them this year). Hm, what have I gotten myself into??? The first project is to […]
RichC | April 29, 2018
Don’t you just hate making a long drive and getting stuck in a long traffic jam? This past week I ended up sitting and inching forward for over an hour while on I-75. It was frustrating knowing just how many more hours I was planning to spend on the road. On a much lighter note, […]
RichC | April 26, 2018
Routine: Alarm at 5:50AM, brew coffee, fix oatmeal, shower then shave (probably backwards), watch/listen to news and business information by tuning into Morning with Maria on FoxBusiness (Gen Jack Keane‘s reflection on iPhone in photo left earlier this week). I’m probably not the only one who is more comfortable having a morning routine than winging […]
RichC | April 24, 2018
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RichC | April 18, 2018
I have teased my “good humored” son far too long about his “girlfriend” from Wayzata Minnesota a few years ago (click here for old photo). So with that “old joke” aside, I think it is about time to officially include his friend Megan on the blog and mention we are excited to see them spending a […]
RichC | April 15, 2018
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RichC | April 14, 2018
This past week has been a busy one for me. I was off to Florida for a few days to check on the condo in Delray Beach after our winter renter and to start the demolition of the kitchen. It is a project that is way past due and I’m not sure I know exactly […]
RichC | April 13, 2018
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RichC | March 30, 2018
Now that our home theater has seats again, we are able to enjoy movie watching … sort of. When Katelyn and Taylor were home last weekend, I realized our old LG Blu-Ray DVD player didn’t work(it was a remote issue without any button overrides on the box). That frustration was followed by an older home […]
RichC | March 29, 2018
It is exciting to share the happy moment of a birth … especially when it is a member of our family who really has wanted a baby. Brenda and I are SO very happy for Madison and Nathan … as well as grandma and grandpa Skinner (Brenda’s sister Chris/Jerry). Riley Howard Kling did not arrive […]
RichC | March 29, 2018
After noticing once again my business email box pushing the limit on storage, I did the normal "sort by size" in order to delete old and unneeded larger emails with hefty attachments. This is a common practice for me as several times each month my servers automatically back-up databases and email a .ZIP archive and […]
RichC | March 26, 2018
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RichC | March 21, 2018
Pulled up Tuesday 3/20/2018 afternoon’s Raspberry Pi Cam photo of the backyard and Wednesday 3/21/2018 morning’s images (click for larger) — what a different a few hours makes.
RichC | March 21, 2018
Wouldn’t you know it … as soon as I take the snow blower and chains off our multi-use John Deere tractor that I use to clear our driveway … we get a forecast of more snow. Murphy’s Law I suppose? Earlier in March as the weather warmed, so Brenda asked when I would have the […]
RichC | March 18, 2018
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RichC | March 11, 2018
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RichC | March 10, 2018
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RichC | March 4, 2018
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RichC | March 3, 2018
The new kitchen décor favored by Brenda is growing on me. Initially I fought the oversized glass crystal cabinet knobs (more expensive) and three rather than two crystal oriented pendant lights (I had already wired for two and had to add a third – $$$), as well as the excessive number of cut glass drinking […]
RichC | March 1, 2018
I’m chuckling at the “famous portrait” subject line, but then again, how many people actually have a portrait of themselves painted by an artist? (might as well make this a ThrowBack Thursday #TBT post) My grandmother, Ruth Walker Bluhm, was an artist and painted a portrait of her first grandson in the 1960s. She was […]
RichC | February 28, 2018
What a pain. I had a major crash on my iMac and wiped out my Parallels install (corrupted the virtual hard drive). One would think this would be an easy fix, but it wasn’t. I spent about 6 hours attempting fix after fix to restore a back up version of the virtual disk (Apple’s Time […]
RichC | February 27, 2018
As mentioned before, it is great to see my son Taylor enjoying a couple of my interests or hobbies like hiking and photography when I was younger (actually I still enjoy them). Ignoring the lousy weather (we had a lot of rain and flooding), he ended up hiking with "a friend" (?) at a […]
RichC | February 19, 2018
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RichC | February 18, 2018
Sunday was the perfect day to finish up “covering” the lifts for the rear row of our new home theater seats. Now all 8 seats have a great view … even in recline mode. After building the “boxes” a week or so ago, I picked up some closeout brown polyester outdoor furniture upholstery material at […]
RichC | February 17, 2018
The irritation of “the week that was” has given way to the positive memories like waking up to this kind of sunrise view … even if it was in a marina. I’m thankful to have the out of water maintenance headaches behind me and can now look forward to “escaping” to our little corner of […]
RichC | February 14, 2018
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RichC | February 7, 2018
This ain’t my first rodeo (was looking for an excuse to use the idiom) as it pertains to stretching the life of my favorite pair of Sperry Topsiders. The idiom this ain’t my first rodeo is generally traced back to the movie Mommie Dearest, in which the character Joan Crawford says, “This ain’t my first […]
RichC | February 4, 2018
This is what I get for procrastinating until this weekend — TWO right hand seats! The boxes containing the long delayed leather home theater seats (ie. basement flood of 2013) arrived a couple weeks ago but I waited until this weekend to unpack since I was out of town last weekend. I unboxed them and […]
RichC | February 2, 2018
I played the “high risk, high reward” game on Friday while watching most if not all stocks collapsed over rising interest rate concerns. It looks more likely that the Federal Reserve may have to be more aggressive in raising rates in order to control inflationary pressures after the jobs report. Unemployment is low, the economy […]
RichC | February 1, 2018
It sure is nice to have friends like Mark and Dar to impose on when traveling … although I KNOW they would say I was invited and was not an imposition (the mark of true friends!) They put me up at what I now refer to as the "Jones B&B" as they always feed me […]
RichC | January 27, 2018
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RichC | January 22, 2018
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RichC | January 14, 2018
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, […]
RichC | January 13, 2018
Google Maps view of the space D-8 that will be Encore’s new dock After hauling Encore last year for some much needed out-of-water bottom work, I’m hoping to relaunch and have her back in the water in February for the improving weather this upcoming spring. But with such few trips and infrequent sailing, I’m torn […]
RichC | January 7, 2018
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RichC | December 31, 2017
Let’s end 2017 with a kitchen cabinets knob repair. One of the changes to our new kitchen were the crystal looking knobs … Brenda felt they were too small. So we added larger ones, but the adhesive they used is not as solid as it should be, so out comes the epoxy and clamped in […]
RichC | December 30, 2017
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RichC | December 28, 2017
My daughter and son-in-law, who moved back to Ohio in 2017, send me occasional updates from my "birth" city and the surrounding area. This past week the Toledo Blade reflected on 2017 in the "glass city" with its Finding Nellie illustration and included the Promedica Promenade Park revitalization … with Drew’s dad dancing in the […]
RichC | December 27, 2017
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RichC | December 23, 2017
Just a beautiful sky (photos doesn’t do it justice) as the new LED Christmas spots and candle lights pop on as I head up the driveway. Good for the blog archive. After a cold start, having sunny but cool weather right before Christmas is welcomed … but should be thinking about getting the blower put […]
RichC | December 21, 2017
Although my memory is a little bit foggy, Brenda and I probably saw each other a couple of Christmas’s prior our first Christmas? We were dating in 1980 and engaged in 1981 and likely celebrated with each other close to the day, but were home with our families for Christmas Day. Anyway, when scanning the […]
RichC | December 14, 2017
Wow … is this really the 35th Christmas? With boxes all over the basement in search for Brenda’s "special ornaments," I ran across the old photo albums of our first year of marriage and our first Christmas. We both remember it fondly since it was a relatively minimalist Christmas. The tree came from Brenda’s dad’s […]