RichC | December 11, 2016
Wrapping up a weekend trip with a few photos tinkering aboard Encore. Some needed cleaning and a few improvements were the items on the agenda. First up, I semi-fitted the new generator cage for the Honda EU2000i. I welded the aluminum up in the summer/fall and hope that once bolted in place it will keep […]
RichC | December 10, 2016
In continuing the quest to be able to bring along our fully inflated Zodiac dinghy when gunkholing aboard Encore, I am still pondering an inexpensive davit option. The dilemma has been trying to keep the Capehorn Steering gear (hopefully functional) while still "safely" toting along a dinghy. The foredeck space is limited since the baby […]
RichC | December 9, 2016
The top image is a daylight test image while trying a new camera and lens combination (Panasonic Lumix GX8 and 14-140mm lens) and is a very large original image … so if you click it, it will prove to be a larger image download (be warned). The image below as been reduced in size but […]
RichC | December 8, 2016
Tis the season to be starting to think about a “Jolly Christmas” as Katelyn and Drew sent back a couple photos from Vienna, Austria this week … and from the looks of it, they are enjoying themselves. I sure hope little “Baby Oostra” likes long flights? It just so happened that Dr. Drew was invited […]
RichC | December 6, 2016
I headed down to Florida to check in on Encore this past weekend and enjoyed the sunshine but not necessarily the long drive for a short stay. Primarily the in-water project had to do with getting the dodger and bimini back on the boat and getting the deck cleaned up after the harsh summer and […]
RichC | November 30, 2016
For those who backpack or have planned challenging hiking trips, few offer the impressive views and strenuous climbs that the trails along the Na Pali Coast of Kauai, Hawaii. My son Taylor has sent back and posted a couple photo from his trip this week. Amazing trip.
RichC | November 28, 2016
Chuckling at the difference between how relaxed Taylor’s “walk” on Kauai looks (while on his backpacking trip to Hawaii) compared to the walk Katelyn and Drew took this weekend in Wayzata, MN (our September trip). Taylor’s message to me after a few days “offline” — “We made it!” A photo of the Three Amigos […]
RichC | November 26, 2016
No visits to the mall, stores or even online shopping for me on Black Friday, but I have started the process of looking for a new camera "system" to replace my aging DSLR. With my first granddaughter on the way, it might be time to get back to my roots and revisit my old hobby […]
RichC | November 24, 2016
Because my kids are out of town and Brenda is working today, I didn’t intend to post anything for Thanksgiving this year; I just figure I would just let an uneventful day pass. BUT, after mentally reflecting on this past year, I realized just how much I have to be thankful for … considering what […]
RichC | November 22, 2016
I couldn’t resist sharing one of my son’s photos from his Thanksgiving trip to Hawaii. The first few days have been spent at a friends house on Oahu not to far from Marine Corps Base Hawaii on Kaneohe Bay, but they are not sitting still. Each day after the morning rain, at least the two […]
RichC | November 21, 2016
Last weekend my friend Jeff told me his old grill was mine for the taking, but that it was in need of some cleaning, some repair and new burners (besides the fire department tag it as unsafe for his apartment patio). I ordered new parts and a cover for under $50, repaired the rust holes […]
RichC | November 18, 2016
My son Taylor and his buddy Cam heading off this Friday morning on a trip to Hawaii. They have been planning a backpacking trip after locking up permits to hike the Kalalau Trail on the Na Pali Coast on Kauai since spring. One of their college friends works and lives in Honolulu so they have […]
RichC | November 15, 2016
My good friend and old college buddy lives in an apartment which as been visited by the fire department — they tagged his door regarding the grill on his patio. Bad for him, good for me. All I had to do was go pick it up … glad I put the hitch on the BMW […]
RichC | November 8, 2016
The highlight of this past weekend was in getting together with the Oostra family on a sunny and beautiful Sunday afternoon where Katelyn and Drew had a “Baby Oostra” reveal party. A popular trend nowadays is for young couples to make the gender reveal “an event” … and creativity seems to be the key. A […]
RichC | October 31, 2016
Just capturing a beautiful autumn sky as the Trick or Treat gang gets ready to make their rounds in the neighborhood this quiet Halloween night. Let’s hope I have enough candy as I’m giving out 5-bar packs tonight! (the last photo below I saw on Twitter … Brenda said I couldn’t share it when "Baby […]
RichC | October 30, 2016
What a great autumn weekend in Cincinnati. We had a gorgeous sky last night although the panorama photo mode on my "aging" iPhone 5s doesn’t do it justice. Saturday was spend enjoying the outdoors as besides mowing the backyard, I "chipped away" at my wood pile by splitting and ended up cutting a few […]
RichC | October 28, 2016
Repair a shoe of course! I’ve was frustrated with my carelessness when welding last year after burning a hole in my Keen shoes, but still wear them (albeit with a little more air conditioning than I would like). So after mixing a little more epoxy than needed for a repair, I dabbed a little bit […]
RichC | October 26, 2016
The advancements in unmanned aviation continue to impress me as a new generation of pilots is flying by remote control rather than “stick and rudder,” “yoke and peddle” … but all can still fly by the “seat of their pants.” I’m still unsure what to call these computer controlled devices nowadays … quadcopters, quadrotors (what […]
RichC | October 25, 2016
The weather this time of year can be very pleasant for chores outside, but morning and evening chill is definitely hinting that cold weather is around the corner. So it is time to start closing up the pool and prepping the outdoor living furniture for the nastiness of winter. I enjoyed the warmer afternoon in […]
RichC | October 23, 2016
It has NOT been an enjoyable campaign season … a very long year and a half! Citizens of voting age in the United States (see Twiitter comment below) voluntarily head to the polls to decide who they want or more appropriately DON’T want as their president for the next 4 years. I doubt I’m alone […]
RichC | October 11, 2016
The Republican establishment has moved a bit closer to full fledged panic after a video of their candidate for president was dug up from a "hot-mic" Donald Trump celebrity appearance 11 years ago. It offered an audio picture of what most knew about the man who swaggered his way through the Republican primaries. His vulgarity […]
RichC | October 6, 2016
Let’s hope this “curtain call” (cough, cough) isn’t a precursor for Hurricane Matthew bearing down on Encore in Fort Pierce Florida? The subject line was more of a slip of the tongue regarding “curtains” when I really intended a twisted “Suzy Homemaker” innuendo — Sailor Homemaker (my attempts at sewing curtains). Failed joke aside, I […]
RichC | October 5, 2016
Google calendar has automatically added a few important annual events to my calendar (my settings), but unfortunately it is not artificially intelligent enough to remove or delete. Today I was sent a reminder that we normally celebrate our late dog Tootie’s birthday on October 5th. She is missed and I often catch what I thought […]
RichC | October 3, 2016
The generator "security cage" project for our sailboat Encore is ready to be installed. I’m not fond of making a few more holes in the deck, but it needs to be done. The final touches (minus adding Velcro) were taken care of this past weekend. That included softening the aluminum edges, adding shrink tubing to […]
RichC | October 2, 2016
This past week I’ve made a few frustrating online transactions and purchases. First, in dealing with NewEgg, I attempted to use a credit on my business account and decided to handled it on the phone with customer service rather than risk it online. I explained that I was using a "store credit" and wanted to […]
RichC | September 22, 2016
First off, I am not a snob when it comes to coffee. I have my likes (and quirks) when it comes to coffee, but drink all coffees … even the cheapest boiled campfire coffee will do. That noted … I do enjoy a few of the specialty roasts like the Jamaica Blue Mountain and Kona […]
RichC | September 21, 2016
In a previous post, I sketched out a "Generator Cage," for the lack of a better term, for our sailboat Encore. The idea is to slip off a Sunbrella cover so we can use the Honda EU2000i Inverter Generator mentioned here on the aft deck when needing power at anchor to charge the batteries and […]
RichC | September 16, 2016
Continued from 9/14/2016 and 9/15/2016 — This is PART 3: Instead of heading home, we picked up pizza and headed over to my nephew Justin and his wife Keity’s new house (photo above) about 25 minutes from Wayzata. He and his son Evan gave us the grand tour while we waited for his wife […]
RichC | September 15, 2016
Continued from 9/14/2016 — This is PART 2: Sunday was fully planned as well. Katelyn and Drew had scoped out a car show in previous years and they knew it would be something I would enjoy. So before going to a ballgame, “we” (well at least “I”) enjoyed the old cars — and shared a […]
RichC | September 14, 2016
Tempus fugit (Latin phrase) for "Time flies" when you’re having fun! … and we certainly had a good time this past weekend with our pregnant daughter Katelyn and husband Drew. This trip to Minneapolis was the first since Thanksgiving 2015 — shame on us — but at least we waited for great weather to visit. […]
RichC | September 5, 2016
One of the home/yard updates last week were new tires on our 30 year old John Deere 330 diesel lawn tractor. It has been a great small tractor and the 16 HP Yanmar diesel has performed flawlessly year after year. I’ve rewired and “plumbed” (rubber hoses with Viton) the fuel system do to an electrical fire a […]
RichC | September 2, 2016
My brother and I closed our final chapter of "Our Life in Sidney, Ohio" this week after finalizing the sale of my parents home. The "young" new owners have some great plans for their first house and I’m sure will be very happy; it is a great place. They will return life back into the […]
RichC | September 1, 2016
My son-in-law Drew shared a really impressive Phatom3 movie clip on YouTube after his July 2016 vacation in Michigan. There were some incredibly beautiful views, sunsets and shoreline video … of course it didn’t hurt that the weather was perfect for Katelyn and Drew’s vacation at his parent’s “cabin” (as they call it). Although I’ve […]
RichC | August 29, 2016
It is not all that unusual to have storms roll though on hot summer afternoon/evenings, but the dark skies with wind and lightning keeps me attentive to the weather after recent damage in Indiana as well as Ohio (or a Lightening Bolt Killing 323 Reindeer in Norway!) We had a hot weekend with temperatures in the […]
RichC | August 25, 2016
After we “cooked” our generator (my fault for not telling Brenda to prop open the enclosure door), I’ve been tinkering to get parts in order to fix it as mentioned before … but my best attempt as scrounging parts has failed. I could only come up with a possible match for the windings and the […]
RichC | August 23, 2016
This content is restricted.
RichC | August 18, 2016
If I were a bit more savvy and listened to my own advice, I would have traded Twitter ($TWTR) for a few dollars this week. On a downgrade to a SELL by Evercore ISI analyst Ken Sena, shareholders listened and poured their sell orders onto the exchanges after seeing shares climb the last few days […]
RichC | August 15, 2016
This content is restricted.
RichC | August 13, 2016
No I didn’t forget my wife’s birthday … I just didn’t post anything on the blog until my son Taylor requested a photo of “both of us when we were his age.” After sending him this one for his Facebook page, I figured that I might as well archive it here. We regularly sailed and […]
RichC | August 12, 2016
Change can be depressing, especially when it comes to losing a longtime client that I now think of as friends like the folks at SummitSWCD in Akron. In this case there isn’t anything I can do since as voters in Summit County approved expanding the county’s data center and information technology department. They will now […]
RichC | August 5, 2016
Sometimes there are things that seemed to be written just for me … like the response to a serious of questions posed to Mike Rowe. I can relate 100% to the want of a Crosman BB gun at the 9 year old mark (and dad was understanding, but mom was worried — a "worrywart" was […]
RichC | August 4, 2016
Brenda and I are SO excited for our daughter Katelyn and her husband Drew — they are having a baby (photo above “just a couple years ago”). They called us with the good news last week that they are expecting (considering both are doctors, I assume they are pretty sure). Katelyn has not been to see […]
RichC | August 2, 2016
Now that we’ve been in our house for over 20 years and haven’t really done much to update our kitchen and the builder grade cabinets and appliances. It is time to start the ball rolling and at least get a few ideas. Brenda thinks our kitchen is too small by today’s "big house" standards so […]
RichC | July 31, 2016
While Katelyn and Drew were vacationing in Michigan, they included this very cool photo! It is a perfect filler for a missing Sunday afternoon blog post.
RichC | July 21, 2016
Brenda and I are looking forward to an upcoming trip to Minnesota to see Katelyn and Drew … especially after seeing the many summer activities they are enjoying this summer. Last week after work they even headed over to Wayzata for the evening concert, just like my mom and dad did in Sidney. Maybe it […]
RichC | July 17, 2016
After buzzing down to Florida last week to show the condo in Delray Beach, I spent a couple days “hurricane prepping” Encore for the tropical weather likely to show up in a month or so (could happen any day now). My good friend Mark gave me a “sweaty” hand in getting the sails stowed away […]
RichC | July 13, 2016
My son Taylor gets his after work exercise taking long walks or bike ride from his place in East Walnut Hills and sending or posting a few photos. It is surprising just how much beauty there is in Southwest Ohio that I take for granted. Nice!
RichC | July 9, 2016
What a beautiful night to hang out on the backporch with a fire in the outdoor fireplace. The air is cool, the moon out in a clear sky (in top of photo above) and bugs are at bay. Unfortunately I’m looking at my iPad … hm, if I can only learn to put down these tech […]
RichC | July 6, 2016
My daughter Katelyn and husband Drew were in Iowa over the July 4th holiday weekend with his family. Since they were visiting the old farm homestead, it was a perfect time to get his new Phantom 3 quadrotor out and take a little more video. The time to visit northwestern Iowa is obviously the summer […]
RichC | June 29, 2016
RichC | June 28, 2016
I’m not sure how the whole "drone" future is going to turn out, but it is exciting to watch the improvements over a short period of time. The ease of flying, improvements in batteries and quality of video have really advanced. It will not be long before we’re "jumping" around town in a quadrotor. I […]
RichC | June 20, 2016
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 […]
RichC | June 12, 2016
Taylor’s Birthday party this weekend brought back memories of past pool parties when our kids were younger. Kids no more … these were all late 20s adults … but had fun acting like kids again for a day. The above photo include most from their group … click for full size! The birthday was really […]
RichC | June 11, 2016
My cousin (a loyal blog reader … a little embarrassing) exchanged a couple of text messages the other day after she commented on "our" grandfather’s photo and grandmother’s painting. It is nice to know that I’m not the only one who is sentimental about our grandparents, considering the very few years they were in our […]
RichC | June 10, 2016
We recently returned from the high school graduation of my niece Sarah Gerber who has fought and lived with childhood cancer her entire life. She continues to defy the odds with an inoperable brain tumor and her story is truly encouraging for all who face similar medical challenges. Sarahs’ 18 years are ones of courage, […]
RichC | June 9, 2016
This content is restricted.
RichC | June 7, 2016
The other day in Mental Floss I read that a "Study Confirmed What We Already Knew: Living Near Water Can Reduce Stress." I can attest to this since we lived by the water when I was a boy. My parents had a home on the shores for Lake Erie with a 150 foot private beach […]
RichC | June 5, 2016
It was a busy weekend for a few of us in our family. My brother, his wife Claire and son Jaben, my cousin Diane and her husband Bert, as well as Brenda and myself decided to self-sell the balance of my mom and dad’s home contents rather than have an auction. It was quite a […]
RichC | June 4, 2016
Talk about “desultory” … who else blogs on Milwaukee Dill pickle “jars???” Like George Berdes (link), I love Milwaukee Midget Dill Pickles … although I’m not so sure about the corporate conglomerate brand Pinnacle Foods? I add “5” midget dills to my plate at every home lunch and have done this for years with […]
RichC | June 3, 2016
The Howard side of the family gathered in Atlanta for the high school graduation of my youngest niece Sarah Gerber this past week. The party was on Memorial Day and graduation for the Lambert High School class of 2016 the day after. Brenda’s sister Ann and her family live in a northeastern suburb that is […]