RichC | April 17, 2021
It’s that time of year … cleaning up, getting the landscaping mounds ready for new mulch and of course, Brenda has to burn something … decorative grasses go up fast. Let’s hope she doesn’t burn the fence again. For my part, I’m digging out older stone (what a pain) and prepping to put down some […]
RichC | April 11, 2021
Last week my sister-in-law shared an update on her Facebook page of some well-known Hollywood celebrities that I thought would be interesting to at to MyDesultoryBlog. I downloaded the 30+ different-sized photos, resized a few and decided it might work as an automated slide show (if you want my resized originals, download this .zip archive). […]
RichC | April 8, 2021
With all the photos that I take, I can’t believe I didn’t snap a couple photos of the recent redwood framed games and puzzle woodworking projects I made for my granddaughters? Oh well, they turned out nice. I used my new “flat kerf” blade to make the corner miter joints stronger as well as decorative. […]
RichC | April 3, 2021
There’s not much of a question whether Annalyn and Ellerie had a good time this past week. The girls … and their mom and dad … are vacationing in sunny and warm Disney World in Orlando before heading further southwest to spend a few days with Drew’s parents at the beach. Of course I’m envious, […]
RichC | April 1, 2021
While cleaning up one of my old Flickr accounts where my Palm Treo 700p photos were backed up, I stumbled across one of the first photos with it I took and posted to this blog – June 2006. Even though the camera was lacking by today’s cellphone standards, I still think the Palm PDA turned […]
RichC | March 30, 2021
The news that has captured much of the of the world’s interest this week was the very large Ever Given container ship lodged sideways in the Suez Canal by 40+ mph winds (and perhaps some mechanical issues?). The “Empire State Building” size ship snarled traffic for 6 days surprising most people as to just how […]
RichC | March 29, 2021
Last week while talking with a couple car enthusiasts about old cars, old photos and photography, one of the guys mentioned an online social feed that posts Kodachrome images of old vintage car scenes. While sifting through a couple slides, I saw one of small town Cripple Creek, Colorado which trigged a music memory. Since […]
RichC | March 28, 2021
The 70 degree spring weather, and the high winds last week, begged me to load up the trailer with fallen sticks and starting a small burn pile (still too windy to burn the big pile). A thousand up and down stooping movements and bending-over toe touches has left me sore on Sunday … a sure […]
RichC | March 24, 2021
The more I think about it, the “lamer” it appears to be talking about shoes … but truth be told, the Sperry Topsider reviews and shoe insole posts still are in the top ten when it comes to blog numbers. I’m posting a photo of my newly arrived clearance priced Vasque hiking boots and previous […]
RichC | March 23, 2021
Besides what has become an annual photo of one of our lilac bushes pushing out buds, this past weekend was the first weekend of spring. Besides the new growth and greening lawn, we celebrated with our neighbors of 25 years, Pam and Jim by attending their son’s wedding in Cincinnati. It was a beautiful wedding […]
RichC | March 21, 2021
At one time I thought there might be a bit of Irish blood in my heritage mix, especially on the Corbett side, but an Ancestry.com DNA test in 2019 suggested that there was not. For some reason, I assumed the “known” Welsh family connection had some ties to Ireland, but there wasn’t even a percentage […]
RichC | March 17, 2021
At one time, I thought I was better at time management, but clearly after spending over an hour disassembling, de-rusting and polishing a folding IKEA stainless steel rack, I am not. In retrospect, buying a new one would have been a better way to use my time … but I found out they don’t carry […]
RichC | March 14, 2021
Our old mailbox has lasted 26 years and considering it is cemented into a stone post that mostly matches what is in the neighborhood, replacing it with something else is not a option. A few people have repaired theirs, but it has been an expensive process requiring significant masonry work. Last year about this time, […]
RichC | March 13, 2021
Last week I need a small socket and as usual went out to the garage only to realized that even the smallest 1/4” Craftsman socket that I own was too big and bulky. Then I remembered the IFixIt tools Christmas gift my son gave me and voilà … an easy fit and fix. Thanks Taylor! The […]
RichC | March 2, 2021
It has sort of become a tradition to celebrate birthdays in Toledo with the Oostra family. We certainly enjoy getting together with everyone and regularly reflex on just how blessed we are as a family. I mentioned to Brenda that one of the greatest blessing in my life was marrying into the Howard family … […]
RichC | February 26, 2021
RichC | February 24, 2021
After setting up my router for better, cleaner and easier woodworking dados last week, I started thinking about something better than using my table saw’s stock miter gauge for making “coping” style end cuts on the router table. Beside a $220 commercial Coping-Jig (left), there are hundreds of homemade plans on the Internet to do […]
RichC | February 23, 2021
One of the most unappreciated attributes often overlooked when dating and looking for a life partner is that of a handyman, or to be a little more politically correct, a “handyperson.” I do know that having the Mister Fix-it gene, or is it a learned skill (???), has been one of my strong traits, but […]
RichC | February 21, 2021
Rush Limbaugh died on Wednesday of this past week. It wasn’t a surprise to those who have followed his health challenges and in particular a stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis a year previous. He continue his radio work up until the end and left a G.O.A.T. legacy in conservative talk radio that will likely never […]
RichC | February 20, 2021
The weather has been … well, wintery and I’ve been working on a self-designed prototype desktop bookshelf or bookstand with the thought of making a couple of them. Unfortunately desks … let alone books … are disappearing as a Future of Everything WSJ article mentioned this past year. The design is relatively simple in that […]
RichC | February 18, 2021
A couple of weeks ago I shared a 1990s photo of Brenda’s dad with a close friend Hugh Woodcock and saw another one from 1997 to archive for a Throwback Thursday #TBT. Both MomH (2017) and DadH (2013) have passed away, but since Mrs. Woodcock (Ann) commented on my “snowy February stay-at-home” post, I figured […]
RichC | February 14, 2021
Brenda packaged up a nice box of fun gifts for our granddaughters and they connected by FaceTime with high energy and happy faces – it was fun. Both Annalyn and Ellerie are camera “hams” and seem to enjoy what to them is a normal communication medium. I’m certainly enjoying the technology connection as it is […]
RichC | February 13, 2021
We live in a fairly developed area and yet the variety of animals surviving amidst the traffic and people continues to amaze me. When we built in Liberty Township, Ohio in the mid-1990s you would have called our area “developing but rural.” Now, there is no question we are suburban and “in my opinion” … […]
RichC | February 10, 2021
We received a surprise snowfall on Monday night this week and it caught most of us, including the weather people and snowplows off-guard. Brenda worked until close in Oxford, Ohio and it took her nearly an hour and a half to drive home .. no salt on the roads and very few snowplows were out. […]
RichC | February 4, 2021
I always stop in to visit with lifetime friends of Mom and Dad Howard, Ann and Hugh Woodcock when I’m close, but hesitate to even tell them I’m nearby “in the days of COVID19.” I really hate putting it off though, since one never knows how many days friends in their 90s have? The photo […]
RichC | February 2, 2021
Earlier in the years, this image of a “Three on the Tree” manual column shifter-pattern was tweeted by a automotive friend and it triggered memories for me. Younger people nowadays might not even remember manual shifting on the column with a clutch .. or for that matter ever shifting a “Four on the Floor” … […]
RichC | January 31, 2021
This past Christmas, Megan ordered a fancier turntable for Taylor, which arrived this past week. He was excited set up his gift and shared the photos. It looks nice. It is hard to believe millennials have gravitated to vinyl record albums and turntables in this century, but like my friend Mark, my son Taylor enjoys […]
RichC | January 29, 2021
Now that the wiring in the basement is no longer laying on the floor in order to feed the kitchen television cable extender and ceiling repairs are finished up, I’ve been cleaning up and moving things back into the home theater and game room areas. With some fresh paint everything looks pretty good, so I […]
RichC | January 28, 2021
When searching for a photo of my 1996 Toyota 4Runner (never found one), I stumbled across a couple personal photos from 1997 and will archive them for today’s Throwback Thursday #TBT. One of “professional Brenda” dressed for the office in 1990’s style (ha!) and the other of our family on an October Hawk Migration birding […]
RichC | January 27, 2021
January 2021 is already getting away from me and after receiving a cute photo from Katelyn of “Ellerie’s first pony” (tail) in a text message, I realized just how fast time is whizzing by. Before I could do the comparison, she also sent me a side by side photo with Annalyn at Ellerie’s age, to […]
RichC | January 21, 2021
Both Brenda and I enjoy the hundreds (if not thousands?) of photos from our albums and digital archives that I’ve uploaded to the the photo section of the Amazon Prime storage cloud. We likely enjoy it more since it sits on our kitchen countertop (great for Alexa Echo messages to Annalyn and Ellerie too). So […]
RichC | January 20, 2021
While talking with a customer on the phone today and talking about when I’ll be traveling to NE Ohio again, they asked me when they could get the Covid-19 vaccine? See Covid-19 Vaccination Program – LINK. So I figured it would be appropriate to include a screenshot from an Ohio-based health care provider in our […]
RichC | January 17, 2021
In keeping up with lithium battery powered tools, those of us who have married into a brand have our reasons (battery warranty in my case).In reading most of the comparison literature and write-up websites, Price and warranty aside, I would probably choose Milwaukee (and have for a couple 110 volt wired tools) as a rechargeable […]
RichC | January 16, 2021
My wife is great … and her decorating and building taste as to what “looks” nice grows on a person after nearly 40 years of marriage … but I still grumble about some of the decision she makes. One of them was wanting a drywall ceiling rather than something removable when we finished the basement. […]
RichC | January 14, 2021
While shuffling through a bunch of old scans and photos and uploading stuff to my Miami University .EDU Google Drive account for free cloud storage after downgrading my subscription to OneDrive (they refused to renew the 1TB of space at my previous 4-years of discounted service), I ran across the window sticker from my black […]
RichC | January 13, 2021
We don’t see my nephew and his family nearly enough, but a week ago, my nephew Ben, his wife Emily, and their two boys, Liev and Ellis welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world. The boys baby sister, and Ben and Emily’s first daughter, Lyra Eileen Skinner was born in the morning, weighing a […]
RichC | January 2, 2021
Adam Savage, from Mythbusters claim-to-fame, has been regularly posting a few of his shop ideas online. A few months ago he triggered me into improving my portable Sailrite Sewing machine set-up (well my wife’s sewing machine that I use .. cough, cough). Anyway, a few weeks after he built his table for his impressive Sailrite […]
RichC | December 31, 2020
I had lunch “out” this week with my good friend Jeff, although this routine has become very infrequent compared to previous years. Still, we had a chance to catch up, talk about politics (Ugh), the old-days backpacking in North Carolina (an old scanned photo for Throwback Thursday #TBT) … and I opened his cool gift […]
RichC | December 29, 2020
It was great that the sun was shining in the new windows the day after Christmas, but the hot-spots did make for a challenging family photo in front of the tree (we ended up too busy and forgot to take on on Christmas day with all the presents). Nevertheless, we still wanted to take one […]
RichC | December 26, 2020
RichC | December 25, 2020
Since it is now Christmas day, I will finally post a couple of the woodworking projects that I’ve been working on for gifts this year. Ellerie was my primary focus since I’ve made quite a few items for Annalyn in the past, but I’m trying not to leave anybody out either. So … for the […]
RichC | December 24, 2020
Since I expect to be busy with our family on Christmas Eve Day, I’ll prepare a post for Throwback Thursday #TBT with a few old handsaws from my families past and asked the rhetorical question to myself: “Why do you keep old handsaws that you never use?” Actually I don’t recall really needing to use […]
RichC | December 23, 2020
Marking time and happenings is sort of what My Desultory Blog has evolved into … or at least it seems that way lately (reminds me of the “Pacing the Cage” song). I have found that in hindsight I’ve been using the blog as a reference point for events and updates. It had become a good […]
RichC | December 19, 2020
Although this is the second snow of the season, the weather has turned colder and we ended up with a touch more of the white stuff this week … and with it, yet another accident on Bethany Road to our rear. I saw the flashing sheriff’s car lights and since I’m working from home, I […]
RichC | December 17, 2020
For Throwback Thursday #TBT this week I’ll include a couple photos from 1998 or 1999. These Soma.com photos are items from my friend Jeff sent to me when cleaning out his apartment. He (and my wife Brenda) were hired to build out the first Dot-Com era online Pharmacy … or at least the fulfillment facility. […]
RichC | December 16, 2020
Are you tired of this COVID19 lockdown yet? It is hard to believe the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic AND those politicians dictating shutdowns in their mini-kingdoms have not had more pushback than they have? Way too many small businesses, and especially people working in the travel and food service industry, will not be having much of […]
RichC | December 15, 2020
It has been a challenging year to say the least with the Coronavirus still raging in the US and around the world. So many lives, businesses and plans have been forever changed. Brenda and I just feel blessed to be surviving the pandemic and able to function in a day to day matter. We hear […]
RichC | December 13, 2020
Although December is centered around Christmas and holiday preparations, it is also Drew’s birthday. As the years tick by, I’m sure he won’t mind one of two of them getting forgotten … but for now it is still Happy Birthday. (BTW, this was a great shot photo with Annalyn at the Toledo Art Museum and […]
RichC | December 12, 2020
What grandparent doesn’t like getting voice messages (and photos) from their children and grandchildren? I sure love my granddaughters and enjoy using technology to stay in touch with them during this COVID 2020 year. Brenda, Katelyn, Drew and I use Facetime to talk each weekend, but I particularly enjoy asking questions and getting answers from […]
RichC | December 10, 2020
Well, it happened again. The stainless steel heater element pipe in our Caldera Hot Tub has failed again (last time was 2013). There must be some electrolysis accelerating the corrosion unless the stainless steel tubing is just that poor of quality? On the other hand, like the repair guy commented, your hot tub is far […]
RichC | December 5, 2020
About a year ago I ordered two more bottles of Titebond III wood glue online (had great success using it for a fence repair), and on a whim I added a goofy looking Titebrush glue brush. I honestly expected it to get boogered up with dried glue and that I would soon be back to […]
RichC | December 3, 2020
As a ‘still listed’ page owner according to my Zillow update emails of my parents house listing in Sidney, Ohio, I realized that it will not be long before those pages and photos disappear. I likely still have the original photos on a compact flash drive card (who can still read those), but probably won’t […]
RichC | December 2, 2020
December 2020 rolled in with a light white blanket of snow and colder weather to let us know that winter is probably here for a while. I can’t say that I’m looking forward to the temperature change, but I really don’t mind the hushed beauty of a “new-fallen snow” … as Clement Clarke Moore wrote […]
RichC | December 1, 2020
Last weekend must have been the time to start getting into the Christmas spirit? I was busy getting the wreaths and window candles up (and last of the leaves raked and hauled), Katelyn, Drew, Annalyn and Ellerie were on their Christmas tree outing adventure and Taylor and Megan were adding some decorations to Taylor’s apartment […]
RichC | November 26, 2020
Since I’m pre-writing this by a few days for Throwback Thursday #TBT, I realized just before post it that it will also be Thanksgiving on Thursday. Our family won’t be getting together as usual (same for a lot of families for a COVID19 resurgence), but ours was planned that way since we rotate holidays; Katelyn, […]
RichC | November 25, 2020
Christmas is fast approaching and it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet! Yikes. Brenda and our neighbor Pam are already putting up the decorations around our Evergreen Farm Estates neighborhood … something they have been doing for the last 20+ years. I think they enjoy doing it, even though it is time for someone else to join […]
RichC | November 20, 2020
It has been a while since I’ve compared scanning format and compression option when it comes to down and dirty document scanning. For the most part I either scan straight to PDF and live with the document (or shrink it, but that’s another post) … or go straight to the old fashion universal jpeg or […]
RichC | November 19, 2020
If the active record-breaking hurricane season wasn’t enough to have you questioning the idea of moving to Florida, how about a 2000 pound great white shark off Miami, alligators that are straight out of the Jurassic Period on a Naples, FL golf course or constrictor snakes slithering out of the Everglades large enough to compete […]
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
Subscribe in a reader