Catch up post – Enjoying Encore, but the Love Bugs not so much

| May 18, 2011

  Brenda and I made a multipurpose trip to Florida to enjoy a little sailing with our soon graduate from medical school daughter Katelyn and two of her graduating friends Laura and Ashley; we also planned to do a little work on our boat Encore (projects and maintenance will never end). Besides the personal recreation, we […]

Moonlight over Encore

| May 17, 2011

Spending a quiet night aboard Encore under a full moon during a still evening and high tide.

Buggin’ me …

| May 16, 2011

  In keeping with short blog posts, I’m picking up a few bugs over the miles and know I’m going to be griping when it’s time to get the WD-40 out and start my cleaning. The windshield isn’t much better! EDIT: On my return trip I added bugs to bugs!

Sorry for not posting

| May 12, 2011

Been sick the last couple of days. (old TootsieTootsie photo) Posted via email from RichC’s posterous

Having another birthday is better than NOT having one

| May 8, 2011

It was nice to have my son home and finished with finals … and to have him think about me on my birthday. Thanks for the Miami Alum license plate surround, Taylor. My aging first generation Palm Pre is still taking some pretty decent photos (above) Of course he wasn’t the only one to wish […]

Eye-Fi SD X2 cards play nicely with the Apple iPad

| April 21, 2011

I’ve enjoyed my older Anniversary Edition Eye-Fi SD card for a couple of years now and have appreciated the way it uploads photos to my waiting computer via my home wi-fi access point. I’ve been watching Eye-Fi innovations and have often thought how much much more convenient it would be to have photos uploaded directly […]

NASA chooses museums for their retired Space Shuttles

| April 12, 2011

NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr.’s announced the locations for the three operating shuttles and one gliding prototype on Tuesday afternoon: Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex in Florida – Atlantis California Science Center in Los Angeles – Endeavour Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., — Discovery Intrepid Sea, Air and Space […]

Green grass and Magnolia flowers proclaim Spring is here

| April 8, 2011

After arriving home late last night Brenda wanted me to see the flowering White Star Magnolia flowers … so I indulged her and walked out to look at them with her … and snapped a weak LED flash photo with my Palm Pre smartphone. Little did she know, I had already been looking at them […]

Taylor, a couple of his Miami friends and pondering Facebook

| April 1, 2011

I thought I had posted a photo of Taylor and his friends heading to their college fraternity formal last year (2010), but I must have sent it only to Facebook … I was probably thinking it was a better way to maintain privacy between just “friends and family?” I’m changing my mind this year, unless […]

Snow, Snow, go away and a nice dinner out

| March 31, 2011

Isn’t it about time for this long winter to end? It was a slippery day of driving and another couple of inches of snow while making my way around northeastern Ohio on Wednesday. About the only positive was an enjoyable “Two for $20” dinner with my daughter at Applebee’s. A couple of spring 2011 snow […]

Pondering an upgrade to my Canon DSLR … someday

| March 29, 2011

I continue to be impressed with the Canon DSLR cameras and their ability to capture some pretty impressive video. Alexandra Erickson added this to her Vimeo blog in January when northwest Oregon was experiencing flooding. Sandy River Flood from alexandra erickson on Vimeo.

Proof that spring has sprung: Flowers on the Star Magnolia

| March 27, 2011

Although I’d be hard pressed to convince anyone that spring is here based on the long winter and the cold temperatures we have been having, our Star Magnolia is telling us that winter is over and that spring weather is here or suppose to be here. Let’s hope the latest cold weather will be our […]

Vacuum cleaner blues …

| March 21, 2011

One would think that since the invention of the carpet sweeper in 1860 that companies would have improved the vacuum cleaner enough in 150 years to figure out how NOT to have the beater brush get bound up with hair. Obviously not, since over the past few decades I have still ended up cleaning and […]

A misty sky and a Cincinnati area “Supermoon” photo

| March 20, 2011

Although my ‘supermoon’ photo from Saturday night isn’t one of the better ones from across the country, I did head outside to admire the “brightest moon since 1993.” The moon appear in its full phase just 50 minutes shy of the orbit that brings it closest to the earth … perigee. According to what I’ve […]

Nationwide Children’s Hospital/OSU Pediatric residency

| March 18, 2011

  This past Thursday, March 17th, was an exciting day at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (NEOUCOM) as most in the graduating class of 2011 received their “match” for residency. Each medical school across the nation has a slightly different ceremony, but each graduating M4 senior finds out which hospital they “match” with on […]

My son’s final day of spring break – mine too!

| March 12, 2011

Although the weather in Florida this week has been a bit temperamental, we’ve enjoyed our father/son week together. From strong winds and cold fronts to a full day of torrential rain … and yes some sunshine. We never knew what the next day was going to offer us. As for temperatures, they were mostly mild, […]

Nice! More blue sky, warm breezes, sunshine and sailing

| March 9, 2011

The week of great weather and a good time sailing with my son continued today; we’ve been blessed with sunny skies and warm weather for our week together. After our day out sailing on Tuesday we both took naps after returning to port – obviously we’re not use to the fresh air and sunshine.    […]

Enjoying the warm days, cool nights and sunshine on Encore

| March 7, 2011

So far so good with enjoying our time together on Encore. Taylor has taken to the ‘boat-life’ although commented that the after hours activities near the marina are non-existent (they are … the streets roll up by 10PM). Of course that didn’t matter tonight since the fresh air and sun has zapped the energy out […]

Father & Son both survived the first day of spring break together

| March 6, 2011

After a late night, early morning drive to pick up my son from the airport in Orlando for his Miami of Ohio spring break, we hit our ‘berths’ without planning an overly ambitious Sunday. One of the more interesting time-killing photos I ‘tweeted’ while waiting for Taylor’s plane to arrive was of some fuel price […]

A beautiful moon rise through the trees tonight

| February 19, 2011

The moon was full and extraordinarily large as it rose above the road in front of me while driving home tonight. Unfortunately the Palm Pre lacks a bit in the camera department (photo below) and I pulled my DSLR out at home. The moon had already risen a bit further and lost some of its […]

Great graphic on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico

| February 11, 2011

Archiving a scanned graphic from Fortune Magazine entitled “Race to the Bottom: Oil Wells Dive a Mile Under the Gulf.” Click for full sized version

This winter has been tough on our swimming pool

| February 9, 2011

I didn’t put the cover on the pool this winter and so I’m able to see the damage to the ceramic tiles as it happens. With all the snow, rain and freezing temps, the winter weather is having fun snapping off tiles more than usual. Looks like I’m in for some work and pool repair […]

A little snow this evening surprised me

| February 7, 2011

Noticed a little snow driving to the grocery and then came out to see it covering the cars and the streets. Surprised me. Posted via email from RichC’s posterous

Enjoying our first few sailing days on s/v Encore

| February 7, 2011

We took our shakedown sail on s/v Encore a couple days ago on our “new to us” sailboat last week. The weather in Florida couldn’t have been better for the first “real” sailing (my previous seatrials don’t count since Brenda wasn’t with me).  Unfortunately as with most older boats, there are issues that need to […]

How-to: Shattered — but that is not the point

| January 18, 2011

I dropped one of our juice glasses on the hardwood floors this morning and it really shattered into small shards of glass … hopefully I’ve swept up them all. I was surprised at how small the pieces were, but then that’s really not the point of this post. Really it was just an opportunity to […]

Oriental, NC dock with a little snow

| January 15, 2011

Just a photo from towndock.net/ … Posted via email from RichC’s posterous

Whoops … FedEx missed the driveway. Now what?

| January 12, 2011

It will be interesting to see if the FedEx driver delivering to our home on Tuesday will voluntarily make note of this “error in judgment” … or if the little off-roading incident will go unmentioned? I’ll need to check on things when the snow melts, but perhaps someone reading this knows how it is best […]

Volkswagen’s 2012 Passat with an optional TDI diesel engine

| January 9, 2011

Can’t say I like the “flames ad” (below), but I do like the new Chattanooga Tennessee built 2012 Volkswagen Passat … especially with a diesel and what appears to be attractive pricing, at least for the entry level? (this is yet to be seen for the TDI diesel version which should get impressive fuel economy) […]

Archiving: Decoding the Raymarine ST4000+ nest of wires

| January 7, 2011

Those who have worked on older boats know that most of the time a new owner finds a rats nest of wiring that was either left after rewiring when new equipment was updated or part of a new installation. In my case I really just wanted to diagnosis problems with a non-functioning autopilot … the […]

Everyone needs a “jumpstarter” with a few extra features

| January 6, 2011

     We gave Katelyn’s friend Drew a multifunction “jumpstarter” which includes a small compressor to put in the trunk of his car this year for Christmas … who knew it would come in so handy so soon? Sorry to hear his new tires picked up a screw, but glad he found his Christmas gift […]

Demasting! A century old mast comes down … onshore

| January 3, 2011

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 […]

Coming clean on a Photoshopped image

| December 31, 2010

Taylor and his friends leaving for Chicago – Photoshopped (see below for original) I posted a photo to Facebook with a tag line questioning that after taking three photos of Taylor and his friends before heading to Chicago for New Year’s Eve that someone would have their eyes closed in every photo. I counted to […]

A ‘cool’ reminder of my youth just a few decades ago

| December 30, 2010

I saw a photo of a couple of crazy sailors (are there any other kind?) that reminded me of my teenage years with high school friend Charlie “Kamakaze” Matthews sailing the “Fiberpile” in late winter and early spring. We were so anxious to get back on the water that one of us would bounce up […]

Great to be with our families on Christmas–2010 recap

| December 27, 2010

The 20th-ish annual ‘Howard Bowl’ football game – no injuries this year! Once again we put a few more miles on our cars this holiday, but thankfully we had excellent driving weather (for winter that is) for our trips; one to Brenda’s’ parents and one to mine. We did a quick Thursday night family Christmas […]

The times we live in: Looking at Christmas — 2010

| December 24, 2010

I’m a Christian and make an effort to keep “Christ in Christmas” … but I do my best to be sensitive to other religions going out of my way to send Hanukkah cards to my Jewish friends and ease off offending those that I know have strong objections to the Christian faith and our desire […]

Love my Eddie Bauer pants, but they are not TSA friendly

| December 22, 2010

I had thought that I had found the near perfect pair of pants from Eddie Bauer for traveling and after buying a first pair in khaki color, opted for a second pair in olive. Besides being comfortable and having strong triple stitched seams, there are a few design features that are worth pointing out. For […]

S/V Encore – we own a sailboat once again

| December 18, 2010

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 […]

We’re having a cold and snowy December this year

| December 17, 2010

Palm Pre photo after clearing the driveway on Thursday I’ve had to put the snowblower on my old John Deere 330 a bit early for SW Ohio this year since we’ve had significantly more snow and colder weather this entire month. In years past I remember crossing our fingers that some snow would whiten the […]

Residency interviews are half over for my daughter

| December 16, 2010

Time is flying by as my daughter’s fourth year of med school is half over and she’ll be moving from paying to learn to getting paid to learn (residency) and also working a few hours for a hospital – a poorly worded joke for those who actually know how many hours per week residents work. […]

GoPro Camera/Video looks to be great for action sports, etc.

| December 15, 2010

I’m not endorsing this $259 GoPro Hero camera (“Naked” as they call it) since I haven’t used it, but from the promotional photos, and particularly HD video (see below), it looks great. The fixed lens setup may be a limitation but it is one of the nicest action sports cameras I’ve seen to date and […]

There’s little humor in my procrastination

| December 14, 2010

I started to clear a little snow away from the pool skimmer lids this evening and fitted my compressor to blow out the water lines … but it’s just too cold to continue on. It might be better to wait a couple days and keep the pool from freezing by running the pump. I was […]

Procrastination taken to the extreme. What was I thinking?

| December 13, 2010

Just in case your wife complains that you are a procrastinator for putting off all the Christmas decorating and shopping this time of year, all you have to do it point to me. After realizing that Rich hasn’t even closed the pool yet this year, she should appreciate you far more and forgive your minor […]

The “closing in on Christmas” weekend got away from me

| December 13, 2010

This weekend got away from me partially because there were a few too many reminders that technology, computer use, business and the Internet often overtakes family and face to face time. First, my daughter was home after one of her many interviews for her residency next year. She was upbeat and positive about almost every […]

It was a cold day for Encore’s haulout, seatrial & survey

| December 9, 2010

Encore – and UK built 1986 well equipped 36’ Westerly Corsair CC I’ve been offline and a bit out of kilter the last couple of days … I could say I was busy Christmas shopping, but then what I’m doing sort of stretches any Christmas present budget that I’m aware of? I headed to sunny […]

Replaced my Palm Pre with a duplicate today

| December 1, 2010

While closing in on 2 years with my webOS Palm Pre, I’ve opted to replace my original Pre smartphone with one of the last of the original Sprint Palm Pre phones before they are gone. (I’m crossing my fingers that Sprint will eventually get the Pre 2) Thankfully my insurance plan replaced the defective (but […]

Wrapping up Thanksgiving with Brenda’s mom and dad

| November 27, 2010

With Brenda’s dad’s rehabilitation coming along fairly successfully, our family was thankful to be able to be with both Mom and Dad Howard for Thanksgiving this year. Although the time was short, we made the most of it and celebrate a challenging year giving thanks for all the blessings. Beside being able to take him […]

A lunchtime look at the stock market & world uncertainty

| November 23, 2010

The financial markets are on edge and trading lower today after a skirmish between North Korea and South Korea saw missiles being exchanged. The previous negative news over euro-zone debt is being overshadowed by this latest tension, but some economist point to a glimmer for a rebound in the U.S. economy do to economic growth […]

EAA Chapter 284 visits the Wright B Flyer museum

| November 15, 2010

Flight Photo from wright-b-flyer.org EAA Chapter 284’s meeting this month was a trip to Dayton-Wright Brother Airport and the Wright B Flyer museum. Our meeting centered around aviation history and the of the building of a replicate “B” Flyer which started with the flying look-a-like Brown Bird which first flew in July 1982. The airplane […]

Another sunny day on the beach with B-17 Liberty Belle fly over

| October 31, 2010

The final day of our mini-vacation was spent in the sun and ocean. We relaxed on the beach and enjoyed the sunshine and warm wind. The waves were large enough to make the body surfing fun as Brenda and I soaked up the last few hours before getting ready to head for home. While I […]

“Love God” skywriting and our few days of relaxation in Florida

| October 28, 2010

Brenda and I are spending just a few days away from Ohio and work as we’ve often done in October and are enjoying time together in Florida. Besides relaxing on the beach, Brenda has succumbed my desire to look at a couple sailboats (we missed our annual trip to the Annapolis boatshow). The weather has […]

This is what an underwater scream looks like …

| October 25, 2010

Since I ran out of time for blogging today, here’s a great photo from a photo contest by the Herald Sun in Australia with the subject being “Reefs.”

Test encoding a 30 second video from a Canon 5d MarkII

| October 18, 2010

My friend Jeff is a very fortunate amateur photographer since he is one of the few who own a fantastic Canon 5d Mark II. Although I only had a few minutes to play with it over lunch the other day, I enjoyed tinkering with the buttons and menus (there’s a big learning curve). He has […]

Perfect fall weather weekend for home chores

| October 17, 2010

Farm “art” in Trenton Ohio Brenda and I spent the weekend around home doing fall chores, watching a little football and driving over to Oxford, Ohio to visit Taylor at Miami. Our “to-do” list included shuffling a few of our pieces of art in order to make room for a couple new prints that have […]

Hoover Dam bypass bridge set to open next week

| October 15, 2010

Last year about this time I reposted a series of photos highlighting what a fantastic engineering project was underway in the United States. A bridge to bypass the Hoover Dam looks to be one of the civil engineering marvels of this decade. The 1900 foot span crosses the Colorado River and connects Arizona and Nevada […]

Watching mine rescue coverage from Chile tonight

| October 12, 2010

The 33 miners trapped in the San Jose mine in Copiapo, Chile are expected to be pulled the 2000+ feet to the surface tonight. The rescue attempt uses a ‘capsule’ lower through a 24 inch pipe & shaft recently bored into the mine. This amazing story of human ingenuity and spirit reminds me of Apollo […]

Helping family: A long weekend in western NY

| October 11, 2010

My “greatest generation” father-in-law (Brenda’s dad) has been struggling medically for the past month and a half suffering with pain from his back and a fractured hip. After a valiant attempt at rehab and without significant success using drug and therapy, he opted for back surgery in hope to eliminating pain and to regaining functional […]

Apple iPhone TV marketing and social networking sites

| October 7, 2010

I don’t recall recall if the Apple iPhone advertisement appeared during the Philly’s no-hitter 4-0 win against the Reds or not, but the ad was intriguing in that the Twitter and Twitpic information had me checking the links. The marketing establish @gagebock account (currently 60-some friends) and Twitpic photo (700+ views) that was used in […]

First 4 days of Baseball playoff times announced

| October 3, 2010

Major League Baseball has announced its schedule for the first four days of division series. The Reds will play the Phillies for game one late on October 6th (5:07 PM EST) – it’s going to be a challenging match-up. Game two will be early on Friday evening – 6:07 PM EST. Sunday afternoon for me […]

Family weekend at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio

| October 2, 2010

Brenda and I enjoyed visiting our son on Saturday for Family Weekend at Miami University. Although we didn’t spend the entire day with all the planned activities, we did enjoy a brunch with his professors and department head. It was nice to be in a small group talking with them about internships and future options […]

Superstreets are a growing trend as Ohio roadways expand

| September 28, 2010

So far I’m not convinced drivers are big fans of the new complex intersections being constructed on many of today roads and highways – referred to as Superstreets. The handful of completed projects that I’ve traveled on recently seem overly complex and tailored to create accidents. A couple of examples that come to mind would […]

Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
My Desultory Blog