RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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. […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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.”
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | September 26, 2010
After digging into the dry rot that has plagued our garage utility door for a number of years, it was determined that although the steel door was still good (as was much of the surrounding frame), that repairing the frame was out of the question. So I as my demolition ergs took over … I […]
RichC | September 19, 2010
The last weekend of summer was a little muscle taxing as Brenda and I worked around the house on a few overdue yard and home projects. Along with the yard work, we also pick up a few new perennial plants that were marked down as well as a new tree. This year’s tree is a […]
RichC | September 17, 2010
We are all getting older and inevitably our human bodies give way to age. Some are blessed with good health for 70 or 80 years, but eventually become dependent on others. Learning to adjust is not something most are quick to accept. The days of our years are three score years and ten; and if […]
RichC | September 10, 2010
A couple sailing friends currently spending time cruising northwestern Madagascar are enjoying the area around Nosy Be. While doing a little map checking on the area, I ran across a couple interesting photos with someone doing some maintenance on a different kind of tourist oriented watercraft (click for larger image). Having just returned from Bermuda, […]
RichC | September 6, 2010
A blogging friend from New Zealand shared a photo that helped me visualize what impact of Saturday’s earthquake had on the island country. He mentioned that some of his neighbors had the walls of their ‘newly constructed’ cement slab homes crumble and that another has “a pool of water 6 inches deep around their house […]
RichC | August 23, 2010
I’m wrapping up a final post from a fantastic family summer vacation. The trip to Bermuda and back has me wondering where the week went? The time was both relaxing and exciting … and especially nice considering the four of us enjoyed it together – I probably should “thank” Brenda for pushing the trip even […]
RichC | August 22, 2010
Being an atoll, Bermuda is surrounded and protected by an outer barrier reef system which would be more appropriately named a “great barrier reef” since it rings the entire chain of islands. The distance to the outer reef varieties from 1 to 9 miles offshore. Today we “sailed” (powered due to light wind) several miles […]
RichC | August 20, 2010
No we’re not the next Tucker family (Teddy Tucker) of Bermuda and even though we were looking at one of the 200+ shipwrecks around the “Devil’s Islands,” we did not find gold. Another day of water sports and fun in the sun, today was spent kayaking over the coral colonies, looking at fish and an […]
RichC | August 19, 2010
Day 2 of our family vacation was spent on a southeast leisurely passage at about 8 knots cruising toward Bermuda from New York City aboard the NCL Dawn. We enjoyed a sunny day at sea relaxing on one of the aft decks … a surprisingly private spot. Although the sun was tropical, the breeze over […]
RichC | August 18, 2010
On Sunday we arrived at NYC and boarded the NCL Dawn for Bermuda. Sprint 3G bandwidth is nearly non-existent with MyTether on the Palm Pre at the docks. 🙁 On the other hand, not much to say about our Delta flight from Cincinnati to NYC and traffic heavy but quick transfer through the city. […]
RichC | August 4, 2010
There are times that a photo doesn’t do the brilliance and vibrant color of the sky justice; Wednesday afternoon was one of those days. While we experienced some overly hot weather that saw the “heat index” rise to 112 degrees (below), the clouds, after a cleansing rain, created a beautiful view.
RichC | August 3, 2010
While driving north and south on I-65 through Indiana the past couple of days I was amazed to see the change in landscape … wind turbines everywhere. We (my daughter) took a few photos while we were driving by and figured I would try posting them on Posterous and see how they display when forwarded […]
RichC | August 1, 2010
My daughter Katelyn and I are checked in at the Marriott in Chicago for her USMLE Step 2 testing on Monday and enjoyed an evening together. We took advantage of the 35 minute pizza baking time for the award winning stuffed pizza at Giordano’s Restaurant inorder to practice a bit more. I’m the acting patient […]
RichC | July 18, 2010
Although the Cincinnati Reds came up short in Sunday’s Ohio Northern University alumni baseball outing against the Colorado Rockies (final 0-1), I enjoyed spending the day at the Great American Ballpark with my my son and my close friend Jeff from ONU dorm days. Jeff Pitts is someone who has been there through thick and […]
RichC | July 18, 2010
It is another hot summer weekend here in Cincinnati as my son and I tackled a few minor automotive maintenance chores on our cars before a planned Sunday baseball game (we are enjoying them this year). Oil and filter changes and basic inspections were the Saturday duties, as was cleaning out the garage. Of course […]
RichC | July 17, 2010
My daughter was home with her little diesel from NEOUCOM for a few days and I took the opportunity to replace her Dunlop Sport A2 tires with a set of Goodyear’s (Eagle LS-2 – $408.00) hoping to get a little more even wear as she’ll be spending more time on the road interviewing for her […]
RichC | July 11, 2010
EAA Chapter 284 hosted Popular Rotorcraft Association Chapter 34 at Red Stewart Airfield (40I) in Waynesville Ohio on Sunday. I was a beautiful and warm day for grilling burgers and hotdogs at our EAA chapter hanger. The turnout was excellent and everyone enjoyed the comradely focused on promoting and enjoying recreational aviation. Besides a close […]
RichC | July 5, 2010
America’s Independence Day marks the day our family (well … me really) puts up a new flag. Usually the old flag makes it about a year, although a few of the cheaper ones have deteriorated much quicker. I’ve pretty much decided that the stitched and embroidered nylon flags hold up the best. The pile of […]
RichC | July 3, 2010
I’m finish up a few backyard chores and am thinking about my daughter coming home for the weekend; she reminded my that her pet “rabbit” would be in tow. In thinking about this, I realized just how many rodents we have breeding in our yard this year. I don’t think we’ve ever had so many […]
RichC | June 27, 2010
Thank you Taylor for taking me to the Great American Ball Park where we baked on a hot summer Sunday afternoon with excellent right field seats. The Ohio Cup is a favorite game of mine, pitting my old American League Cleveland Indians (lived there 13 years) against my hometown team the Cincinnati Reds. It really […]
RichC | June 21, 2010
We are enjoying the changing weather as a thunderstorm rolls through over my lunchtime break here in Cincinnati. Since I’m at the house today, I had a chance to snap a few “first day of summer” photos. It is awe inspiring to see and hear storms arrive from the west and feel the cooling rain […]
RichC | June 13, 2010
We took my son Taylor out to celebrated his 21st birthday at Joe’s Crab Shack on the river in Cincinnati on Saturday, a couple days after his actual birthday (June 10th) – remembering my daughter’s with her friends 3 years ago. 🙂 His friends celebrated with him on “the day” going to Oxford Ohio (Miami […]
RichC | June 12, 2010
I’ve been putting a few more miles on the Honda Pilot than usual, for both work and personal travel, which has me thinking about diesel cars and the soon to expire tax incentives on a few models. It would be nice to have a new Volkswagen Jetta TDI or Sportwagen TDI, but with the slowdown […]
RichC | June 6, 2010
I’ll call this a lazy but productive weekend since I spent most of Saturday working in the yard … or more appropriately on the pool and patio. Most of the heavy pollen from the pine trees seems to have left it mark and looks to be finally finished coating everything for the season, it was […]
RichC | June 4, 2010
While heading home the distant lightning lit night and the sky making for an interesting photo … so stuck the camera out the window for a 2 second exposure just as the bolt brighten the surroundings.
RichC | June 1, 2010
Two of my nephews celebrated milestones in their lives this past weekend … and of course the special events happened 7 hours apart, one in Ohio and the other in New York. My brother’s son graduated from high school and although we missed the Saturday event at Bethel High School, we timed the Sunday afternoon […]
RichC | May 28, 2010
Read an article about the 2010 Ford Fusion winning the honors of being the Edmonds.com Consumers’ Top Rated award (as well as Motortrend Car of the Year) and had to chuckle noticing the dash storage compartment. Perhaps it’s just my lame sense of humor … anyway the items in the dash storage box did make […]
RichC | May 24, 2010
Veterans from Shelby County Ohio at the World War II Memorial Saturday, May 22, 2010 I intended to blog this past weekend (May 21-23) while volunteering with the WWII and Korea veterans honor trip to Washington DC … but my hands were full from dawn until dusk … and then some! That’s not to say […]
RichC | May 20, 2010
As headlines announce that oil is arriving to the shore of Louisiana in headlines of the paper today, the leaking BP drill site continues to gush oil at unknown rates. On the low side, NOAA has estimated 210,000 gallons per day, but after looking at the Enterprise ROV camera video I’m guessing it closer to […]
RichC | May 16, 2010
I enjoyed the day working in the yard and found myself appreciating Brenda’s gardening talents. As the landscaping around our yard continues to mature and the varieties of different flowers bloom one after another all spring, all the hard work to plan, plant and tend is beginning to pay off. Today’s overweight Peony blooms were […]
RichC | May 9, 2010
My wife’s aging 1998 Toyota Rav4 has been a great car for 215,000 miles. We’ve had minimal maintenance over the years and although it is showing signs (and has been) of heavy use, it’s still running strong. The Rav4 has offered both my kids a good platform to “learn to drive” and has seen its […]
RichC | May 5, 2010
The ping.fm app failed to post a photo from my Palm Pre to the blog last night … so I’ll ‘tweak it’ and manually add it today. It could have been my fault, but with so many posting options I’m not sure I’ll spend all that much time using it. It was a beautiful evening.
RichC | April 29, 2010
It has become challenging to fly commercial airlines in recent year, especially since 9/11. Not only has the process of going through most airports become time consuming with all the additional security precautions, but the airlines themselves have made changes which most agree have become irritating to down right miserable for passengers, I’m thinking about […]
RichC | April 25, 2010
A friend forwarded me an email from an airbrush artist who paints murals on the walls of buildings. I’ve seen a few beautiful photos painted on walls before, but John Pugh’s mastery of creating depth and confusing the mind is impressive. Below are a few examples from the email. John Pugh’s – Personal Artist […]