Archive: The Oostras short summer 2023 vacation to Michigan
Posted By RichC on July 19, 2023
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Weekend leftovers: Paslode battery project and fence repairing
Posted By RichC on July 18, 2023
Nothing earth shattering from the working around the house projects, but archiving a couple photos from staining a section of last years repaired fence … to more repairing of fences as well as using TiteBond 3 glue as before (this could be a forever project — our fences are deteriorating A LOT).
I was going to use my old Paslode nail gun that I usually use to work on the fence, but of course my batteries are from 1996 and are NiCad 6 volt packs. They do little more than power the fan and ignition … since the tool is powered by ignitable gas. The ignition fire a cylinder drives the nail with a bang, similar to the Powder-actuated tools (have a strike-on with a hammer one for concrete nails and it works great).
That leads me to my weekend distraction project. I cut apart one of the batteries to see if there was a way to replace the cells … or better yet, replace them with a lithium-ion rechargeable battery (it will require a different charging set-up). So I started the quest and decided to order a 2A USB 18650 Lithium Li-ion Battery Charger Module to boost a 3.7VDC cell (or two?) to a selectable 6+VDC. Stay tuned.
Music Monday: Al Stewart and “The Year Of The Cat” (1976)
Posted By RichC on July 17, 2023
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A shared “feel good about the next generation” story
Posted By RichC on July 16, 2023
Perhaps I’m just being sensitive in having a couple granddaughters I want to protect, but started to read a human interest story last week that started me off irritated. Thankfully by the end, it gave a ray of hope for the next generation.
Dear teenage boy at the skate park…
You’re probably about 15 years-old, so I don’t expect you to be very mature or for you to want a little girl on your skate ramp for that matter.
What you don’t know is that my daughter has been wanting to skateboard for months. I actually had to convince her that skateboarding wasn’t for just for boys.
So when we walked up to the skate park and saw that it was full of teenaged boys who were smoking and swearing, she immediately wanted to turn around and go home.
Are there economic similarities between post World War II and rebounding from the pandemic shutdown?
Posted By RichC on July 15, 2023
My financial and investment musings have been few and far between lately, but while reading Barron’s Magazine article this past week, it reminded me that we investors often can look to history for insight.
If you don’t want to read it, try listening to it — Audio ElevenLabs.
| ElevenLabs AI reading this content – “Antoni” |
Most of us recognized that inflation rocketed as the world attempted to return to normal … it was unnecessarily high. Way too many decisions were made by the Biden administration that 
amplified the already heavy stimulus checks and spending … and particularly by their attacking the American energy industry (higher energy costs inflate everything). Bureaucrats extended the free money, loan payment forgiveness, lockdowns, and encouraged the stay-home lifestyle. Russia invading Ukraine and continued global supply-chain issues pinched our economy even more while mostly Democrat leaders, knowing the pandemic was waning, continued to shut down their cities, states and schools. Ok, that’s enough blood pressure elevating political ranting …
The take-away is in looking to history for similarities to how our country shutdown during the Covid19 pandemic was to the injecting of dollars into the economy by government and the spending for World War II. It might be helpful in now studying how we returned to normal after the war (or failed to). Looking at 1945 as World War II ended and then 1946 as the U.S. and Europe (and the world) attempted to rebuild and recover could offer clues.
Historians will generally describe the 1945 recession as a technical recession driven by a transition from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy. You saw a massive drawdown in government spending. That’s analogous to today: The Covid economy really was like a wartime economy, and now you have the withdrawal of a lot of the fiscal and monetary support.
There are other parallels. Both consumption and private investment remained really strong. It was an intense inflationary backdrop, with a big ramp-up in 1944 and a slight cooling off in 1945 before inflation accelerated again in 1946. The unemployment rate went up but topped out around 4%. The increase was also driven by soldiers coming back home, dislocating some of the civilian workers. The interest-rate environment was different; rates were relatively low and flat.
It feels to me like the market was just looking through the recession [which occurred from February 1945 to October 1945]. Yes, we have this kind of technical recession happening, but it is because of the withdrawal of the support. The underlying economy is still pretty healthy. So the market essentially ignored it.
What happened in 1946?
Books: Listening to “Of Boys and Men” by Richard V. Reeves
Posted By RichC on July 14, 2023
While waiting on a copy of the 2022 “Of Boys and Men” ebook to become available at my local library (have it on hold), I ended up downloading the audio version 
read by the “British” author Richard V. Reeves (like many Americans, I enjoy the sophisticated accent). A plus for the audio version that even has Brenda is listening a bit too.
So far the author does a great job of highlighting what most of us have seen happening to the once patriarchy structure that has dominated the world since the beginning of time. Most in my generation (especially minorities and women) saw the change that has improved “rights and access” to every aspect of at least the US as a positive, considering “equality for all” is fundemental to democracy and freedom. As with the best of intentions, there are unintended consequences … particularly for today’s “boys and men.”
The author is not particularly aligned with my politically point of view when it comes to top-down authoritative leadership, at least what I’ve read of his bio and affiliations, but there isn’t much in his book that does more than point out what is obvious to me and most of society with an openmind. If he attempts to solve the “problem” … I’m am not to that point of the book just yet.
My point is that “biological males” are struggling to find their place in school and college, the workplace, or increasingly in life … and how to deal with their “toxic masculinity” (cough, cough) … in today’s divided society. It is making it more difficult for them to finding success and happiness. If you at least notice this, then you might find this book thought-provoking. If you are a parent of young boys, or of daughters who you want to see in a positive balanced relationships, I think this is might be an enlightening book.
A compelling, well-researched book that calls attention to the struggles of boys and men in today’s post-feminist US society. Though Reeves claims that he “abstains” from the culture wars, he actually leans hard into them here, helpfully so. He admonishes the cultural left for ignoring the plight of boys and promoting the harmful idea of “toxic masculinity.” He symmetrically admonishes the cultural right for providing an outlet for lost boys and men that is largely backward looking and ultimately anti-women’s progress. He rightly and usefully promotes a center way – one that acknowledges biological differences between the sexes, names the struggles facing boys and men, and works to create a positive, modern script and path for boys, men, and fathers. Kudos to Reeves on an excellent and necessary book!
How long should we keep family heirlooms?
Posted By RichC on July 13, 2023
My friend Jeff and I (same age) have been struggling with how to let things go that were either ours … and that we no longer need … or part of our family’s history? He has tons of books that he’s been donating to the local library, a storage unit with some of his mom’s stuff 
and now as a bit more from his dad who passed away at the end of last year.
In my case, I keep WAY too much “good junk” (my judgement) with the thought I might need it or use it someday. In addition to my own stuff (including a collection of just about every issue of Cruising World magazine), Brenda and I collectively have our own lifetime-of-living things PLUS a lot of items from our parents (like a hand meat grinder – photo left – Katelyn, do you want it?). I’ve keep some of the tools on a wall in my workshop, plus am holding on to a few that really don’t fit, but that I’ll never use. Case in point, a wooden miter box from Brenda’s Swedish grandfather (favorite chisels), who work in the Jamestown, New York furniture industry. Offered it to Taylor and Drew commenting, “Do either of you want to store it for the next 50 years before you throw it out?”
Learning more about the Everglades via audio field trip
Posted By RichC on July 12, 2023
Enjoyed a long-ish audio field trip shared in the Washington Post last week by Lillian Cunningham. It was educational and a relaxing evening listen while “trying” to read a book (but I could not focus on both). 😉
The Everglades have always been interesting to me. My brother and I dreamt of living on Key Largo and both boating and exploring Florida Bay … as young boys do (Kamback and Joe — just in case my brother reads this). I read a lot of books on early Florida and enjoyed fictional books by John D. MacDonald … and all the Travis McGee novels.
During my college years in the late 70s, I coaxed my high school and college buddies to take our winter breaks to areas around the Everglades including Key Largo and “minimally developed” Marco Island. We camped each year on the edge of the Ten Thousand Islands at Collier Seminole State Park. Of course most of the time we explored beaches, but enjoyed learning and exploring a little bit about the River of Grass.
If you have time, enjoy the listen …
Summer storms have been blasting through with a lot of wind
Posted By RichC on July 11, 2023
We’ve had several short-lived summer storms blasting through this year. Often I wrap up my sun sail in the back of the pool house garage (use it for a little shade), but didn’t last week. Unfortunately some VERY high winds hit and stretched out my homemade bungee (steel cable inside rope) and bent the hooks to smithereens. Thankfully the sun sail was not damage, but a couple days later Brenda noticed the gutters and soffits on the pool house were yanked loose. Ugh … more home repair.
On a side note … installed the inexpensive alumium scissor lift under my old wooden router table .. with a couple tweaks (see knob with epoxied Allen wrench crank). As mention in the previous post, it was going to be a Jerry Rigged affair, but will work until I decide on a more professional router table with lift and new router … although for my home workshop, I may never really need one?
Music Monday: “Key West Address” by James T. Slater
Posted By RichC on July 10, 2023
In July I’m usually looking for hot weather music mood, so for summer 2023 I’m tuning SiriusXM to the Florida Keys Xtra channel.
James T. Slater‘s “Key West Address” popped on and it does a pretty good job of capturing my summertime state-of-mind, although it would probably be just fine in the middle of winter when a “Key West address” would be REALLY nice too.
Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.