My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on September 23, 2022

It has taken me a while, but after updating my Fitbit Versa smartwatch a couple weeks ago, I couldn’t be happier with the “at the time” difficult decision. Once before, my original was replaced under warranty (free) but with the same Versa (1) smartwatch which really did serve me well. Lesson: Watches and gadgets do not last forever … and I sense we’ll soon be seeing this with battery powered cars too … GULP! 

This go-around, I’m giving Fitbit Pay a try since it is supported on the “new to me” Versa 2 smartwatch – it was not available on the original Fitbit Versa. For the record, having struggled whether to switch to an Apple Watch or not, a watch with 4+ day battery life for half the price won out for now … even though it would be nice to have a watch fully integrated with other Apple devices.

Back to Fitbit Pay …

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Category: Apple, Cellphone, Gadget, Shopping, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: credit cards, fitbit, nfc, sense2, smartwatch, tech friday, techfriday, trackers, versa2, versa4, wallet

Posted By RichC on September 22, 2022

A lot has happened in 9 short years … but it has been NINE years! Where does the time go?

While cleaning out a few miscellaneous files and moving a few photos off my iMac’s upgraded SSHD and to cloud storage only, I noticed a few of my son Taylor after his move to Williston, ND. It was a challenging move for him, but both a great first career position and confidence building opportunity. So for a Throwback Thursday #TBT memory during my visit in September 2013 to help him settle in, here’s one of Taylor with Lake Sakakawea in the background (mostly positive memories (our trip 9 months later in 2014), but it is much better to have him back in Ohio).

Category: Memories, Personal, Photos, TBT, Travel | No Comments »
Tags: career, memories, move, north dakota, taylor, TBT, throwback, thursday, williston

Posted By RichC on September 21, 2022

The triangle with the missing block … explained (below the break).

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Category: Tidbits, Video | No Comments »
Tags: engineering, explainer, illusion, math, video, youtube

Posted By RichC on September 20, 2022

After helping Taylor move a few larger things over to his new condominium last weekend, he sent a photo of his still bare living room, but it is coming together. The TV is working so he could watch the 2022 losing Cincinnati Bengals (now 0-2) on Sunday afternoon. He has been slowing moving boxes of things from his 2015 move back to Cincinnati apartment a few minutes away, but is waiting on a couple of moving guys to haul his sectional couch, buffet, dressers and bed. It is a good call considering the two stories down from his apartment and 3 stories up a VERY narrow staircase into his condo. It was even a challenge getting a couple of items like the TV and headboard I made for him up to his new place. All in all though, I think he will be pretty happy with his new place since it currently fits his urban lifestyle (we are definitely different people).

It also feels as if autumn is here. No more swimming, the grass is greening back up and the squirrels are working overtime gathering mouthfuls of acorns. The oak leaves have ladybugs which I hope are eating the wasp larva (?) that show up as orange galls on the oak leaves (read this).

As for chores around the house last weekend, I was irritated to have received the wrong gasket kit to rebuild our older Sta-Rite swimming pool pump (hopefully this will be the correct one?)

There are too many models and they are not well listed when trying to shop for them … but the good news is that the new bearing are into my rebuilt electric motor and it purrs smoothly … I now have a spare 1-1/2 HP pool pump motor when the new one starts chattering (and from experience, it will in about 5 years). 

Category: Archive, Nature, Personal, Photos, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: bearings, bengals, chores, condominium, galls, ladybug, motor, moving, oak, pool, pump, rebuild, swimming, taylor, trees, walnut hills

Posted By RichC on September 19, 2022

Power is out in Puerto Rico with two-feet of rainfall after Hurricane Fiona came ashore. The Dominican Republic was saturated as well with flash flooding and mudslides as the category 2 hurricane slowly moved off the norther shore. As it moves over open water, it is forecast to strengthen as it passes Turks and Caicos on Tuesday to become the season’s first major hurricane in the Atlantic for 2022. Forecasters have it curving northeast out to sea and perhaps threatening Bermuda later this week.

Category: News, Weather | No Comments »
Tags: bermuda, dominican republic, fiona, forecast, hurricane, puerto rico

Posted By RichC on September 19, 2022

The trigger for today’s Jackson 5 song “ABC” was due to hearing it as segment music on Fox Business last week. It triggered a memory of the choreographed “five-some” dancing and singing back on 1970’s TV, although I don’t recall watching them very much.

Nevertheless, hearing them and watching a young Michael Jackson had me remembering why they were popular … and particularly why “he” became a superstar. So for today’s Music Monday, here’s  a live recording of “ABC” from YouTube.

Category: Music, Video | No Comments »
Tags: abc, jackson 5, michael jackson, music monday, musicmonday, youtube

Posted By RichC on September 18, 2022

Who hasn’t needed to repair, or re-repair, a broken piece of furniture? In today’s world, most furniture, as well as other items, are throw-away after they break, but there are still a few of us who enjoy getting the last few useable years out of a well worn piece of furniture.

My like-minded son-in-law showed me the once repaired and broken again coffee table leg used in a basement play area while we were up visiting our granddaughters last weekend. I was reminded by Brenda that this was the table that fell out of the back of her RAV4 years ago while she was moving it. In other words, it has seen some serious abuse.

The broken leg was glue repaired once before, but without the strength of the wood, broke again. This time I brought it home to add three dowels and then clamped and glued again with a favorite waterproof glue – Titebond III … not that it needs to be waterproof. Hopefully adding the three dowel pins will give it nearly original strength and take the abuse of a basement play area? We shall see?

Category: Advice, How-To, Misc, Photos, Woodworking | No Comments »
Tags: dowels, furniture, glue, project, Rav4, repair, repairs, table, titebond, workshop

Posted By RichC on September 17, 2022

Having initially enjoyed the weekly meal offering from Hello Fresh, the menu started to get a little stale as new items began to resemble previous meals. With inflation at the grocery store (and the fuel and time cost), the price was somewhat less of a gripe, but both of us started to notice fewer and a cheapening of the included ingredients; also less freshness of the produce. I am hoping that this is just a shipping issue or summer heat related???

After several enticements to come back after we canceled in August, we accepted a recent subscription discount to rejoin again. Unfortunately the last couple of meals were still repetitive. Top that off with last nights wilted cilantro used to garnish the top the “One-Pan Sweet & Spicy Cashew Pork Tacos” … and I continued to be a bit disappointed (but the meal was still tasty).

We will give the subscription a little longer, but they need to show some improvement if we are continue in the face of tightening our budget in the face of a recession. BTW, send me a message if you want a discount code  for a free meal. 

Category: Business, Financial, Food, Personal, Shopping | No Comments »
Tags: eating, enticement, food, hellofresh.com, meals, online, plans, subscription, tacos

Posted By RichC on September 16, 2022

Besides noticing that a new school bus driver has decided to use our driveway as a turn around spot (should not be “the norm”) … I took apart the old 2017 pool pump motor. Last week I replaced the old motor with a new one (again) suspecting the shortened life (in my opinion) is due to a leaking pump. But before rebuilding the pump with new gaskets, etc, I was curious if I could save the $250 electric motor rebuild cost by tackling myself.

First was trying to figure out how to get the Century Centurian Chinese version of the AO Smith motor properly disassembled; I still do not know the face bearing setup? The corrosion is substantial on the failed bearing and so I’ll probably need a few of the washer and parts to fit/pack the bearing into the housing. Thankfully the electric motor parts (rotor and stator) looks ok. 

Also … I added this week’s “Owl hoots” to my August post about Great Horned Owls.

Category: How-To, Misc, Photos, To-Do | No Comments »
Tags: bearings, Cam, corrosion, electric, motor, pool, pump, rebuild, repair, repairs, school bus, security, wyze

Posted By RichC on September 15, 2022

As we face another recession (some believe we are already in one – see February 2022 part 1 and part 2), I couldn’t help but notice a post from about this time of the year in 2008 (see chart at left) when we faced a previous self-inflicted recession (banking crisis).

The 2007-2008 Financial Crisis was the most serious since the Great Depression in 1929 … and was due to a perfect storm of lending to low-income Americans, zero down loans, excessive overall risk-taking by banks, poorly valued mortgage back securities and derivatives and finally the predictable bursting of the United States housing bubble. In hindsight, we could all see it coming, yet just as with cryptocurrency and the current excessive government spending, along with the ballooning debt and deficits these days, we still do little to fix our personal or national financial health.

Dow and Nasdaq chart from Tuesday 9/13/2022

Who really wants this kind of Throwback Thursday #TBT post or to acknowledge that politicians, and those of us who elect them, continue to run our nation down such self-destructive paths?

Category: Business, Financial, History, Politics, TBT | No Comments »
Tags: banking, deficit, financial markets, great depression, great recession, inflation, national debt, recession, stock market, TBT