My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on August 29, 2022

Neither photo is mine, but Brenda and I were both startled in hearing the sounds of owls coming from was seemed like inside the house.

After we slowly crept around inside our house, wondering where they were, we deciphered that the “hoots” were coming from the fireplace. "Hm, were they “in” the flue or just sitting on top?

After walking outside at dusk, there they were, Great Horned Owls perched up on top of the chimney cap … just like the woodpecker was in 2017. They were HUGE. And just as I thought about heading inside to get my camera, the pair spread their 4-foot wide or larger (did I mention they were HUGE!) wings and flew away. Amazing birds.

EDIT: Since “one” of them visited again and hooted on 9/13/2022 and I recorded him or her in front of the fireplace, below is the two-hoot segment:
 

Category: Audio, Environment, Misc, Nature, Personal | No Comments »
Tags: audio, birds, cap, chimney, great horned, hoot, house, huge, owl, wingspan

Posted By RichC on August 28, 2022

Neither Brenda or I have fully retired yet (although I loaf more than I should), but there is no reason THIS couldn’t be every day during retirement IF the weather was perfect all year around. I probably take more time off during the summer than I should and having the girls for a week in August 2022 has me struggling to get back to my daily routine. This week with warm and sunny weather, I used the weather and warm pool as an excuse to read Barron’s Magazine. Summer does not get much better than this … in fact, it got me daydreaming about doing this 12 months a year If we retired in the Caribbean or some other tropical location. I’m envisioning walking out onto a patio with a pool overlooking the “peace and tranquility” mentioned the other day. I’ve always been a dreamer.

Category: Misc, Personal, Photos, Recreation, Retirement | No Comments »
Tags: 2022, barrons, dreamer, dreaming, peace, pool, reading, relaxing, retirement, summer, tranquility

Posted By RichC on August 27, 2022

Along with Brenda sending me a couple of belated video clips from her phone from earlier this month with our granddaughters, I thought the one of Annalyn mowing with me was pretty special. She spent hours with me while Ellerie was taking her nap and thoroughly enjoyed driving the Kubota … thankfully missing the trees!

Category: Archive, Diesel, Personal, Video | No Comments »
Tags: bompa, granddaughter, kubota, lawn, mowing, mp4, yardwork

Posted By RichC on August 27, 2022

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Category: Archive, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: annalyn, bompa, brenda, building, ellerie, family, foundation, granddaughters, homebuilding, house, ohio, oma, oostra, perrysburg, richc, whitehouse

Posted By RichC on August 26, 2022

It was an ugly day on Wall Street as investors reacted to comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell who indicated “that the Federal Reserve must continue to raise rates” and “hold them at a higher level until they are confident inflation is under control.”

Some economists highlighted in Barron’s Magazine last week, have suggested that this time “inflation is sticky.” Alfonso Peccatiello noted that services and rents represent a growing portion of inflationary pressures. Vincent Deluard, says that “the current inflation is the result of three shortages; labor, energy and trust. These factors can’t be cured by a recession and are resulting in structurally higher inflation that investors — and central bankers — appreciate.” All in all, it is a gloomy sentiment as we try to exit the shortages and worldwide slowdown due to COVID19.

As for the positive news.

Taylor closed on the condo he looked at in July. I am excited for him. I was shocked when about 5 minutes after he sent me the photo after signing the closing document … a Zillow email arrived updating me that a property I had saved was sold (Taylor’s signing appointment was at 3:30PM and the Zillow email was at 3:59PM).

We are anxious to see the condo but will have to wait until the current tenant is out in September. No problem .. we’ll take him to Chili’s tonight and celebrate anyway. As he commented, old time memories when we first moved to Cincinnati.

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Category: Archive, Business, Financial, News, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: chairman, cincinnati, closed, economy, federal reserve, homeowner, investing, jerome powell, property, stock market, taylor

Posted By RichC on August 26, 2022

Another “too lazy to blog” Filler Friday post.  Instead I will fill this space with a photo that brings me peace and tranquility. Who wouldn’t mind hanging a hammock in the shade and pretending there wasn’t a care in the world (where is this?)?

Category: Blogs, Misc, Photos, Travel | No Comments »
Tags: beauty, colors, friday filler, ocean, peace, Photos, tranquility

Posted By RichC on August 25, 2022

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Category: Archive, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: annalyn, ellerie, family, granddaughters, katelyn, kindergarten, perrysburg, school

Posted By RichC on August 24, 2022

While Brenda and I were in Atlanta celebrating her sister’s birthday, Taylor was once again at another wedding clear across the country. One of his elementary school friends (they stayed in touch) gave a bunch of friends a chance to get together in a nice location – Lake Tahoe. Of course this wasn’t the first time he’s been out there (his friend Cam’s family has a house there … and a very nice one at that!) and so a polite invite gave him a place to stay.

Considering the number of wedding, the amount of  travel and cost to go to weddings, this was an appreciated gesture by the Harters.

Katelyn and Drew had a full weekend too. Not only was it “get ready for school” weekend (left), but they also celebrated Drew’s brother’s birthday and had family staying with them while Drew’s parents recover from COVID. All in all, it was a busy … but very nice time.

Category: Archive, Misc, Personal, Photos, Travel | No Comments »
Tags: birthday, busy, drew, family, katelyn, lake tahoe, taylor, wedding

Posted By RichC on August 23, 2022

It was a nice weekend to drive to Atlanta, even though it was only for a short birthday visit for Brenda’s sister Ann. As always, we had a very nice time together, had a great day hiking up to Indian Seats (panorama above) and our favorite part, catching up on the life of their girls. Sarah and Jessica were both home for mom’s birthday and are so personable when it come to sharing the ups and downs of being single, starting careers and adulting.

Sarah is teaching biology in a local high school and Jessica lives 3 hours away in Augusta working as a defense lawyer for the state of Georgia (public defender). She seems to enjoy it … and I suspect will really appreciate the state taking care of her student debt after the appropriate amount of time (Pepperdine Law is not cheap).

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Category: Personal, Photos, Recreation, Travel, Video | No Comments »
Tags: adulting, ann, birthday, family, gary, georgia, gerber, hiking, indian seats, jessica, mp4, sarah, visit, weekend

Posted By RichC on August 22, 2022

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Category: Health, Music, Recreation, Sailing | No Comments »
Tags: backyard, glenn goodman, jimmy buffett, mac mcanally, menieres, mp3, music monday, musicmonday, ocean, radio margaritaville, sailing, surfing, wave, youtube