My Desultory Blog

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

Posted By RichC on August 21, 2022

While I generally do not plug things on My Desultory Blog, I do enjoy reading the paper edition of a couple of publications. Barron’s Magazine is my go-to weekend reading, but their shrinking size and poor delivery has me giving up on renewing again. If they would promise Saturday delivery again, perhaps with the WSJ, then I would renew again, but they will not – go figure since both publications are by Dow Jones?

The other less serious read is The Old Farmers Almanac which is published each year (mentioned before). Those of a certain age will likely remember seeing dog-eared golden or yellow covered copies around rural homes and farms. It is always an enjoyable read, even if the weather forecasts are suspect … and brings me back to my youth.

DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU LIVE, this will be the best of winters or memorable for all the wrong reasons,” reports Janice Stillman, editor of The Old Farmer’s Almanac. “One half of the U.S. will be dealing with bone-chilling cold and loads of snow, while the other half may feel like winter never really arrives.”

ORDER NOW link

Category: Business, Memories, Misc, Weather | No Comments »
Tags: almanac, barrons, dow jones, farmer's, forecast, magazine, prediction, reading, winter, wsj

Posted By RichC on August 20, 2022

My social participation in automotive groups and forums that were common for me decades ago (CinciTDI, TDIClub, etc) have shifted to social media friends on Facebook groups (not so much anymore) and Twitter (daily). Those contacts include a bunch of automotive journalist as well as people just interested in cars and trucks.

The conversations has shifted from talking about late model internal combustion powered vehicles and older classic cars, to close to a 50/50 mix nowadays as hybrids and electric vehicles. EV news is taking over much of the “new car” conversation and it is pretty obvious to me that EVs will be the dominate vehicle for personal transportation … and likely be the majority of new car sales in a very short time.

My son-in-law Drew has been an early adopter and has enjoyed his Tesla Model 3 from day one. Although he occasionally wishes that he had the larger battery, it has been near perfect for his daily commuting and occasional road trips (requires a little forethought and planning due to a charging stop or two). The other day, he sent me a updated permit (above) for West Chester Twp, Ohio that could prove to make our regular grocery store an even busier location … and a great place for a quick charge. Who knows, an EV may eventually be in our future … although I still have a little range anxiety and would prefer a plug-in hybrid.

The latest “Inflation Reduction” bill (cough, cough) passed by DEMs only (with VP Harris as a tie-breaker) has incentives in the spending bill  to promote even more EVs in their push to get Americans off of fossil fuels. The current manufacturing restrictions, on top of the already very high price for a new electric vehicle, will make buying a new EV difficult for average workers but perhaps this will change as manufacturers ramp up production … and/or send their lobbyists to bend the ears of politicians in Washington DC.

For an EV buyer to qualify for the full credit, 40% of the metals used in a vehicle’s battery must come from North America. By 2027, that required threshold would reach 80%.

If the metals requirement isn’t met, the automaker and its buyers would be eligible for half the tax credit, $3,750.

A separate rule would require that half the batteries’ value must be manufactured or assembled in the North America. If not, the rest of the tax credit would be lost. Those requirements also grow stricter each year, eventually reaching 100% in 2029.

LINK

Category: Automotive, Environment, Financial, Hybrid, Local, News, Politics, Social Media | No Comments »
Tags: cars, charging, cincitdi, drew, electric vehicles, ev, ohio, permit, tdiclub, west chester

Posted By RichC on August 19, 2022

Google and their Android mobile OS platform has a social media campaign running to hopefully get Apple to fix their widely used text messaging app called iMessage. For years now, sending messages between Apple iPhones and other iDevices has frustrated many a users trying to communicate with friends and family. Google would like Apple to adopt the so-called RCS protocol instead of MMS and SMS. This would allow either platform user to share heavy data rich messages without getting tiny, blurry video or failed deliveries between iOS and Android when only connected over Wi-Fi (so says Google).

So if you want to find a solution, send a gripe to @Apple using the #GetTheMessage hashtag (personally I don’t know who is the hold-out, but traditionally Apple does not like playing with other operating systems … so I suspect Apple is likely the problem).

Category: Apple, Cellphone, Social Media, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: android, apple, getthemessage, google, imessage, iphone, MMS, RCS, sms, text messages

Posted By RichC on August 18, 2022

It is summer vacation season … and shark video time … so here’s one from Twitter of a LARGE Hammerhead Shark chasing a stingray in Orange Beach, Alabama. Whoa … it’s better to stay out of the water when this is happening. I’ll stick with just looking at the little Sand Tiger Sharks.

Category: Nature, Social Media, Video | No Comments »
Tags: alabama, hammerhead, mp4, orange beach, shark, sharks, stingray, summer, twitter