Never a dull moment for parents no matter their expertise
Posted By RichC on June 26, 2022
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Stay on your retirement planning track and consider iBonds
Posted By RichC on June 25, 2022
It is stomach-churning to follow the often heard “hold tight” and “stick with the plan” advice often given by financial advisors. If you are currently retired and living off of a fix-income and nest egg, or are trying to prepare for retirement, 
you are likely worried about times like these. Advisors tell you not to panic, and that with a properly allocated portfolio, markets will come back. Still, it is not easy to see 401-Ks and IRA portfolios shrink and years of savings disappear due to inflationary pressure in every area of the economy … especially the essential ones … like food, housing and energy. 
Each day the market sells off further, which can make ordinarily calm people search for a paper bag or act as if they are a nervous chipmunk. Perhaps that is why so many questions and articles are peppering the financial press these days?
Just a cursory look at the ill-preparedness of today’s retirement population will either gives you a feeling that you are not alone … or hopefully … see yourself better prepared than others?
How many months of inflation, stagflation or a recession can we weather? According to a Senior Living article last month, “most retirees aren’t sitting on a nest egg the size of Fort Knox … median savings for ages 55-64 is just $104,000 and for those aged 65-74 it’s $148,000.” One can only hope most of them have equity in their house, some assets to sell, maybe a pension (teachers, government, military) or at least a solid social security check and a plan to keep expenses low (ie. live on less)?
The point being is that some preparation is better than no preparation … and that if you are still working, focus on funding a diversified retirement savings portfolio. That means, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. A mix of investments that include growth and income, tech and consumer staples, energy and yes … even some bonds. We should all have some kind of emergency fund, normal savings and value accumulated in real estate (a home). If you’re ahead of the game, fund a 401K or IRA and maybe even some crypto, although if you don’t have money to lose … I’d avoid that last one. This year might be a good time to set up a Treasury Direct account and learn about iBonds (the yearly limit means starting younger and a contribution each year will give an account time to grow). Consider Series I Bonds as one more piece of your “saving for retirement” puzzle.
Tech Friday: Ultrasound detection and the 4th gen Echo hub
Posted By RichC on June 24, 2022
After a week of working with the new “trade-up” from an older Echo (triggered by a $30 trade-in offer) to the 4th generation Amazon Echo “with premium sound, smart home hub (Zigbee) and Alexa” … the results have been mixed. My advice, don’t rush.
First, I was looking forward to the idea to not need another “cluster of wired devices” (a separate hub) to handle Zigbee sensors that I’ve been planning to add (motion, water, etc) … so going with the all-in-one Echo smart 
speaker made sense.
Second, I thought perhaps since this new 4th generation device also has “ultrasound motion sensing” that I might be able to forgo adding additional motion sensors? Unfortunately after hours of back and forth with very helpful and patient Amazon support folks (thank you Vanessa), the routines I was attempting to program using “only” the Echo are not going to work. For those who have used “motion sensors” in the past, it all as to do with what is referred to as the “cool-down” period. In the 4th gen Echo hub’s case, 
there was no way to reduce it to less than 30 minutes in order to reactive a routine again – ie. detect activity to turn lights on (most motion sensors are under 1 or 2 minutes). For the record, I could have just left the lights on for 30+ minutes and then after the “cool-down” triggered them to come back on again with continued activity or remain off if there was no presence detected.
So to solve my particular situation (stair lights), I opted for a motion sensor from ThirdReality to solve the problem … and it could be located exactly where detection is needed. A more perfect solution would have been a fully 110AC “socket” powered Zigbee motion sensor … but they must not exist (leave a comment or send me a message if they do exist?)
The final disappointment is the Echo’s Zigbee hub range. I wanted to put this new 4th gen Echo in my soon to be finished second floor home office, but the distance is too far from the basement … which is where the future sump pump water detection sensors and the current basement stairs motion sensor is. So for now, it will improve the music quality in the workshop. 😉
Words to think about before speaking negatively about others
Posted By RichC on June 23, 2022
Really, I’m just sharing a couple leftover photos from the past couple of days, but thought the sign below offers some pretty good advice.
Also a tidbit: Rice boiling over creates a sticky goo … and my new Father’s Day “smart” Ember mug is still working great.
A neighbor playing practical joke with a plastic armadillo
Posted By RichC on June 22, 2022
I’m sure what I think about this, but when I heard about it on Twitter from someone in Texas, it did make me laugh. 
As the story goes, it seems a couple of neighbors enjoy joking with each other as they attempt to “outdo” each other with practical jokes.
One neighbor was out of town as the other placed a “plastic” armadillo under his grill. When the guy out of town returned home, he practically jumped out of his socks when he saw the creature looking at him. Funny … and a pretty realistic looking armadillo too. Personally I would have been glad he use a fake rattlesnake!
Interesting information on Summer vs Winter Solstice
Posted By RichC on June 21, 2022
On Tuesday’s solstice, everywhere north of the equator will receive at least 12 hours of daylight and everywhere south of that point will get less than 12 hours. The continental U.S. will get 14 to 16 hours of daylight, compared with eight to 10 hours on the winter solstice.
“All the planets orbit the sun in a plane—think of it like a tire that’s going around the sun—but Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees with respect to that tire,” Dr. Jackie Faherty said. The tilt gives Earth its seasons, causing different parts of the planet to receive more or less sunlight.
The Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice marks the moment when Earth’s tilt brings the North Pole closest to the sun, and northernmost parts of the Arctic get 24 hours of daylight. At that same moment, the South Pole is farthest from the sun, and parts of the Antarctic are in darkness for nearly the full day.
After that point, days in the Northern Hemisphere begin to shorten, and continue to do so until the winter solstice in December, which marks the shortest period of daylight and longest period of darkness there.
Music Monday: “So Many Paths” by Little River Band
Posted By RichC on June 20, 2022
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Wishing all the purpose-filled dads a Happy Father’s Day
Posted By RichC on June 19, 2022
I enjoyed a very nice Father’s Day on “Saturday” yesterday with Taylor, Megan and their long time friend Meredith, who was “dog-sitting” her sister’s dog “Chase” (below). 
They enjoyed the nice weather around and in the pool while I busied myself with a few projects … one of which was adding the additional pipes to the overflow drain (the heavy rains have used our backyard as a retention area for far too long). Hopefully this will work.
We also connected by FaceTime with Katelyn and family as my kids gave me an Ember coffee mug. For those of you who do not know what a “smart connected” coffee mug is, it keeps your coffee warm to a temperature controlled with an app for about an hour and a half. It uses a rechargeable battery and recharges on a coaster when not in use. Pretty cool and it works great (currently finding the ideal temperature for my coffee .. I think 138F degrees!) Thank you family.
Also … Happy Father’s Day to Drew … a GREAT dad to my granddaughters.
Throughout the Scriptures, the Lord teaches us what it means to be a good Father. His word instructs us to have compassion on our children (Psalm 103:13), to guide them on the right path from birth (Proverbs 22:6), to avoid provoking our children to anger (Ephesians 6:4), and to lovingly discipline them (Hebrews 12:7).
Leftover “Tech Friday” thoughts for Saturday morning
Posted By RichC on June 18, 2022
Not that I was bored or anything while running on generator power for 24 hours, but last week’s outage had my small load-sharing Raspberry Pi “server farm” (semi-joke) that I run at the house (see Brenich.com), in need of service. One thing lead to another and I ended up tinkering a bit more with this tech simplicity, the Hugo server and Markdown markup language (having static pages vs database driven Apache CMS set-ups like this blog on WordPress is very efficient for lightweight servers).
There is really nothing to see here, but it is good to keep my mind at least somewhat sharp when it comes to programming, learning and playing with technology.
Next up: Trying to find a Zigbee motion detector that is powered by a lightbulb socket … rather than a battery. Post a comment or send me an message if you have any ideas.
Tech Friday: Replaced my old MPOW Bluetooth headphones with discounted Wyze Noise-Cancelling headphones
Posted By RichC on June 17, 2022
When it comes to a headset/headphones, I wear them all the time and am pretty much an Aftershokz guy. I find that
I rarely take them off during the day, ever since getting my first “bone conduction” Bluetooth headset. I love nearly everything about the current Aeropex model even as the company updates with newer versions. Still, there are times I prefer covering my ears with headphones … especially when reading and avoiding distractions (like when Brenda is 
streaming her shows on TV).
I’ve been a fan of headphones ever since college where I used them more to study in in silence in the dorm – that would be Founders Hall, Ohio Northern University. In those days headphones were all corded … and I can remember sitting in bed with the pigtail cord, NOT plugged in, but looped out of the way around my neck. This could have just as easily have been earplugs or earmuffs, but the “plastic” Koss “stereophones” muffled the distraction just the same.
After the Koss, I did have a nice lightweight corded model that fell apart over the years (don’t recall the brand) and then bought an even smaller corded one that “sat on the ears” … I never liked them … it has some early noise-cancelation with a 
battery pack that clipped to the belt – yuck! Speaking of noise, I do still have my aviation noise-attenuating David Clark headset from my flying days in the 1990s … but they are a different breed and for a different purpose.
Besides owning several Jawbone Bluetooth earpieces for phones that I’ve highlighted over the years, my first stereo Bluetooth headset was an inexpensive MPOW model (well worn photo top left). It received positive reviews when it first came out. They are relatively simple and without any noise cancelation, but still work ok today … minus the shorter battery life and cushions that are falling apart.
This brings us to 2022 and this as a Tech Friday post. I ordered “yet another product” from Wyze (the inexpensive security camera company) – their headphones. Besides setting it up and connecting it to the app and figuring out that it works, I can’t give it a positive or negative reviews just yet. The noise cancelation seems to work well … and the big plus is that they are less expensive than the highly prized Bose QuietComfort Headphones (probably not the audio quality either, but then again, my Meniere’s damaged hearing is not very good).
It was the price point, Wyze reputation and experience … and receiving a customer promo from Wyze that triggered the purchase.
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.