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.
Astrophotography is an interesting but expensive hobby #TBT
Posted By RichC on June 16, 2022
As the warm evening and nights of summer arrive, I catch myself looking up at the sky again. It may have started with a purpose back when Charlie (Kamikaze) and 
I were locally sailing the “Fiberpile” and studying celestial navigation before there was much more than radio directional finders (LoranC was too costly and wasn’t helpful offshore anyway). That was the beginning (and end) of studying
the night sky for navigation and to make accurate star sights with a sextant … I was never really proficient. Anyway, the books got put back on the shelf, the plastic practice sextant tossed and by the time we had a real sailboat – Brenich (still own the domain); we weren’t sailing offshore anyway and didn’t need to navigate by the stars or even “steer by the stars” as in the phrase or in 1944 Olivia FitzRoy book title.
In the 1990s, we sailed Tulla, a NorSea 27 and I had a Garmin GPS 75 … and never looked back as Global Positioning expanded to fill the need and worked even when the weather turned sour.
Of course, the point of this post was to reflect on THIS century when my daughter Katelyn took an interest in astronomy. It was something I could semi-do with her and we enjoy the learning, and evenings looking at the stars and planets. She even bought a fairly expensive telescope with her own money and took an elective class while in college. 
For my part, it was just the grandeur of space, the beauty of the heavens and the awesomeness of God’s continually expanding creation that amazed and amazes me.
I probably read something on social media every day pertaining to space, astronomy and astrophotography … and realized just how invested some hobbyists are in their hobby and interest. Here are a couple photos from Andrew McCarthy as an example.
Click on images of Saturn and Jupiter for high resolution version
Big storms ripped through SW Ohio and knocked trees down
Posted By RichC on June 15, 2022
Big storms ripped through our area on Monday night and left a mess of things in much of SW Ohio. Lots of tree damage and even a loss of power for 24+ hours in our neighborhood.
I spent the lunch hour working with a couple of neighbors to clear our lane and yet still have our own downed trees to deal with (photos). It is shocking just how much we depend on air conditioning and ALL of our electrical conveniences these days. Thankfully our small Predator generator is keeping the lights on and refrigerator running. If I would have known how long the power would have been out, I would have rigged up the diesel John Deere 330 and 10KW generator head.
Books: “Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America” by Douglas Brinkley
Posted By RichC on June 14, 2022
Although I once enjoyed reading biographical and history oriented books by Douglas Brinkley, as well as enjoyed interviews with him on TV, I’ve recently noticed a bit more political partisanship in his commentary and his appearances.
To be fair, I wanted to give his writings another shot and try to remain open-minded. The book “Rightful Heritage” is about an icon of the political left, Franklin D. Roosevelt, so I suspect the subject matter will be more aligned with his currently ideology … but I could be wrong.
I’ve yet to start the ebook downloaded to my Glose reader so will look forward to starting it as soon as I finish the audiobook, “Land of Big Numbers.” Perhaps I should have read “The Wilderness Warrior” about a “distant cousin” Theodore Roosevelt first?
A brief synopsis online mention that both men were environmental leaders who desired to protect our public lands, scenic roadways and national parks.
Rightful Heritage is an epic chronicle that is both an irresistible portrait of FDR’s unrivaled passion and drive, and an indispensable analysis that skillfully illuminates the tension between business and nature—exploiting our natural resources and conserving them. Within the narrative are brilliant capsule biographies of such environmental warriors as Eleanor Roosevelt, Harold Ickes, and Rosalie Edge. Rightful Heritage is essential reading for everyone seeking to preserve our treasured landscapes as an American birthright.
Music Monday: “South City Midnight Lady” – Doobie Brothers
Posted By RichC on June 13, 2022
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Sunday thoughts: A rainbow photo and delicious fish dinner
Posted By RichC on June 12, 2022
Thank you Drew for sharing this amazing backyard rainbow photo from last week!
“I set My rainbow in the cloud … and I will remember My [promise to] … every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh … that is on the earth”
— Genesis 9:13-16 (Devotional thoughts from TruthForLife.org)
Since I also had a leftover photo from a HelloFresh.com fish dinner (below), I’ll include the delicious looking and tasting Tilapia AND for the genius “toaster for pizza leftovers” idea. Brilliant!
Inflation hits a new FOUR-Decade High, with food and energy increases hurting those who can least afford it
Posted By RichC on June 11, 2022
CPI up 8.6% driven by a 35% jump in energy prices and 12% increase in groceries
This is what a “sea of red” looks like for investors and stock market traders … and I can 
only imagine the “red” those living on a fixed income or families struggling to make ends meet must be seeing?
When it comes to 401K or IRA retirement savings, very little was left untouched on Friday after May’s CPI report indicated that inflation is now part of our lives (as if we didn’t know when grocery shopping, eating out, paying bills or filling up our vehicles). The rest of the year is going to be a “tough row to hoe” … as the Davy Crockett idiom suggests.
Someone online posted a price for gas prices the other day “before” they even more recently jumped to a national average of $4.98/gal for unleaded gasoline. It does tell the story as to an inflation trigger:
- Restrictive US energy policy
- Print and spend gobs of US$
- Keep the economy shutdown longer than necessary
- Pay people to stay home
- Portray weakness abroad (Putin invades Ukraine forcing world to react by sanctioning Russian gas and oil)
- THEN … double down on even more spending, ESG and Green New Deal policies … 👉 “just look into my eyes,” campaigned then candidate Joe Biden 🤔
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.