My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on February 10, 2022

In early February 2022, most of the U.S. received a heavy ice and snow storm. There were quite a few shared photos on the social networks and an animated GIF of a huge snowman triggered memories of our Hudson, Ohio winters in NE Ohio.

Back then I had an old Ford 800 that I used around the property with a mower in the summer and a blade for our long driveway in the winter (pre-Bobcat743 days). Another perk of owning a tractor was that it had a bucket for yardwork, tree cutting and hauling from back in the woods and even to build giant snowmen.

  INSERT MISSING PHOTO/VIDEO

After searching for the photos (could it be on video?), I could only find a couple autumn photos of me hauling around my nephews … Ben and David Skinner (photos below). What boy doesn’t enjoy riding around on a tractor … or for that matter enjoy bulldozers (DadH’s).

If I find the snowman video/photos (with my brother-in-law Gary hauling the head in the bucket), I’ll add them to this Throwback Thursday #TBT post to archive the memories.

Category: Archive, Memories, Personal, Photos, TBT, Weather | No Comments »
Tags: ani gif, anigif, ben skinner, bobcat, bulldozer, david skinner, ford 800, gary gerber, hudson, ne ohio, nephews, ohio, snow, snowman, TBT, tractor, winter, youtube

Posted By RichC on February 9, 2022

Last week I had dinner with my buddy Jeff after taking him to pick up his car from a seat repair/re-upholstering job. He previously planned it so we could go to our “old” favorite Acapulco Mexican Restaurant (which is no longer tolerated as well in my digestive track as it was 20 years ago).

He had a “Trivia for the Toilet” book from Christmas to give me, suspecting it would go over well – knowing our long running bathroom humor jokes (all clean by-the-way). He also noticed that I could no longer eat the usual “Cardiac Arrest (our nickname) Number 4 Combo” meal, declaring that I was slipping. We chuckled about getting older and talked about losing a few pounds, doctors pushing meds and eating healthier. The positive is that I have lost a few pounds, but would still like to be down another 5 by summer.

I would be remise not to include the “toilet humor photo” that I sent to Jeff .. in which he declared: “I will NEVER be able to unsee that!”

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Category: Books, Food, Friends, Humor, Memories, Misc, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: acapulco, bike, book, Humor, jeff pitts, jeffp, mexican, photo, pink onesy, puddle, Restaurant, trivia

Posted By RichC on February 8, 2022

Trusting the weather on my Fitbit Versa watch isn’t much better than referring to the Farmer’s Almanac for daily weather forecasts. I’m starting to wonder who is feeding the information for our area. All I can see is sun … where’s the RAIN?

Yes .. I really do know that it’s probably an iPhone to Fitbit app to Versa synchronization thing … not the weather app provider thing. 😉

EDIT and updating publish date to 2/8/2022: The next day it happened again … and even after a sync, the Fitbit watch indicates rain but the sky is blue and sunny. Something is goofy.

Category: Gadget, Photos, Technology, Weather | No Comments »
Tags: battery, fitbit, forecast, trust, versa, watch, weather

Posted By RichC on February 8, 2022

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Category: Archive, Misc, Personal, Photos, Social Media, Weather, Woodworking | No Comments »
Tags: annalyn, cincinnati, east walnut hills, ellerie, family, granddaughers, lumber, perrysburg, playing, project, rocking chair, snow, snowman, taylor, weekend, winter, woodworking, workshop

Posted By RichC on February 7, 2022

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Category: Music, Video | No Comments »
Tags: 1960s, beach boys, dreaming, escapism, huarache, mp3, music monday, musicmonday, sandals, surfin' usa, video, youtube

Posted By RichC on February 6, 2022

For those of us who have gone hiking or backpacking in bear country before, we have been taught that avoiding trails shortly after bears have been encountered is the smartest approach to avoiding danger.
 

Of course this doesn’t guarantee not running into a bear on the trail. Having never carried bear spray in the past, I’m rethinking and reading a little more about carrying bear spray the next time we are in grizzly bear country.

Bear Spray Guide – Does Bear Spray for Hiking Work?

Jan 24, 2022 by Christos Vasilopoulos

Seeing a bear from afar when hiking is an awe-inspiring experience. Bears are impressive animals, but you have to be careful with them. Our bear spray for hiking guide will help you understand how to best deal with bear encounters and all about bear spray.

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Category: Blogs, Environment, Nature, Recreation, Video | No Comments »
Tags: backpacking, bears, grizzly bear, hiking, mp4, outdoors, spray, vacations

Posted By RichC on February 5, 2022

No longer am I driving 2000 miles a month back and forth to NE Ohio for work or traveling to and from western New York to check on Brenda’s parents, but I do still enjoy driving and owning a diesel vehicle. The Volkswagen Jetta TDI fuel economy isn’t a big deal anymore either, but I did want to “mark time” by highlighting the 190,000 mile odometer reading on my 2010 BMW X5 35d. Now that it is 12+ years old, it is starting to show signs of wear, but it’s still enjoyable to drive.

With the current chip shortages for new cars and shockingly high prices on new cars, I’m glad to still have a vehicle that I’m happy owning.

February 2, 2022

Record high new and used car prices continue in 2022

   The last time we reported the average new car price in the middle of 2021, it had reached a record high. By the end of 2021, it had risen 10% more, according to a J.D. Power and LMC Automotive report published last week. Constrained supply, unmet demand, and high dealer markups continue to result in the unusual condition of record high new car prices, record high used car prices, and record high dealer margins fueled by truck and SUV sales.

Car shoppers can expect more of the same at least through the early part of 2022. “Despite optimism towards the end of 2021 that diminishing supply chain disruption would result in more vehicles being delivered to dealerships, the new-vehicle supply situation has shown no meaningful improvement,” Thomas King, president of data and analytics at J.D. Power, said in a statement. “The volume of new vehicles being delivered to dealerships in January has been insufficient to meet strong consumer demand, resulting in a significantly diminished sales pace.”

READ MORE

Category: Automotive, BMW, Travel, Volkswagen | No Comments »
Tags: BMW, car prices, cars, chip shortage, diesel, driving, odometer, turntoday.com, x5 35d

Posted By RichC on February 4, 2022

Let me start off with the positives. I really like my original Fitbit Versa watch. I wear it everyday and it offers me nearly everything I want in a fitness tracking smart watch.

That said, I have always been hard on watches … to the point I stopped wearing watches for years – for decades really! The Fitbit Versa was no exception, I am hard on it. A quick glance at the face and bezel shows a lot of wear and after 2 to 3 years of everyday wear … and now the battery is no longer holding a charge either. The 4-5 day original time between recharging is now “about” a day … sometimes it is dead by the end of the day.

So I put a call into the company’s excellent tech support to ask about replacing the battery. Nope, they do not offer that option or recommend the “hack” on the Internet that do it. BUT … their customer service “so far” has been superb and passed my issue, after looking at the charging data (kind of invasive seeing my data), to their warranty department, although I doubt there will be any warranty coverage?

Since I’m comfortable with the Versa, it’s limited features and the data is tracks and provides, I really wouldn’t mind a discounted “older” version of the Versa .. the same that I have or maybe a Versa 2 with the “always on mode and faster processor” (they are a couple generations beyond the original Versa and now up to the Versa 3 and higher end Sense.) We’ll see what happens.

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Category: Gadget, Misc, Personal, Shopping, Technology, Video | No Comments »
Tags: battery, customer service, fitbit, smartwatch, teardown, tech friday, techfriday, warranty, watch, youtube

Posted By RichC on February 3, 2022

We rarely think about that which we cannot see … but saw a photo of the earth without water or the normal colors associated with having an atmosphere on social media and thought it was intriguing.

Another comment that was made was that “IF” you were to stand on Mauna Kea in Hawaii without water, "it would be the “tallest mountain in the world, from its undersea base” (and as an excuse to make this a Throwback Thursday #TBT post, we did see it: 1, 2, 3, 4). I think I want to go back to visit again.

Category: Social Media, TBT, Tidbits, Travel | No Comments »
Tags: atmosphere, earth, globe, hawaii, mauna kea, mountain, TBT

Posted By RichC on February 2, 2022

We were late to trying the HelloFresh.com fresh meal kit plans and put off cooking the first two fresh meals a week. When we finally did get around to fixing them, they were still reasonable fresh and the excellent recipes and produce shocked us at just how tasty the first meal was. I had already cancelled our discounted “promo” membership since I was afraid we would not get around to cooking them in a timely manor … and regretted the decision.

After rethinking our rash cancellation, I took up the email offer to reinstate our account and began selecting our next two meals.

Unfortunately once an account is cancelled, the discounted promo offer disappears and everything is priced at the full price plus shipping ($60 for 2 “normal” meals – a steep price in my opinion). So, I chatted with a agent just to see if they could reinstate the promo, but they will not … so after the first two meals (that Balsamic Tomato and Herb Chicken was excellent) … we will give up on the weekly “meal kit” plan. Bummer.

Category: Food, Misc, Recipe, Shopping | No Comments »
Tags: cooking, dinner, eating, food, hellofresh.com, meal kit, meal plan, recipes, subscription