My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on May 13, 2020

After shipping back the defective mini amplifier that I purchase  a few weeks ago (grr!), I decided it was a nice evening for a drive in the old Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel. Since I was out and needed a few gallons of diesel fuel, it seemed like a good time to fill up the jugs for the Kubota ZD326 zero-turn mower and John Deere 330 tractor. It is nice to have a roomy trunk … and few cents per gallon off at the local UDF convenient store … least for 25 of the gallons. The five cents off brought the per gallon price to $2.38 — unfortunately diesel fuel has not bottomed out like gasoline did  last month. Never the less, the price is better than $3 and $4/gallon back before the US became the biggest oil producer.

Hopefully the weather will warm up this week and stay dry so as to give me time to work on the lawn. Also, since I mentioned the Makers Mob “Scrap Wood Challenge” yesterday, I’m posting a photo of another scrap wood idea. Interesting, a shop chisel sharpening jig.
🤔

Category: Automotive, Diesel, Ideas, Mercedes, Photos, Woodworking | No Comments »
Tags: 300d, chisel, diesel, fuel, gasoline, idea, jig, john deere, kubota, mercedes, scrap wood, sharpening, turbodiesel, woodworking, workshop

Posted By RichC on May 12, 2020

After mentioning problems last week, the new webserver is up and running with a fresh install of Linux Ubuntu 18.04 “Bionic Beaver,” MySQL database and PHP 7.2 … well I actually decided to upgrade that to PHP 7.4 for a little better speed (who knows?)

I’ve abandoned MongoDB for the time being for the Quickdex.net “work in progress”  site that I’ve been tinkering with and will stick with the tried and true, at least for now. What should have been a simple move for the upgrade to WordPress 5.4.1 install was more problematic than I expected.That’s probably what I get for putting it off so long … but when everything seemed to be working, I decided not tot rock the boat and make more work for myself.

I did get a chance to tinker a little bit in the workshop on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon as it was shockingly cold outside for nearly mid-May (below freezing at night). I decided to participate in the Maker’s Mob “Scrap Wood Challenge” and designed a simple picture hanging jig. At this point of the build I’m regretting using the scrap wood I happened to have around since it is taking far too much time to patch and sand the mostly 3/4” maple faced plywood stiles and rails (don’t tell my son or daughter, but they will be birthday gifts – Katelyn, pretend you didn’t read this). 

6 Week Scrap Wood Challenge

As we all need to do our best to stay at home, we wanted to create an experience where you didn’t have to go the hardware store or the lumber yard… so that you could use limited wood, tools, and supplies, and still have an exceptionally positive woodworking experience during these difficult times.

The 6 Week Scrap Wood Challenge has been designed to create an online woodworking experience, were you can build alongside YouTube’s top makers, without having to leave your home or shop.

(more…)

Category: Blogs, Business, Computer, Hobby, Personal, Photos, Technology, Woodworking | No Comments »
Tags: blog, challenge, linux, makers mob, mysql, php, quickdex, scrap wood, update, upgrade, webserver

Posted By RichC on May 11, 2020

One of posts that once received a lot of traffic on my blog was Jacob Tolliver playing a piano in an Ohio hardware store several years ago. The Facebook embed was taken down, but I reposted the video from YouTube last year. I must not have been the only one who appreciates watching those with the musical gift and dedication to practice a musical instrument. I suspect we all know a few who have a little more talent than others when it comes to art and music? 

Last week another social network shared video was of an old gentleman sitting down at a public piano. It caught my eye … “Hm,” I thought, “this 1 minute clip will make for a different kind of Music Monday post?”

Category: Blogs, Entertainment, Music, Social Media, Video | No Comments »
Tags: facebook, Music, music monday, musicmonday, piano, public, social network, video

Posted By RichC on May 10, 2020

This content is restricted.

Category: Archive, Holiday, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: anigif, annalyn, archive, brenda, cards, ellerie, flowers, katelyn, mother's day, Photos

Posted By RichC on May 9, 2020

Nothing like a little nature video with your breakfast cereal to start your day .. YIKES!  I’ll never be able to look at my “Little Praying Friend” the same again.

The latest news is that the giant 2 inch Murder Hornets (Asian giant hornets) are showing up in the western United States and threatening honey bees as well as even protected beekeepers – we can only hope a few more Praying Mantises are as hungry as this one.

Category: Environment, Nature, News, Video | No Comments »
Tags: bees, eating, hornet, insects, mantis, mp4, murder hornet, nature, praying mantis, video

Posted By RichC on May 8, 2020

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Category: Alexa, Audio, Personal, Photos, Social Media | No Comments »
Tags: Alexa, annalyn, audio, birthday, brenda, drew, ellerie, family, katelyn, megan, message, mp3, richc, social, taylor, thank you

Posted By RichC on May 8, 2020

Actually this is just a filler post while working on server upgrades. Hopefully when finished, the new server will be fully up-to-date with Linux (Ubuntu Bionic Beaver 18.04), PHP 7.2 and a current LAMP stack set-up. WordPress will finally be able to be updated to 5.4.1 and maybe eventually bring back a cache to speed things up.

As for the filler post items as mentioned above, the ones below made me smile. I’ve always enjoyed traveling lean, but this might be just a little too lean – a snail for a couple of reasons!

Category: Blogs, Computer, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: bicycle, bike, camper, Computer, lamp, linux, stack, tech friday, techfriday, traveling, webserver, wordpress

Posted By RichC on May 7, 2020

Nine years ago, it would have been polite for our FedEx driver to have at LEAST left a note or to have mentioned he ran off the driveway … although it was understandable with the snow cover (see link). On the other hand, it makes me smile now, especially since I can use it as a Throwback Thursday #TBT tie-in for today’s post.

This time it was a rainy Sunday delivery … or “semi” delivery … since it was left at the end of our driveway, on top of the mailbox. I know we have a long driveway, but most companies (including FedEx) deliver to the garage door and smartly to the sheltered front porch when it is raining. Perhaps all delivery drivers are overworked and overstressed with COVID19, but still, to strategically balance a large box on our mailbox while it’s raining defies commonsense. Thankfully our neighbor called so we could at least run out in the rain and retrieve the box. Come on Fred W. Smith, your company and employees should be a little bit better than this.

Category: Archive, Business, Photos, Shopping, TBT, Weather | No Comments »
Tags: commonsense, coronavirus, covid19, delivery, driveway, fedex, fred w smith, rain, TBT, weather

Posted By RichC on May 6, 2020

Today’s post serves as a test … since I’m having a few webserver and database problems. If you are a regular reader, this will also be a notice that this blog will likely be sporadic until it is fixed.

Once my business sites are updated, then I’ll address my long-in-the-tooth (see below) Quickdex project site and personal blog – MyDesultoryBlog. There may be a few up and down moments until it is fixed or moved to new hardware.

What’s the meaning of the phrase ‘Long in the tooth’?

Old, especially of horses or people.

What’s the origin of the phrase ‘Long in the tooth’? 

Horse teeth, unlike humans’, continue to grow with age. They also wear down with use, but the changes in the characteristics of the teeth over time make it possible to make a rough estimate of a horse’s age by examining them.

Category: Blogs, Business, Computer, Human Interest, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: blog, Computer, database, idioms, maintenance, problems, quickdex, server, update

Posted By RichC on May 5, 2020

After our flag halyard failed again this year, I did a little more digging as to why the “cheap” rope deteriorated so fast. My first assumption was that the sun damaged the fibers since it has a worn, powder feel to it? Then after looking for better grade polyester (weather resistant) halyards, decided that this time I would go with a wire core.

Who knows if it will actually prevent weathering and wear, but at least when it frays, the flag will still be flying. On the other hand, in reading a few comments from the “flag guy” website, it was mentioned that lowering the halyard just a inch from the top can prevent unnecessary chafing at the top of the flagpole (also note loops – photo).

Now to get someone to shimmy up the pole to rethread the new halyard … or perhaps wait until my kids are down again to take the pole down and rethread!

UPDATE May 11, 2020: Disappointed yet again on an order from Amazon. The wire-rope halyard was opened and looked used .. likely pulled through a block considering the dirt on the sheathing. I’ve not measured to be sure there is 100 feet on the spool, but Amazon needs to sharpen their re-stocking and selling of product as “new.”

Category: Advice, Misc, Personal, Shopping | No Comments »
Tags: amazon, american, flag, flag pole, halyard