My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on March 18, 2020

For those of us who in December thought this Coronavirus ‘thing’ was a Chinese story and not going to be a big deal here in America; we were wrong. COVID19 and the economic impact is being felt far and wide by everyone in the world. I still want to believe it will be short-lived and that the death toll is low and that we’ll be able to rebuild our economy quickly.

As of mid-March 2020 the 14-day quarantines for those returning from cruises seem pale in comparison to the “shelter in place” and shutting down of “all gatherings over 10 people” orders being put in place. I am finally comprehending the “flatting of the curve” thinking coming from our medical experts who are concerned with possibly too many patients needed ventilators and ICU care.

Let’s hope Americans understand this and come together in a way that stems the rapid spread across our country.

Brenda suggested we watch something patriotic and uplifting … so we watched the 2004 movie “Miracle” about the United States men’s ice hockey team that won gold in the 1980 Olympics. The metal round saw this group of “boys” coached by Herb Brooks defeat the heavily favored USSR professionals was dubbed “Miracle on Ice.” (here’s a previous post with the final minute YouTube video from 2013)

You should watch it if you need inspiration and as a way to rally together in facing this challenge.

As an aside:

When my daughter Katelyn and Drew lived in Wayzata, Minnesota a few years ago, their neighbor was Rob McClanahan was a member of that 1980 Gold Metal Olympic team who went on to play in the in the NHL and a financial broker. One of the highlights at the time of the "Miracle” was the argument between McClanahan and coach Brooks that motivated McClanahan to return to the game and play through his injury. This help inspire his team and rallied a come-from-behind draw against Sweden getting them to the gold medal  game later in the tournament.

Category: Entertainment, Health, History, Human Interest, Medical, News, Sports, Video | No Comments »
Tags: 1980, coronavirus, covid19, curve, film, flattening, herb brooks, hockey, miracle, miracle on ice, movie, olympics, quarantine, rob mcclanahan, youtube

Posted By RichC on March 17, 2020

Since all Americans are in this fight together, it is appropriate we take the precautions necessary to slow the spread and "flatten the curve" of the Coronavirus so that our hospitals and medical professional can help those who are in need of their care. Appropriately each state has stepped up with their own actions – some more aggressive than others – and even political opponents have come together ‘a little’ in this election year for the interest of the country and all American people (good to see).

Link to Whitehouse.gov’s Coronavirus Guidelines PDF for America

I’ve tried to tamp down my own personal anxiety by telling myself to treat it as emergencies that I’ve live through in the past. I grew up with the “duck and cover” drills in the 1960s. The arms race and the threat of nuclear inhalation during the height of cold war. There were Vietnam war protests, racial tensions and riots when I was in grade school and my family personally lived through house destroying floods and tornadoes. I grew up with the draft, the probability of being sent to fight the spread of communism overseas, oil shortages, embargos, a presidential assassination (and attempts), mind-numbing inflation and double-digit interest rates on mortgages, terror attacks, more war (one that never ends in Afghanistan) and several business destroying and job killing recessions. Then there were major diseases … even in  modern times: HIV, SARS, EBOLA, influenza, etc. (link) 

Yet as of mid-March, this health crisis feels different. Perhaps it is because we are in the midst of it and the disruption and challenges are making such an impact?  COVID19 has for the most part shutdown the entire world in a very short time. A bright sign is that at the virus’s epicenter, Wuhan, China, life is beginning to improve … meaning that “perhaps” in a month or so, this hemisphere will see recovery. Let’s hope and pray that the measures we are taking today prevent unnecessary deaths and prevent the most vulnerable in our country from getting infected. 

Just in case .. the CDC suggests you prepare yourself, your family and your home with a plan. One little tidbit from the website might get overlooked … but read them all.

Category: Advice, Health, News | No Comments »
Tags: cdc, coronavirus, covid19, do your part, psa

Posted By RichC on March 17, 2020

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Category: Archive, Health, Misc, Personal, Photography, Woodworking | No Comments »
Tags: annalyn, bookshelves, coronavirus, covid19, drew, ellerie, family, katelyn, megan, painting, perrysburg, projects, taylor

Posted By RichC on March 16, 2020

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Category: Music | No Comments »
Tags: 1977, graduation, johnny rivers, mp3, Music, music monday, musicmonday, siriusxm, slow dancing, swayin to the music, the bridge

Posted By RichC on March 14, 2020

A little over a year ago I replaced the run-flat tires on the 2010 BMW X5 35d with a relatively economical set of Vercelli NON-run flat tires. This necessitated adding a temporary spare in my underfloor storage area … but besides price, the ride quality is much better.

Unfortunately this past week nail found its way into my front left tire and thankfully didn’t leave me stranded. It was a slow leak triggering the TPMS sensor (and BMW’s reset on the E70 and probably others takes a long time).  It was an easy home plug since the relatively short nail was right in the center of the tread pattern (below). Hopefully my attempt at plugging these tires will be better than the many failed plugs in my lawn tractors over the years.

So far so good.

Category: Automotive, BMW, Diesel, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: BMW, nail, plug, repair, sensor, tires, tpms, vercelli, x5 35d

Posted By RichC on March 14, 2020

It was a tiring week with the drip, drip, drip Coronavirus news and highly-reactive financial markets. Although frightening, investors rightly or wrongly responded with a selloff of historic proportions. The entire meltdown seemed more like hysteria and panic and had me wondering how our country and nation ever faced plagues, a weak economy due to serious financial malpractice, large scale terrorism and a world at war? Perhaps we’ve all become complacent thinking disease or bad things would never happen again?

Health and financial stress aside, I escaped into the workshop and started my long-in-planning Music room / Library remodeling and bookshelves project. Even with the stress, I did smile upon noticing one of my corner-clamping blocks had been tamper with by a little girl (Katelyn) back in the late 1980s (photo-left).

My ambition was less than it should be as we instead decided to watch a couple movies as well as with the distraction of other non-important projects. Bird deterrents and crock lids for the patios were sitting on my workbench so I glued together some scrap wood and used up some old varnish on the walnut one as well as some REALLY old “green”  Petit marine EZ-poxy paint from the 1980s that was still useable, which was shocking (I used it to paint the name Brenich on our first boat – good memories). It was shocking that the paint still mixed, brushed and dried after over 35 years!

The second distraction was the arduous job of moving everything out of the room and then finagling a way to move the piano; it was tedious … especially sensing skeptical Brenda hovering over my shoulder.

All good in the end and I did at get the 4 HEAVY sheets of 7-layer maple plywood rough cut to shelf size … should have put on a mask because of all the dust … but alas there are no more to be had (a semi-attempt at joking about the hoarding and emptying of shelves in stores due to COVID19 now in our area).  

First positive coronavirus cases confirmed in Greater Cincinnati, UC Health officials say

BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio  – Four patients have tested positive for COVID-19, UC Health officials announced on Friday.

LINK

Category: Financial, Health, Medical, Photos, Woodworking | No Comments »
Tags: birds, bookshelf, bookshelves, brenich, coronavirus, covid19, ezpoxy, Financial, library, musicroom, paint, petit, projects, workshop

Posted By RichC on March 13, 2020

Earlier this year in preparation for the Sprint – T-Mobile merger, Sprint ended their business relationship with Virgin Mobile USA; Sprint was the carrier for the Virgin plans which we opted to switch to back in the summer of 2017. Neither Brenda or I have had any problems or complains with our wireless service or pricing for years now and we really hated the idea of being forced to switch. But .. business is what business is … and unfortunately our seemingly attractive deal ended (although the really good $1/month deal was over after the first year).

Perhaps I need to give BoostMobile a chance … even though the switch felt force on us without any other options. I looked into the 55+ and AAA Sprint plans, but even talking to Sprint’s Customer Service to try and get pricing seemed like pulling teeth.

Ting would be my favorite wireless company due to their simplicity and excellent customer service, BUT the tiered billing system always had me pinching pennies and data. The self-imposed “frugalist” in me had me thinking about that next jump in a monthly bill – I might as well have a flat fee unlimited plan (probably the same reason I preferred cruise vacations, before they started to nickel and dime travelers). My personal “monitoring anxiety” reminds me what it would be like if I were driving an EV … can you say range anxiety?

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Category: Business, Cellphone, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: boost, boostmobile, carrier, Cellphone, connectivity, frugal, frugalist, iphone, tech friday, techfriday, virgin, virginmobile, wireless

Posted By RichC on March 12, 2020

Question: How old do you have to be to identify this widely recognized sound from our automotive past?

My first “real job” was as a Shell gas station attendant when I turned 16 years old (although cut lawns, did odd jobs and worked as “boy” labor for a commercial fishing company). Pumping gas, washing windshields and checking oil was a great job … and I even had a uniform to wear. The manager worked around my school schedule and gave me more hours in the summer along with the bonus that came from “selling quarts of oil” and never pumping more gasoline than was paid for. There were always a couple of us on duty at the same time and we enjoyed running out as soon as we heard the sound of the bell (mp3 sound above). That was customer service back in the day.

A couple of stories I’ve told to friends and family before has to do with the “rolling” price meter and gallons counter on the 1970s gasoline pumps. As the price would roll to the next cent, there were little 1/3 tick-marks and the objective was to always stop the pump at the “1/3 mark before the next cent.” By doing that, we never over-pumped more fuel than we sold … AND my manager gave the “pump jockeys” the number of cents of gasoline saved in our paychecks. Hey, I was being paid $2.35/hr plus a quarter for every quart of oil sold, so those extra cents were a big deal. It was too bad we didn’t get a bonus for selling packs of cigarettes … I would have made a fortune (cigarettes were about 50 cents a pack I think). I was nice to have a few spending dollars to put gas in “mom’s car” and extra for “money-making” photography business/hobby,  I was also able to save for college since every dollar I put in the bank was one dollar fewer that I didn’t have to borrow.

Ah … student loans .. the bane of today’s millennial generation. I’m not saying that my final student loan debt was painful compared to today, but while working, it was tolerable and could be fit into our budget .. it was still shocking that I took the full 10 years to pay it off and that I even had it when the kids were growing up (we paid off Brenda’s smaller loan much faster .. but even she had a student loan)! Perhaps having them helped us make it a priority as parents to budget for Katelyn and Taylor’s college?  No complaints about having student loans and no regrets for us … but I do understand the struggle for those who dig their holes much deeper.

I still treasure my student loan freedom letter (below).

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Category: Audio, Automotive, Education, Memories, Personal | No Comments »
Tags: attendant, bell, college, degrees, Education, first job, gas station, mp3, payoff, pump, pump jockey, service, shell, sound, sounds, station, student loans

Posted By RichC on March 11, 2020

Although I suspect all the selling on Wall Street has to do with needed cash or the “sell and re-assess later” attitude, I’ve been puzzled that gold (usual safe haven) and utilities have been hit as well. Personally I thought these areas might balance exposure to industrials, tech and energy. Obviously not as Wednesday’s market close was again very ugly.

Still, I do think that if we truly are going to experience a longer term bear market or possible recession that utilities with their fixed cost and attractive dividends based on steadily supplying the electric, gas and water everyone uses should be ok???

What is the utilities sector?

It includes electric, gas and water utilities; independent power producers and energy traders; and companies that produce electricity using renewable sources.

The Utilities sector has tended to perform better when growth and trade concerns resurface, and to underperform when those concerns fade. That’s partly because of the sector’s traditional defensive nature—people need water, gas and electric services during all phases of the business cycle—and these are domestic goods and services, so it has very little international exposure. That suggests that signs of weakness in the global economy amid coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic concerns could relatively support the sector.

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Category: Business, Financial, Health, News | No Comments »
Tags: bear, coronavirus, covid19, djia, energy, gold, nasdaq, recession, schwab, stock market, utilities, wall street

Posted By RichC on March 11, 2020

My friend Jeff gave me a couple “used” books for Christmas this year after we talked last year about our favorite authors and books over the decades. Sloan Wilson, of “Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” fame, also wrote several World War II US Coast Guard and Merchant Marine novels that both of us read and discussed in the 1980s (our mini 2-person book club). I had forgotten the actual story lines so recently am enjoying reading them again, besides I’ve always been a big fan of factual-fiction as it pertains to military and nautical history.

Ice Brothers is the first of the two books … although am currently reading Pacific Interlude … and the story coincided with me reading a question posed about the RMS Titanic and last lifeboat photos. I’m a long time user and occasional reader of Quora.com so in seeing this question, I was off down the rabbit hole reading the interesting answer.

How was it possible for a photograph of the last lifeboat off the Titanic to survive?

Photographs of Titanic’s lifeboats were taken from the rescue ship Carpathia as she picked up survivors and brought the lifeboats aboard the morning after the disaster. They were developed after Carpathia returned to New York and sold to the news media or otherwise preserved.

There are no photographs of either Titanic or her lifeboats taken at the time of the sinking or from the lifeboats themselves. The technology of the day was not capable of it, and none of the survivors would have thought to bring a camera and all its associated apparatus with them, even in the unlikely event that they owned one.

The answer above that Woody Hancock gave was no doubt complete, but the later post by Dave Nitzer was the more interesting read .. and it had photos.

His Answer:

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Category: Books, Friends, History, Human Interest, Idioms, Photography, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: answers, Books, factual fiction, gray flannel suit, History, ice brothers, idiom, idioms, jeff pitts, military, pacific interlude, questions, quora.com, rabbit hole, reading, sloan wilson, titatic