My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on December 30, 2019

Here’s a #7 hit in 1977 (which has me thinking of American Top 40 and Casey Kasem) way back in the year I graduated high school.

The song was “I Go Crazy” song by Paul Davis, who “looks like one of the Allman Brothers” as the late Ricky Nelson comments at the beginning of the VH1 video. The quality is what it was for the time, but still enjoy hearing the music and archiving the video.

Good memories and a great way to wind down the Music Monday posts for the decade. See you in 2020.

Category: Memories, Music, Video | No Comments »
Tags: 1977, allman brothers, casey kasem, decade, i go crazy, mp4, Music, music monday, musicmonday, paul davis, ricky nelson, video

Posted By RichC on December 29, 2019

This content is restricted.

Category: Faith, Human Interest, Personal, Photos, Quotes | No Comments »
Tags: ambassador, annalyn, christ, christian, christmas, discipleship, evangelism, new year, purpose, self-focused, thoughts

Posted By RichC on December 28, 2019

Instead of cleaning the workshop as I was planning, I  ended up sidetracked. Nothing new about that.

Since each time I pull the plywood box full of “short cuts and scraps” out from next to the miter saw, it is as if I’m dragging a 100 pound box with sandpaper on the bottom across the tile floor. So when I started to clear off the top of the  workbench, I notice unused conveyor rollers  (planned for the table saw extension) … and thought, “Hm, I can put this on the bottom of the box so it rolls easier?” Four 1” pocket holes in some scrap plywood later … and I still have a workshop yet to clean!

Also … it has been super warm and our snow has melted away … except for the north side of buildings and the front of our house (shade). Not quite the photo from a couple weeks ago, but the house still looks nice and finally has all the wreaths in the windows!

Category: Personal, Photography, Photos, Productivity, Tools, Woodworking | No Comments »
Tags: conveyor, house, Photos, projects, rollers, scraps, wood, woodworking, workshop, wreath

Posted By RichC on December 27, 2019

Since I’m often asked what kind of fuel economy I’m getting on my slightly “tweaked” 2010 BMW X5 35d diesel SUV, here’s the yearly update from my log on Fuelly.com.

Nothing to write home about, but then there have been far more local trips than the interstate driving a few years ago … besides, my driving has become a bit more aggressive (heavier foot). Years ago when I was  focused on biodiesel and working a bit harder to keep my overall fuel economy up, I might have been able to move closer to 24 mpg … but still, a 23.6 overall average is pretty good for a 2-1/2 ton SUV … and not all that much different than 2018.

Category: Archive, Biodiesel, BMW, Diesel | No Comments »
Tags: BMW, diesel, driving, economy, fuel efficiency, fuelly, log, tracking, x5 35d

Posted By RichC on December 26, 2019

While sifting through a few old .MP4 files, I found one of my first iPhone 5 test video clips from 2012 and it had a bit of footage of my Sonex airplane project (posted a few photos back then) that I was working on a year before selling it. It was shortly before I sold it. Anyway it was interesting for me to see and archive on the blog for posterity and Throwback Thursday #TBT. (hard to believe the iPhone 5 only cost me $212.49!)

Category: Archive, Aviation, Cellphone, Memories, TBT, Video | No Comments »
Tags: airplane, aviation, eaa, homebuilt, memories, mp4, project, sonex, TBT, video

Posted By RichC on December 25, 2019

UPS for the win! (wait for it)  Fedex and USPS better step up their game!

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

Category: Business, Holiday, Humor, Video | No Comments »
Tags: ani gif, christmas, delivery, fedex, gif, Humor, package, ups, usps

Posted By RichC on December 24, 2019

For some reason, the full text of this post and photo of our 2019 family Christmas tree went missing … or maybe it didn’t post to the blog? Oh well, at least here’s the archived photo of our tree:

(more…)

Category: Archive, Holiday, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: christmas, christmas tree, decorate, decoration, eve, Holiday, lights, merry christmas, ornaments, poem, twas the night before

Posted By RichC on December 24, 2019

While putting the snowblower on the John Deere this past weekend, I notice the instruction/warranty booklet for our garage door opener hanging on the unlatch rope. I’ve unlatch dozens of times, repaired the door, the opener and sensors more times that I can count … yet have never removed the booklet. It just hangs and swings back and forth with each cycle.

Wouldn’t you think after 24 years of dangling that either Brenda or I would have said, “ENOUGH!”

But no … it hangs and is still hanging there. Hm, if I had a shrink, I think it would be worth talking about. 🙃

Category: Archive, Diesel, Human Interest, Humor, Misc, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: booklet, diesel, door, garage, homeowner, house, Humor, john deere, manual, opener, quirky, snowblower, tractor

Posted By RichC on December 23, 2019

This content is restricted.

Category: Memories, Music, Personal | No Comments »
Tags: 1970s, anng, family, garyg, gerber, jackson browne, jessicag, mp3, Music, music monday, musicmonday, sarahg, the pretender

Posted By RichC on December 22, 2019

If you’ve been investing for a few years now, you know mergers and acquisitions in the banking and financial services business is nothing new. We’ve personally experienced a few brokerage firms in our day and still remorse losing the early trading platform of  Datek, and to a lessor amount Waterhouse, to TDAmeritrade. Now that Schwab is the acquiring company … one wonders just what technology will be disappearing?

Charles Schwab to Buy TD Ameritrade for $26 Billion
Toronto-Dominion Bank will hold a roughly 13% stake in Schwab after stock-swap deal, and TD Ameritrade’s other shareholders about 18% – November 25, 2019

WSJ link

Barron’s noted that individuals investors and the employees for each of the brokerage firms aren’t the only ones sitting on pins and needles as to what might happen. There are “150 fintech firm through API integrations” (compared to the 80 with Schwab) that are wondering what will happen to the TD Ameritrade Veo Open Access platform?

While there’s no guarantee, it’s logical that the combined company could eventually select one platform over the other, and there’s speculation that, if this happens, Veo would be the one to go, prompting FOMO among a number of tech firms.

“It will be tough for fintech firms, absolutely,” Scott Huff, an advisor and founder of Yourefolio, an estate planning tool, tells the publication.

Schwab declined to respond to speculation, according to Financial Planning. A Schwab spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a Barron’s request for comment.

LINK

Category: Business, Financial, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: brokerage, brokers, discount, finance, schwab, tdameritrade