My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on February 15, 2020

While emailing my daughter this week about taking her “long living” bunny, Pumpy Umpy to the vet (injury and can’t move his leg), I mentioned that I eventually had to take Tootsie to the Butler County Humane Society as a way to prep for her eventual decision. I ended up seeing this “Keep in touch” image when scrolling down on the front page.

Who knows what the right call is for Katelyn’s rabbit, but for me and after several trips to the vet for Tootsie, I decided that being a dog who is deaf (she was a long time – known issue for Australian Cattle Dogs) and being 17 years old and almost blind (hard to find the edge of pool and falls in) was not a happy life. The final failure was that she was no longer able to hold her bowels and likely had colon cancer.

Deafness: Australian Cattle Dogs have been known to suffer from congenital hereditary sensorineural deafness (CHSD), or rather deafness that is inherited rather than acquired through illness. CHSD occurs shortly after birth before the ear canal opens. The exact cause is unknown, but it is believed that an inadequate blood flow to the cochlea results in death of the sensory nervous cells, resulting in total deafness. As the name suggests, CHSD is an inherited disease. Researchers are not yet sure whether the gene carrying CHSD is recessive or dominant, so when looking to adopt an Australian Cattle Dog inquire with the breeder whether deafness runs on either side of their line.

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Category: Health, Misc, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: animals, australian, blue heeler, bunny, cattle dog, cattledog, dogs, family, humane society, katelyn, pets, pumpy umpy, Rabbit, tootsie, vet

Posted By RichC on February 14, 2020

Nope … I’m not going to forget Happy Valentine’s Day and have remembered to get something “sweet” for Brenda … although it is a good thing she reminded me earlier in the week with a “be sure to pick up a couple gift cards for the kids” comment. Whew!

I was also reminded by my “single” friend Jeff that  Valentine’s Day, February 14th, was on a Friday this year and that we might want to switch out our normal  “ever-other-Friday” scheduled lunch (we did). At that moment, I also realized that for all without a significant other, it is Single Awareness Day. 😐

Category: Holiday, Human Interest, Humor, Misc | No Comments »
Tags: ani gif, anigif, awareness, celebrate, Holiday, Humor, remember, remembering, single, valentine's day

Posted By RichC on February 13, 2020

Last week, a Jasper, Alberta family photo near a glacier for a ThrowBack Thursday #TBT post, had me sharing a few of my thoughts on climate change. I should have included another photo that had a few more from our family (especially since my sister-in-law, Lynda,  just returned home from the Cleveland Clinic). The trip was actually a 40th anniversary present to MomH and DadH (Brenda’s parents) … but the adult kids volunteered to go along too. 😛 So for this week’s TBT, I’ll add that photo … and archive 50-minute long low-quality video pulled from a VHS tape before it is completely degraded.

Lynda, Mark, Ann, Gary, MomH, DadH, Brenda & Rich near Athabasca Glacier

We flew in from Ohio and New York to Calgary, Alberta and headed west to the Canadian Rockies … I can still hear my late brother-in-law Mark singing “climb every mountain” and “the hills are alive, with the sound of music.”

We had a good time hiking and celebrating in Baniff (just as Taylor, Jeff and I did in 2005) and stayed at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise – it was nice (personal video for the blog’s digital archive below).

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Category: Archive, Personal, Photos, TBT, Video | No Comments »
Tags: 40th, alberta, anniversary, athabasca, baniff, canadian rockies, dadh, family, glacier, howard, lake louise, momh, mp4, Photos, sound of music, TBT, throwback, thursday, video

Posted By RichC on February 12, 2020

Here’s a tech tidbit for those noticing a high CalendarAgent CPU demand on your Apple Macintosh computer. For me, the process cranked up the CPU to 60-70% trigging high fan speeds and this process continued without finishing. I noticed slightly sluggish behavior AFTER a recent MacOS software update, although might have happened prior to that? I’m currently running Catalina, but from my digging, this excessive database processing can happened in several earlier versions too.

The solution for me was to kill the process and then rebuild the Calendar database. I actually stopped both the Google Calendar and Apple Calendar before rebuilding – perhaps doing both was unnecessary?

Here is what I found in Apple StackExchange:

If you need a little more clarification, see below:

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Category: Advice, Apple, Computer, Software, Technology, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: activity, apple, calendaragent, Computer, cpu, database, fix, high use, mac, macos, monitor, problems, rebuild, terminal

Posted By RichC on February 11, 2020

A month ago Virgin Mobile sent this happy customer (great service) an update indicating that due to the Sprint T-Mobile combination that the Virgin partnership would be spun off to Sprint’s Boost Mobile prepaid group.They promised an equal or better “deal” which has yet to be noticed … but then it has only been a day or so (I have my doubts).

Anyway, my account transfer has taken place and the new iPhone app is now working. So far, so good as there has not been a change to my phone or service but I am still unsure as to the details such as pricing and “add-ons” to my account. Time will tell. For now, the hotspot still works, calls are coming in and an LTE speed test from my home indicates decent speed and ping times. Stay tuned as my phone still displays Virgin Mobile and probably will until they push a carrier update out.

 
Just a little embedded Twitter automotive humor …

Good thing this driver sprung for AWD! #automotive #humor pic.twitter.com/zSUhSMsa7S

— Rich Corbett (@RichC) February 10, 2020

Category: Automotive, Cellphone, Humor, Social Media | No Comments »
Tags: ani gif, anigif, automotive, awd, boost, carrier, Cellphone, gif, Humor, mobile, smartphone, social network, sprint, tmobile, tweet, twitter, virgin

Posted By RichC on February 10, 2020

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Category: Music, Video | No Comments »
Tags: 1960s, mamas, mp3, music monday, musicmonday, oldies, papas, youtube

Posted By RichC on February 9, 2020

It has been a struggle to make a decision on updating my favorite tech gadget, but after the first generation Brydge Keyboard finally would not charge, I had to do something.

I thought about going all out and moving to the iPad Pro series, but realized that all the functions that I appreciate are already on the basic iPad. I personally prefer the thumbprint-homebutton log-in rather than the camera, can live with the bezel being a little wider; I really don’t have a problem with the performance of the aging processor, which is still rated at 10 hours and gives me a full day of battery use. I did however upgrade the storage to 128GB which was a no-brainer considering I have plenty of files, but will just stick with wi-fi and tether to my iPhone hot-spot rather than pay for an extra wireless plan as I did initially with the iPad Air.

As far as I could find, the Best Buy — $100 off purchase for the 128GB model $329.99 … plus I added 2-year $69 Apple Care — seemed like a fair price for a great Apple product. I’m especially pleased with the ever-so-slightly larger and sharper Retina display and snappier operation (my Air was getting old in the tooth).

The favorite add-on is the Brydge Keyboard which matches the iPad and allows it to function as my travel notebook computer (for the most part). I probably should have looked at the Apple keyboard, but having had a couple other brands before the Brydge … it just wasn’t worth the bother. This bluetooth connected keyboard make it so much easier to type (posting this with the new iPad and Brydge Keyboard) AND the high quality leather case is a must have … but pricey (it should protect both if they are dropped and they offered me a 20% discount due to the fact my old one would no longer charge). After day one … all is functioning as it should and I only hope they give me the same long and dependable service that the last combination did.

Category: Apple, Gadget, Shopping, Tablet, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: 7th generation, apple, brydge, Computer, favorite, gadget, ipad, keyboard, tablet

Posted By RichC on February 8, 2020

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Category: Alexa, Archive, Personal, Photos, Technology, Weather | No Comments »
Tags: Alexa, amazon, annalyn, assistant, babysitting, Cam, drew, driving, echoshow, family, katelyn, ohio, perrysburg, Photos, playing, snow, virtual, weather, wyze

Posted By RichC on February 7, 2020

The week started with heartache. A  funeral for our neighbors son. That was followed by my friend Jeff heading to be with his dad’s wife Thelma in Orlando after a fall. (his dad is 93 and she is 90). It looks as if Jeff with be soon trying to figure out their care and living situation going forward (they have a second floor bedroom).

Perhaps the one most in need of pray is my sister-in-law Lynda who had her second surgery at the Cleveland Clinic to replace a arterial valve (her first was a cow valve years ago). I think it was and is an aortic valve, but I’m not positive; never the less, it is not the kind of surgery for the faint of heart (groan .. pun intended).

The good news is that she is doing well after the surgery and her husband Dan is with her and her three adult children are tag-teaming from different states. Aaron (my loyal blog reader) was with her for surgery, Justin (an MD) is assisting in getting her released and back home and finally Jackie will help at home and hopefully get Lynda back on her feet. I felt so much better after talking with Justin earlier this week and when Lynda was able to send me text messages and a couple photos. Our prayers will continue for a full and speedy recovery.

Not to be left out, Brenda continues to struggle with nerve pain in her legs making it difficult to walk and feel like she wants to do anything. Stairs are especially difficult and for her appointment yesterday I even put her “stabilizing” cane from her 2015 accident in her car to prevent her from falling (I doubt she used it). Unfortunately I was out of town so she had to go it alone when an appointment timeslot was available. Of course she never really let’s you know how she is feeling. She is in denial … I wonder where she gets that from? (the obvious answer: her dad!)

Category: Faith, Friends, Health, Personal | No Comments »
Tags: aaron, brenda, cleveland clinic, family, friends, Health, jackie, jeff, justin, lynda, medical, prayer, prayers, surgery

Posted By RichC on February 6, 2020

It has been a shockingly mild winter, at least in Cincinnati this year. Generally I don’t put the snow blower on the John Deere 330 tractor until it is needed, yet this year I prepared early … and may have frightened the snow away? Having a winter without much snow is not totally unheard of, but it did have me contemplating climate change and remembering taking a trip with our family, all hunkered down under a glacier in Canada (1989). I’m so glad we had this time together, especially since my brother-in-law Mark passed away at age 40 only a few short years after this trip.

Brenda, Ann, Gary, Mark and Rich in the Canadian Rockies – Jasper, Alberta (1989) 

Now, not to be overly political, but I find the debate between those who hyperventilate about “global warming” or the current politically correct term, “climate change” … and those who totally deny there is any change … to be very frustrating. Some of us prefer to be a bit more realistic in regard to what scientists are seeing as a relatively short term trend (in earth age) towards our climate and exactly what we can or should do about it.

First, I’m realistic, as I’ve been hearing “the sky is falling” way too many times only to watch humans adapt and innovate. Growing up I worried about nuclear annihilation and was the concerned over how much we polluted our environment, yet within 20 years, we made reasonable and modest changes … that didn’t negatively impact our economy or way of life – in fact, for most people worldwide, living conditions and lifespan was far better than in previous generations.

We protected our waterways, birds and animals, acid soils and the air quality steadily improved. People forget just how much littering and polluting of our lands and waters was happening (photo of the Cuyahoga River on fire in Cleveland Ohio 1969). In the late 1970s the panic was ozone depletion and then we worried about a second ice age and global cooling.  In the 1980 and 90s it was “peak oil” and turning to renewables; now there is a glut of oil and so much clean natural gas that coal is too expensive to mine. In fact I was (and still am) and advocate for biofuels like biodiesel – believing algae farming in deserts would be a great industry. Hm? 

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Category: Advice, Energy, Environment, Personal, Photos, Science, Technology, Travel | No Comments »
Tags: alberta, aoc, biodiesel, biofuel, climate change, cuyahoga river, Environment, family, fire, glaciers, global warming, jasper, mark howard, panic, politic, pollution, Travel