For 2020, how about less focus on self and more on others?
Posted By RichC on December 29, 2019
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What do you do when you don’t feel like cleaning? Tinker instead.
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!
A Fuelly.com update on my 2010 BMW X5 35d #diesel
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.
Archive: Found a short Sonex airplane project video for #TBT
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!)
Shocking – how could this hang here for over 24 years?
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. 🙃
Music Monday: We don’t see family often enough as time passes in “the wink of an eye” – Jackson Browne and The Pretender
Posted By RichC on December 23, 2019
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Interesting report on the TDAmeritrade – Schwab combo
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
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.
“Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow” … but not like this! #video
Posted By RichC on December 21, 2019
I love these motion-sensing Wyze Cams …
Now what if someone happened to be coming to the front door? Yikes … although more than likely it would just be funny.
Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.