My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on April 11, 2019

A Smartthings- like plug that I used with the Amazon Echo virtual assistant failed this past week, so I took it to the workbench in order to diagnose. I suspected that I was not really going to be able to fix it, but was curious as to what what inside anyway (sort of hoping, but not expecting that there would be a replaceable fuse).

Note in the photo (left) below there is a 12A chip/fuse soldered to the circuit board, but it is not replaceable … but has failed. I’m not exactly sure what may have burned out the 12A internal circuit, but the other smart plugs are working just fine.

Category: Alexa, Misc, Politics, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: Alexa, amazon, DOT, echo, electronics, fuse, home, macro, plug, smart, things, workshop

Posted By RichC on April 10, 2019

According to Gasbuddy.com as reported in a Fox News article, the best day to fill up your car will depend on where you live … BUT in general, “fill up earlier in the week when the traffic is a little quieter since there is more volatility and higher prices later in the week."

The ideal day does vary state to state, with Monday being the best in 29 and the District of Columbia and Tuesday in 19, while Wednesday is bargain day in Hawaii and Sunday in Utah.

Here’s the full list for best days to hit the pump:

Monday:

Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming

Tuesday:

Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin

Wednesday:

Hawaii

Sunday:

Utah

Link to Gasbuddy’s PDF cheat sheet

Category: Automotive, Financial, News, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: automobile, cars, foxnew, fuel, gasbuddy, gasoline, money, savings, thrifty

Posted By RichC on April 9, 2019

There aren’t many things that makes a mom and dad prouder than realizing their parenting efforts have paid off. We are now regularly seeing our children as productive professional adults and realizing that our being positive examples, and prioritizing school and providing a college education, has paid off.

Besides Katelyn and husband Drew being accomplished professionally and more importantly, wonderful parents themselves, our son Taylor (Clermont County’s Planner above) continues to impress us with just how knowledgeable he is both in and outside of his career field … and just how much he continues to absorb (well rounded).

So, for other parents who may read my blog … take this to heart: Some gain their knowledge early in life, like when in there formal schooling, others are more equipped for “long game” and seem to grow in knowledge and wisdom exponentially. Some seem to start a little slower, build steam through college, but will continue to learn and mature when they find their niche. Our Taylor has been one of those, and has definitely grown and matured in his profession; it is wonderful to know he has found a great fit where he has excelled.

Category: Archive, Business, Education, Human Interest, Personal, Social Media, Video | No Comments »
Tags: clermont, county, development, drew, economic, Education, family, katelyn, planner, professional, taylor, youtube

Posted By RichC on April 8, 2019

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Category: Entertainment, Memories, Music, Video | No Comments »
Tags: 1960s, good morning, hair, harry belafonte, mp3, music monday, musical, musicmonday, oliver, starshine, youtube

Posted By RichC on April 7, 2019

The Antonov An-225 is one big aircraft … a strategic airlifter built in the Soviet Union in 1985 with a first flight in 1988 with the designed purpose of airlifting Energia rocket’s boosters and the Buran orbiter for the Soviet space program in the 1980s.

Category: Aviation, History | No Comments »
Tags: aircraft, airlift, an-225, antonov, aviation, photo, russia, soviet

Posted By RichC on April 6, 2019

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Pediatrician Katelyn Oostra, MD, talked about the prevention of childhood obesity this past Wednesday night at a presentation for Super Fitness Weight Loss Challenge contestants. Each year the physical fitness center joins together with WTOL, Channel 11, to host a healthy weight loss challenge. This year, physicians from ProMedica participated by presenting on various health topics. Dr. Oostra stressed the importance of setting healthy habits for your family, and answered questions from participants. #SuperFitnessWeightLossChallenge #Fitness #WeightLoss

A post shared by ProMedica (@promedicahealth) on Apr 5, 2019 at 8:50am PDT

There’s no better person to talk about “healthy weight” than Dr. Katelyn Oostra.

Category: Health | No Comments »
Tags: childhood, Health, instagram, katelyn, obesity, pedicatrician, promedica

Posted By RichC on April 6, 2019

Obviously labeling someone as a “fascist, socialist or an authoritarian dictator” is not new in politics, but the bigger government grows, the more we U.S. voters need to defend America’s founding principles such as individual liberty and personal freedom.

During the 2016 campaign and election of President Donald Trump, those on the political left were quick to point out Trump’s authoritarian CEO leadership style as concerning. As someone who is NOT left-leaning at all, I understood their “concern,” … but still trusted our co-equal branches were structured in a way that they would keep dominate presidents in check. The extreme left went so far as to refer to Trump as Fascist and equated him to Hitler and his administration of reminiscent of 1930s Germany –– and they were serious. Perhaps we all need to know more about Giovanni Gentile?

In the same vein, those of us who believe a smaller and less intrusive government provides the best environment that lifts all boats (some more than others), see the breed of Democrats embracing socialism as concerning. Their open and outspoken anger towards competitive market-driven America gets my dander up.  It is shocking to see people supporting not only higher taxes and more government regulation of business, as we’ve seen with liberal and progressive Democrats for the last century, but the socialist Democrats have no problem with government taking over more private business and without any evidence that U.S. government-run entities, or any socialist country in the world, are capable of improving quality and efficiency in any area they want government to run.

The whole political philosophical discussion has me wondering if our mindset has a lot to do with the era in which we grew up? For example, my politics likely came of age during the 1980s and watching the once Democrat share his enlightenment as to the reason he adopted Republican philosophies. President Ronald Reagan definitely made far more sense to me that what I was seeing coming from the Democrats of the day … and after seeing this short clip shared by Dinesh D’Souza saying, ONCE AGAIN FROM THE GIPPER GETS IT RIGHT DEPT: “If fascism ever comes to America, it will come in the name of liberalism.” –Ronald Reagan

Category: History, Idioms, Politics, Video | No Comments »
Tags: Business, communism, economy, fascism, giovanni gentile, idiom, labels, opinion, president, reagan, socialism, trump

Posted By RichC on April 5, 2019

The answer is … “no, I did not take or Photoshop this photo, it was on Twitter.”

Category: Photography, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: clouds, photo, photography, photoshopped, shark, sharks, sky, twitter

Posted By RichC on April 4, 2019

It looks like Drew’s Tesla Model 3 will arrive just in time (he is currently waiting for delivery), in order to avoid Ohio’s additional 10.5 cent/gallon gasoline tax hike? This new increase will boost Ohio’s gasoline tax it to 38.5 cents per gallon; it is expected that Ohio’s governor will sign a bill which just passed Ohio’s House and Senate. I guess my grumbling and blogging about the regressive nature of such a tax hurting average citizens went nowhere? Understandably, since money to repair roads and bridges needs to come from somewhere … as if plug-in electric vehicles don’t use the same roads (most EVs are also priced out of the reach of low to middle income Ohioans).

Aside from government always wanting more money to spend, Republican Governor Mike DeWine actually fought for a much larger 18 cent per gallon gasoline tax increase version the 10.5 passed by the Ohio Congress (a tiny victory) … which proves it doesn’t matter who we elect, because Democrats and Republicans both like spending other peoples money and neither party knows how to tighten the belt of government. As my retirement years approach, I’m starting to think one of those low taxed states is looking more and more attractive.

To add insult to injury, drivers of diesel vehicles, who are already taxed more, will see diesel fuel taxed an addition 19 cents per gallon (nearly twice the increase gasoline will see) … OUCH… I may have to rethink my relatively fuel efficient 2010 BMW X5 35d and old Mercedes 300D Turbodiesel?

About the only good thing is that the new budget plan for July 1, 2020 will allow for the removal of the front license plate … supposedly boosting public transportation funding by adding that saving amounting to $70 million a year? Call me dubious … but glad to be done with the “bug catching” front license plate on the front of our cars (I’m already running my old Mercedes without a front plate (photo above) – yikes!)

Article LINK

Category: Automotive, BMW, Diesel, Energy, Mercedes, News, Politics | No Comments »
Tags: 300d, BMW, dewine, diesel, drew, gas, gasoline, governor, license, mercedes, ohio, plate, tax, tesla, x5 35d

Posted By RichC on April 3, 2019

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Category: Archive, Memories, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: annalyn, babyshower, bahamas, bed and breakfast, building, cpp, cuyahoga valley, drew, family, hiking, katelyn, megan, national, office, ohio, park, snow, taylor, vacation