My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on April 25, 2018

We live in a highly partisan time, where our differences seem to matter more than our similarities … they shouldn’t. So as can happen after the passing of the highly respected First Lady Barbara Bush, age 92 last week, people and leaders come together to show their respect for her and her family. It is good to know the nation and its politicians can still come together … even if it is for a very short time. The Paul Morse photo below does my patriotic self good.

President George H. W. Bush is in our prayers as he was hospitalized after the funeral for his wife. He is talking but in intensive care according to multiple news reports.

Obituary: Barbara Bush – Jun 8, 1925 – Apr 17, 2018

Barbara Bush, the former first lady of the United States, died April 17, 2018, at the age of 92.

Her death, which came shortly after Bush decided not to undergo further medical treatments for congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, was announced in a statement from the office of her husband, former President George H. W. Bush.

One of the world’s most recognizable women in the 1980s and ’90s, Barbara Bush presented a grandmotherly image that hid an iron will and strong determination to help her family succeed. And succeed they did — all the way to the top, more than once.

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Category: Obituary, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: barbara bush, first lady, leaders, Obituary, politician, president, united states

Posted By RichC on April 24, 2018

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Category: Faith, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: annalyn, baby, christian, church, dedication, drew, family, katelyn, waterville

Posted By RichC on April 23, 2018

It is impressive what can be accomplished with a little boldness …

Category: Advice, Humor, Photos, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: ani, boldness, dock, dog, gif, Humor, jefferson, seal, sealion, thomas

Posted By RichC on April 22, 2018

Ordered the book Rocket Men, The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon based on the author Robert Kurson and enjoying the writing style and content in his previous book Shadow Divers. If you enjoy history, space exploration, NASA and the heroic astronauts and scientist that took on the 1960s race to the moon … this book is for you.

In the early chapters, the content triggered my thinking about the the previous generations of Americans who accomplished amazing things in a very short period of time. Mentally I started to think about the amazing decades of 20th century innovations to today’s malaise (last few decades). What incredible building projects we saw from advancement in manufacturing, constructing huge skyscrapers filling US cities, hydroelectric dams and development of the airplane in the early 1900s. America came together in very short order to become the world preeminent military power after being attacked in 1941 in a very few years – amazing what was accomplished. In the decade of the 1950s we created the Interstate Highway System connecting our nation … followed by EVERYTHING that happened all at the same time in the 1960s. We had the near nuclear holocaust with the Soviet Union, racial unrest within our country, a long painful and unpopular war in Vietnam … all the while catching up and surpassing the Soviets in the space race and "choosing to go to the moon in this decade" as President Kennedy so memorably challenged us. 

Then, something changed? Instead of visionary goals and great accomplishment, we seemed to lose our ambition and drive of achievement. We sat back in our comfort, became wasteful and self-absorbed. Instead of leaders dangling carrot and encouraging each of us to be our best, government made it too easy to "just get by" without much effort.  Years turned into decades, and the once inspirational government agencies and programs became bloated bureaucracies. We as a nation sat back on the laurels of our past and patted ourselves on the back. We now we have a significant number of Americans less interested working hard, sacrificing for the future or taking risk. Besides the innovation of a few in technology and building a sharing economy, what great accomplishments have marked America since the Rocket Men?

TIDBIT for the fun of it:
Still one of the most popular posts on my blog is -"Who is Max Peck?" – was a question I asked after reading First Man back in 2005 (note the comment left on my blog to this post from Nancy PECK Coyle below).

Category: Books, History, Space, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: amazon, Books, reading, robert kurson, rocket men, rocketmen

Posted By RichC on April 21, 2018

It is probably the 1958 Packard Hawk photo on this particular Hemmings Daily post that caught my eye, but the article (and follow-up comments) are interesting too. I’ve archived the PDF of this post just in case it disappears.

Photograph by Thomas A. DeMauro

No single factor ever sinks an automaker. The struggle between profits and losses typically has its roots in circumstances suffered from decisions made years, if not decades, prior. Packard, one of the most prestigious American automakers, was no different, and a talk this weekend at the National Packard Museum will examine the various reasons behind its decline and death.

When Packard resumed building cars after World War II, it started from a relatively strong position and had many years of profitable business ahead of it; indeed, in 1949 the company sold nearly 105,000 cars, just short of its own production record. But the bricks in the company’s foundation were already starting to come loose in the late 1940s.

As Michael G.H. Scott pointed out in Packard: The Complete Story, due to a prewar concentration on lower-priced cars, “Packard was now geared for volume production of lower-priced cars” even though “many think Packard might have survived longer had it again concentrated only on the carriage trade after the war” and “the war’s end would have been a fine time for a fresh total-luxury approach.”

READ full article on Hemmings Daily

[adinserter name=”Block 1″]

Category: Automotive, History, Packard | No Comments »
Tags: auto, cars, classic, collector, hawk, hemmings, museum, packard

Posted By RichC on April 20, 2018

Google today launched Chrome 66 for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. The desktop release includes autoplaying content muted by default, security improvements, and new developer features. You can update to the latest version now using the browser’s built-in updater or download it directly from google.com/chrome.With over 1 billion users, Chrome is both a browser and a major platform that web developers have to consider. In fact, with Chrome’s regular additions and changes, developers have to keep up …

Source: Chrome 66 arrives with autoplaying content blocked by default

Category: Computer, Technology, Video | No Comments »
Tags: browser, chrome, features, google, internet, tech friday, techfriday, update, venture beat, video, youtube

Posted By RichC on April 19, 2018

Throwback Thursday #TBT: A lot of my free time in high school and college was spent dreaming about sailing living on a sailboat.  I read and reread stories, the monthly magazines and bookshelves of accumulated nautical books about cruising, seamanship and maintaining a sailboat — I was focused on “would be possible for me to live the cruising sailing lifestyle?”

In those early years, there were a few couples who captured making the live-aboard lifestyle (on a shoestring) possible as well as Lin and Larry Pardey. They kept my interest piqued year after year … and renewed it time and time again even as my ordinary life got in the way.

If you’ve read my blog through the years, you would have noticed that I’ve included posts, book segments and videos about the Pardeys before, but including this video leaves me a bit melancholy as we are ALL watching the sand pile grow larger at the bottom of life’s hourglass. Upbeat as always Lin shared a positive comment from Larry, just before his memory completely disappeared. She mention to him a couple years ago that wouldn’t it be nice to have one more sailing adventure … to which he replied … “that would be downright greedy.” What a life they have lived.

Category: Books, Hobby, Memories, Sailing, TBT, Video | No Comments »
Tags: boat building, Books, inspirational, new zealand, pardey, sailboat, TBT, video, youtube

Posted By RichC on April 18, 2018

I have teased my “good humored” son far too long about his “girlfriend” from Wayzata Minnesota a few years ago (click here for old photo). So with that “old joke” aside, I think it is about time to officially include his friend Megan on the blog and mention we are excited to see them spending a lot of time together.

Megan is not a new face to our family, as we’ve known her since she figure skated with my daughter Katelyn. Age-wise, Megan was younger than Katelyn … actually about Taylor’s age. The “skating gang” was often together since they practiced nearly every day before school and traveled to skating competitions. The skaters, their parents and siblings all became friends as part of the Queen City Figure Skating Club and many of us stayed in touch over the years.

As the kids all grew up, they headed off in different directions. Off to different colleges, meeting spouses and taking jobs in different cities. We remained friends with many of the parents and have included them in Christmas card exchanges as well as milestone celebrations. Megan’s mom was particularly notable for her extremely thoughtful and crafty gifts, cards, etc and made an effort to stay in touch. I’m not sure how Taylor and Megan reconnected since she is in Columbus and Taylor is in Cincinnati, but both Brenda and I are thrilled to see the two of them enjoying time together and dating.

This past weekend they attended the wedding of one of Taylor best friends and sent us a few photos (above) from the reception. Having known Alicia since grade school (???), Brenda and I wish both her and Laureano our congratulations (Married April 14, 2018).

Category: Archive, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: alicia, archive, family, megan, taylor, weddings

Posted By RichC on April 17, 2018

Have you filed your income tax return yet? 2017 returns are due today!

While catching up on some reading while out of town this week, Jim Glassman, Head Economist at JPMorgan Chase, had me pondering (and tweeting) about the length of sustained growth that might be possible after the recession. He, and many others, have pointed out that “at 106 months, the current recovery has surpassed the prolonged economic expansion of the 1960s to become the second-longest period of sustained growth in recent history.” Those of us referencing history and noting the average of 7-8 years between recessions are starting to get a bit concerned. That said, the tepid recovering during the Obama years and business jolt due to tax cuts kicking in this years should be enough to keep the present business growth cycle going. Glassman’s analysis is that “The Recovery Still Has Room to Run.”

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Category: Business, Financial | No Comments »
Tags: Business, economy, Financial, growth, investing, jim glassman, jpmorgan

Posted By RichC on April 16, 2018

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Category: Music | No Comments »
Tags: bernie taupin, daniel, elton john, misinterpreted, mp3, music monday, musicmonday, vietnam