Christmas Music Monday: Merry old semi-nautical carol
Posted By RichC on December 25, 2017
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Do we show enough appreciation for a well decorated home?
Posted By RichC on December 24, 2017
My wife Brenda shows a lot of attention to decorating with memories and detail to our house each December (and my mother did too). I wish I would be more thankful, but am usually a bit Grinchy when ask to do just a few things 
that seem to much such a waste of time … you know, the put it up and taking down of décor for just for a couple weeks each year? This year I’ve been trying to be better, but I’m sure I have rolled my eyes once or twice after having to move the ladder again, replace another string of lights again or add another hook here and there … again.
When we are buzzing around the house, I don’t necessarily take the time to notice the MANY little thoughtful touches and decorations she has collected that are carefully stored and placed just so to make our house beautiful and festive each Christmas. I do appreciate it. I’m sure it is the same with my kids, especially as adults. They recognize the hundreds (seriously!) of memory items that come out to make our house a warm and inviting place to come home to for the holidays.
I wonder how many other husbands either ignore or fail to appreciate the touches their wives (and mothers) do/did this time of year? (below are just a few memory items archived in photos)
Stopping to take a house photo on my way up the driveway
Posted By RichC on December 23, 2017
Just a beautiful sky (photos doesn’t do it justice) as the new LED Christmas spots and candle lights pop on as I head up the driveway. Good for the blog archive.
After a cold start, having sunny but cool weather right before Christmas is welcomed … but should be thinking about getting the blower put on the John Deere as I’m sure it won’t be long before the snow.
Tech Friday: Apple slows down older iPhones. What to do?
Posted By RichC on December 22, 2017
The big technology news this week if you are an iPhone user is that Apple has a "feature" that slows down older iPhones with older batteries in order to protect users from unwanted crashes. Yes … your phone older phone will actually run slower.
According to CNET, the best option for owners of older iPhones is to:
- Buy a new phone
- Use a battery case
- Replace the battery
Of course the "new phone" is a bit drastic if the battery isn’t what it once was and your phone is still reasonable functional (iPhones 6s or 7s) … so perhaps a battery case would work?I used Mophie and Lenmar cases for years with the iPhone 5 and 5s believing they were the best few dollars I could have spent on a phone.
Now with the newer iPhone 7 (Brenda) and 7-plus (mine) … the battery life easily makes it through the entire day. I would be hard pressed to add the additional weight of a battery case to my Plus sized phone and would go for number 3 "when" my phones slows – replace the battery. If in my case it happens before Apple Care fades, it should be under warranty … if not, I might opt to open the case (voids the warranty).
How hard can it be to replace an iPhone battery? Remove some screws, open up the case, take out the old battery, plug in the new one and you’re done, right?
Right. Except those screws are tiny. The case is hard to get open. Inside, you have to remove a bunch more screws and some fragile ribbon cables just to get to the battery. Which is glued in place. Then you have to do it all in reverse.
If you’ve never ventured inside an iPhone before, this can be some nerve-wracking surgery. It helps to have video-tutorial guidance (see below), but trust me when I say it’s easy to make a mistake. And if you flub along the way, you’ll brick your phone.
The DIY option, however, is definitely the cheapest. Replacement battery kits are available from Amazon, eBay and countless other sources, most of them priced anywhere from $10-$30. Personally, I recommend spending a few dollars more to buy from a reputable (and customer-reviewed) vendor on Amazon.
For example, this iPhone 6 Plus battery kit sells for about $30 and looks very similar to what you can find on eBay for about $11, but comes with detailed instructions (both print and video), a one-year warranty and customer support (via email). Of particular interest, it has a 4.5-star rating from over 150 customers, suggesting that a large majority of buyers were successful in their installation attempt and happy with the result.
Although this and similar kits come with the tools you need, I definitely recommend adding a tabletop magnifying lamp to the mix. For my aging eyes, at least, it greatly simplifies working with the iPhone’s tiny screws and cables.
As for the battery itself, it’s a crap-shoot: Ideally you want something that’s "genuine OEM," but it’s hard to be certain what you’re getting. That’s all the more reason to spend a little extra and go with a rated vendor.
Another memory with friends of our 1st Christmas together #TBT
Posted By RichC on December 21, 2017
Although my memory is a little bit foggy, Brenda and I probably saw each other a couple of Christmas’s prior our first Christmas? We were dating in 1980 and engaged in 1981 and likely celebrated with each other close to the day, 
but were home with our families for Christmas Day.
Anyway, when scanning the photos for the post several days ago, I also ran across a couple photos of my college roommate Jerry and then Brenda’s roommate Pam (married shortly after) and ended up posting it to her Facebook page in order to wish her a Happy Birthday. They were our close friends when we lived in Aurora (Jerry was single and lived in Cleveland at the time) and came over to helped us string popcorn and decorate our first tree. That fond memory rolled over me and thought it was worth archiving on My Desultory Blog. Good days and good times.
Last minute gift idea AND picking the right hose clamp #humor
Posted By RichC on December 20, 2017
Just in case there are a few men looking for last minute jewelry gifts to give to their sweetheart for Christmas, here’s a ring idea that will pretty much guarantee that you’ll never need to worry again – you’ll either be alone … or dead!
And since I know there is sure to be a thought or comment from one of my sailing 
friends about cheap hose clamps, perhaps an upgrade is in order? Open that squeaky wallet and go with the AWAB or ABA … at least for the boat! 
Here’s a 2014 Practical Sailor test on hose clamps.
Conclusions
The two T-bolts, Shields and Trident, cost over $10 each, and the ABA and AWAB were more expensive than any of the other worm-gear clamps at about $5 each. However, the ABA and AWAB are clearly made of higher-quality materials, are constructed well, performed smoothly with good compression, and excelled in our long-term corrosion test by showing no signs of tarnish. Practical Sailor recommends either of these hose clamps for all on-board general purpose and critical use applications. For extra measure of security, it is recommended that you put two hose clamps on each hose-fitting union that is below the waterline when the boat is heeled.
Food for thought from a pediatrician on gender identity
Posted By RichC on December 19, 2017
Although I have the traditional conservative view that one’s gender is in our DNA and one that we are born with, I understand there are those who differ. Let’s at least try to agree as a nation that we should at least protect young kids and early teens from the irreparable damage parents and doctor can do to children by using drugs and surgery to a psychological problem.
Michelle Cretella, M.D. the president of the American College of Pediatricians shared her thoughts earlier this month in a short article and video (below) – it is worth watching.
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EDIT Add: Discussion as to why this was removed by YouTube:
Closing in on a GOP Tax Plan vote – all signs point to Tuesday
Posted By RichC on December 18, 2017
While waiting for the predicted Tuesday vote on the GOP Tax Plan that has been anticipated ALL year, it is looking like it might actually get done in 2017. It has not been easy or as simple as many of us wanted “Tax Reform,” but the corporate tax cut will make the U.S. more competitive worldwide. On the personal side, the cuts aren’t quite as clear since it all depends where one lives as to what kind of cuts will be seen. High taxed states and cities in the past have been able to deduction their local taxes on Federal returns, now this will be limited to a $10,000 cap in deductions. For the wealthier in those states who have large mortgages, there is also a cap of $750,000. For the rest of the country … average Americans who have children or take care of elderly parents, the savings will be significant. The promised simplicity is a little muddled, but it will still be better than what “most” go through today.
December 18, 2017 Monday Morning Market Opening
The financial markets love that corporations can bring overseas cash back to the U.S. at a lower 15% “repatriation” rate and that these companies will have lower taxes in 2018. Economic growth is anticipated and it has yet to be seen, but most of us believe those wanting to grow business will invest capital and hire employees. Who knows … but watching the Fed inching rates up, it does look like they want to stay ahead of an economy that could heat up. If you are long in stocks today … it is probably a good day.
EDIT: Adding a couple of additional projected tax rate screen shots for tax rates filing single or married.
Music Monday: Some history to Jackson Browne’s “Stay”
Posted By RichC on December 18, 2017
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Semi-humorous advice from a Roomba Vacuuming Robot user
Posted By RichC on December 17, 2017
Before you buy a Roomba vacuuming robot "used," be sure you know what it has been cleaning.
Actually I couldn’t help but smile at this well told and somewhat humorous story that might also be a useful warning to others?
Credit to Jesse Newton:
So, last week, something pretty tragic happened in our household. It’s taken me until now to wrap my head around it and find the words to describe the horror. It started off simple enough – something that’s probably happened to most of you.
Sometime between midnight and 1:30am, our puppy Evie pooped on our rug in the living room. This is the only time she’s done this, so it’s probably just because we forgot to let her out before we went to bed that night. Now, if you have a detective’s mind, you may be wondering how we know the poop occurred between midnight and 1:30am. We were asleep, so how do I know that time frame?
Why, friends, that’s because our Roomba runs at 1:30am every night, while we sleep. And it found the poop. And so begins the Pooptastrophe. The poohpocalypse. The pooppening.
If you have a Roomba, please rid yourself of all distractions and absorb everything I’m about to tell you.
Do not, under any circumstances, let your Roomba run over dog poop. If the unthinkable does happen, and your Roomba runs over dog poop, stop it immediately and do not let it continue the cleaning cycle. Because if that happens, it will spread the dog poop over every conceivable surface within its reach, resulting in a home that closely resembles a Jackson Pollock poop painting.
It will be on your floorboards. It will be on your furniture legs. It will be on your carpets. It will be on your rugs. It will be on your kids’ toy boxes. If it’s near the floor, it will have poop on it. Those awesome wheels, which have a checkered surface for better traction, left 25-foot poop trails all over the house. Our lovable Roomba, who gets a careful cleaning every night, looked like it had been mudding. Yes, mudding – like what you do with a Jeep on a pipeline road. But in poop.
Then, when your four-year-old gets up at 3am to crawl into your bed, you’ll wonder why he smells like dog poop. And you’ll walk into the living room. And you’ll wonder why the floor feels slightly gritty. And you’ll see a brown-encrusted, vaguely Roomba-shaped thing sitting in the middle of the floor with a glowing green light, like everything’s okay. Like it’s proud of itself. You were still half-asleep until this point, but now you wake up pretty damn quickly.
And then the horror. Oh the horror.
So, first you clean the child. You scrub the poop off his feet and put him back in bed. But you don’t bother cleaning your own feet, because you know what’s coming. It’s inevitable, and it’s coming at you like a freight train. Some folks would shrug their shoulders and get back in bed to deal with it in the morning. But you’re not one of those people – you can’t go to sleep with that war zone of poop in the living room.
So you clean the Roomba. You toss it in the bathtub to let it soak. You pull it apart, piece-by-piece, wondering at what point you became an adult and assumed responsibility for 3:30am-Roomba-disassembly-poop-cleanups. By this point, the poop isn’t just on your hands – it’s smeared up to your elbows. You already heard the Roomba make that "whirlllllllllllllllll-boop-hisssssssss" noise that sounds like electronics dying, and you realize you forgot to pull the battery before getting it wet.
Oh, and you’re not just using profanity – you’re inventing new types of profanity. You’re saying things that would make Satan shudder in revulsion. You hope your kid stayed in bed, because if he hears you talking like this, there’s no way he’s not ending up in prison.
Then you get out the carpet shampooer. When you push it up to the rug – the rug that started it all – the shampooer just laughs at you. Because that rug is going in the trash, folks. But you shampoo it anyway, because your wife loved that damn rug, and you know she’ll ask if you tried to clean it first.
Then you get out the paper towel rolls, idly wondering if you should invest in paper towel stock, and you blow through three or four rolls wiping up poop. Then you get the spray bottle with bleach water and hose down the floor boards to let them soak, because the poop has already dried. Then out comes the steam mop, and you take care of those 25-ft poop trails.
And then, because it’s 6am, you go to bed. Let’s finish this tomorrow, right?
The next day, you finish taking the Roomba apart, scraping out all the tiny flecks of poop, and after watching a few Youtube instructional videos, you remove the motherboard to wash it with a toothbrush. Then you bake it in the oven to dry. You put it all back together, and of course it doesn’t work. Because you heard the "whirlllllllllllllll-boop-hissssssss" noise when it died its poopy death in the bathtub. But you hoped that maybe the Roomba gods would have mercy on you.
But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. After spending a week researching how to fix this damn £350 Roomba without spending £350 again – including refurb units, new motherboards, and new batteries – you finally decide to call the place where you bought it. That place called Hammacher Schlemmer. They have a funny name, but they have an awesome warranty. They claim it’s for life, and it’s for any reason.
So I called them and told the truth. My Roomba found dog poop and almost precipitated World War III.
And you know what they did? They offered to replace it. Yes, folks. They are replacing the Roomba that ran over dog poop and then died a poopy, watery death in the bathtub – by no fault of their own, of course.
So, mad props to Hammacher Schlemmer. If you’re buying anything expensive, and they sell it, I recommend buying it from them. And remember – don’t let your Roomba run over dog poop…
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.