Music Monday: An old favorite from Gordon Lightfoot
Posted By RichC on November 20, 2017
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Might need to rethink our Zodiac or inflatable RIB?
Posted By RichC on November 19, 2017
It looks like at least some sharks enjoy the taste of rubberized, synthetic fabrics like Hypalon, PVC or Polyurethane used in inflatable tenders and RIBs! (8 second video snippet below)
Granddaughter Annalyn and I enjoyed another day together
Posted By RichC on November 18, 2017
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Tech Friday: Am I out of my mind upgrading to High Sierra?
Posted By RichC on November 17, 2017
I have a perfectly functioning iMac and against my better judgement spent this morning upgrading the OS to macOS High Sierra (release about 1-1/2 months ago). Hopefully that was enough time for quick fixes because I’ve upgraded Macs too many times over the years and have often regretted the decision. Usually software and hardware requires upgrading or retirement, but so far so good a few hours in with this 10.13.1 upgrade.
The upgrade took about 1 hour and after a couple restarts (some my own and related to Parallels) and it "seems" to be ok? All the normal software, and desktop look I’ve become accustom to, looks pretty good … maybe High Sierra is a winner?
Since I mentioned failures for Apple operating system upgrades over the year, I’ll mention the big fails … at least for me upgrading. The first big frustrating upgrade for me was Apple OS 6.5 to 7 … what a struggle. The second was OS9 to OSX … oh that was a whopper of a change for me. I recall sticking with OS 9 for years as the change was such a monster. Looking back … the refinements have been amazing and not all that different than the personal computer competitor, Microsoft.
For now … I think High Sierra is a winner for Apple, so my advice is to do it!
Painting and sharpening and changing chainsaw chains
Posted By RichC on November 16, 2017
A few of the late fall repairs to go along with splitting wood for winter is to keep my “collection” of old chainsaws running. Although I gave away my small old tiny McCulloch trimming saw from the 1980s, I still reluctantly use my bigger (translate = heavier) 20″ McCulloch Pro Mac 610 (PDF manual) with a square cut professional chain for larger trees and logs. More often than not though, I pick up my upgraded 16″ Poulan since it is newer and lighter … and sadly almost of disposable quality (they don’t make them like they use to).
Nevertheless, all three of my saws (even the tiny electric pole saw) needed their chain blades sharpened … I used a file but considered buying a grinder sharpener … and would have if all the chains would have been the same size!
The rain came again so I checked off another item Brenda put on my list of chores to do before winter … painting the old outdoor furniture with Rustoleum – a difficult job, since I put the wicker in storage. She wants them on the front porch during winter (yes I thought it crazy too — who sits on the porch in the winter?) I argued that we didn’t need anything on the front porch during the winter … but decided it wasn’t worth wasting my breath – we all know who wins when it comes to “aesthetics” vs “logic.”
While I’m at it, I can’t resist archiving and posting my sister-in-law’s video snippet of Jerry felling a tree … thankfully he still has all his limbs! (13 second video below)
Upside vs downside in owning GE stock after a steep decline
Posted By RichC on November 15, 2017
I occasionally receive emails or comments from friends and acquaintances who know I watch financial markets asking me to share my thoughts on investing. They really want stock "recommendations," but almost always refuse to give advice when it comes to picking and choosing individual companies. For the record, there is always financial risk and the safer route is buying a low cost ETF to spread the risk. That said, I can’t resist talking about one of if on the behemoth industrial conglomerates that a majority of investors have own over the past 100 years (as a individual stock or in a fund).
General Electric’s stock collapse this week after new CEO John Flannery outlined a restructuring plan was painful for those who hold this widely held company. Not only did his future plan include shedding smaller divisions like transportation and lighting, but also slashed the dividend by half (a big deal for most who hold GE stock). Sell orders quickly piled in on Monday and continued Tuesday … hammering the value of shares by a double-digit percentage drop.
Being an in and out owner of GE over the years, I was tempted in to buying after seeing this bellwether company slump; I broke my self-imposed 3-day rule for buying and selling "on news" and purchase on the first day (mistake) and second day of the decline (still a mistake). Hopefully in the long term this impulse buy is one I will not regret?
*** Giving the free TradingView.com chart embed a try for the GE stock above ***
A restaurant stock with OUR figure skating twist $BWLD
Posted By RichC on November 14, 2017
Always interesting when personal stories intersect with financial stories.
Roark Capital has made an offer to buy Buffalo Wild Wing
- Roark Capital has made an offer to buy Buffalo Wild Wings, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC.
- Roark made an offer of more than $150 per share, the person told CNBC. Shares surged 28 percent after the Wall Street Journal initially reported the offer.
- Shares of the restaurant chain have shed 24 percent this year.
Wall Street Journal Story 11/13/2017
A couple decades ago while living in Hudson, Ohio we took our “little girl” (photo left) Katelyn skating at the ice rink at Kent State University near our house. Little did we know that she would enjoy figure skating enough to start lessons once we moved to Cincinnati. As she excelled in the sport, we found ourselves in the Queen City Figure Skating Club and hiring experience Olympic level coaching … Dave and Rita Lowery. As is the norm, the travel and competitions became a family affair through most of Katelyn’s Junior High and High School years (and eventually as a skating coach herself, became a excellent part time job). As with 99% of figure skaters, there is only so much dedication and money before a decision needs to be made as to how far one can go with skating; thankfully Katelyn made the right choice and decided her best option was pursuing a career in medicine! 
Back to the “financial” part of the story. We often heard of the Lowery’s connection to Buffalo Wild Wings and after hearing yesterday’s news of a takeover offer of $2.3 billion had me remembering Dave telling me about his connection to founding of “BW3” (originally Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck).
1980s Beginnings
Buffalo Wild Wings was founded in 1982 by two longtime friends, Jim Disbrow and Scott Lowery. Disbrow was born in Kentucky, and had moved to Cincinnati at the age of 11 to live with figure-skating coaches David and Rita Lowery, who later became his legal guardians. Their son Scott, ten years younger, grew up regarding him as a brother. Disbrow was a talented skater, and was named an alternate to the 1968 U.S. Olympic team, later touring with the show Holiday on Ice. In 1974 he moved to Buffalo, New York, and it was there that he first experienced a spicy local version of barbecued chicken wings that had originated in 1961 at a place called the Anchor Bar.
One day in 1981, while judging a figure skating competition at Kent State University in Ohio, Disbrow met up with Scott Lowery and the pair decided to get themselves some Buffalo-style chicken wings. They looked everywhere in town and couldn’t find any, and out of their frustration came the idea to open a restaurant of their own.
Music Monday: A Jackson Browne leftover from last week
Posted By RichC on November 13, 2017
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A new spreadsheet for dividend investment tracking
Posted By RichC on November 12, 2017
It has been a challenging year to get my old spreadsheets to update property after changes in sources for the dividend tracking financial data. Since the 1990s I’ve used Yahoo as a data source to use with Excel or Google Sheets and for the most part they have been satisfactory. After changes at Yahoo in the early part of this year, I had to modify how to pull data. Eventually I found a way to use a combination of Google Finance and Yahoo Finance until ANOTHER change at the end of October.
After struggling for a week or so, I finally found a couple guys who had been building a similar spreadsheet on Google Sheets and were sharing how they pulled data from iextrading – so far it seems to be working well … BUT I’ve lost years of data and don’t intend to rebuild it again. So for now, I’ll start tracking from November which will give me a good start for 2018 unless we get shut off again. If you have a dividend investing and trading strategy, check out twoinvesting.com. 
Interesting: How much would you spend on an engagement ring?
Posted By RichC on November 11, 2017
In a financial discussion regarding saving money and cost of living for millennials, someone mentioned that in today’s world of equality, men are still expected to give an engagement ring. We’ve come a long way from the cigar band ring or spending the cliché "three months of salary."
In 2016, the average being spent for an engagement ring was $6,163, according to The Knot.
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.