A quick visit to Perrysburg Ohio to see Katelyn, Drew and Annalyn
Posted By RichC on July 6, 2017
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Pressure washing the antifouling paint on sailboats
Posted By RichC on July 5, 2017
Just wanted to archive some Practical Sailor “Waypoints” advice excerpted from Renee D. Petrillo’s A Sail of Two Idiots … good to remember about powerwashing.
… we had a narrow canal to squeeze through to reach the Travelift. Then we were strapped into it and hoisted out of the water. We then made one of the most expensive mistakes ever. We were asked if we wanted the bottom pressure-washed or to just give it a quick rinse. Because Americans often think that more is better, we went for the most powerful option. Our bottom paint had held up well from the Bahamas application, but with the pressure-washing, we watched $3,500 of liquid gold (or blue antifouling paint, in this case) wash into the boatyard. The boat bottom was now nice and clean, all right, but it would need repainting. You do not want to make this mistake.
Lesson 91: Just Say “No!” If your bottom looks good, and there’s a lot of antifouling paint on it, when someone asks if you want it pressure washed – say it with me now – “NO!!!!!” A light washing with a garden hose will do just nicely, thank you.
Independence Day: Render Unto Caesar, a Mike Rowe Podcast
Posted By RichC on July 4, 2017
If you listen and make it to the end of this 10 minute July 4, 2017 Independence Day podcast by Mike Rowe, you’ll get the point of this interesting story. Well worth the Blue Apron advertisement and introduction (definitely a worthwhile podcast to subscribe to or follow on Facebook).
| Render Unto Caesar (mp3) | Mike Rowe – 2017 |
Music Monday: Fire and Rain. James Taylor Live in 1970 (and it triggered a personal memory and story from 1980!)
Posted By RichC on July 3, 2017
As is all to frequent … the YouTube video has been removed.
When it comes to music, I’ve always been a James Taylor fan and have posted a few times about him. This past weekend I ran across a YouTube clip from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert from a year or so ago that had me laughing (video below). The skit was about James Taylor writing “Fire and Rain” … and that “he hadn’t seen that many things.” Funny stuff, but … it also had me remembering it on his original vinyl album “Sweet Baby James” or watching him live at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum in 1980 with Kim Carnes (archiving “my” story after the below video).
Personal story:
At the end of the summer in 1980, I had sold my 1974 Capri and purchased a 1973 Cadillac Coupe de Ville that was hit by a train (drivable but needed a little body work – my thing at that time). It was a BIG and comfortable car with a giant 489cu in V-8 with a thirst for gasoline to match (probably why my next car was a 1977 Honda Civic!) … but I’m off track.
Anyway, a good friend and I decided we wanted to go to the James Taylor concert in Cincinnati so we bought 4 tickets ($10 ea) and took our dates down to the Riverfront Coliseum (just 8 months after The Who concert disaster) for the 8PM concert. As I rolled into the 3 floor of the parking garage in downtown Cincinnati on a hot August summer night, we heard a loud BOOM from under the LONG hood of the car and watch all the antifreeze gush out. Hm, I knew it must be a radiator hose and didn’t bother to even open the hood. Off to the concert … excellent by the way … and left for the car just as the encores were starting. At least the parking garage was not backed up and the streets of Cincinnati bare at midnight. I’m not sure why, but drove across the bridge to Covington, Kentucky and rolled off at the first block over the river into a parking lot of an all night parts store. What are the chances … just FYI, this is way before cellphones, etc. I walked in, picked up the correct under $10 hose and with a rag and a couple tools from the trunk changed the very hot hose and added water. Within 30 minutes we were back on the road and heading 2 hours back home to Sidney — I don’t recall the feedback from our dates’ parents, but never dated her again. I wonder why?
Our family settling into a new city with a house of their own
Posted By RichC on July 2, 2017
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Congratulations Drew and welcome back home to Ohio
Posted By RichC on July 1, 2017
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TechFriday: Larger screened iPhones flipping to landscape
Posted By RichC on June 30, 2017
Switching from an iPhone 5s to an iPhone 7 Plus has a few surprising pluses and minuses that need to be address by new users. One such negative adjustment has a fix that on the surface may not be found by everyone.
The annoyance: 
The larger iPhones (currently 6 Plus & 7 Plus) go into “landscape mode” on the home screen and split screen on certain apps if the phone is turn horizontal in its standard setting. For some apps this is helpful, but for me, something I dislike on the home screen … particularly the home screen jumping to auto rotate back and forth while pulling out of my pocket or off the desk.
So the “easy” and likely known fix is to swipe up and “lock” the screen into portrait mode. While this fixes the home screen issue, it is not helpful if you want to look at landscape photos or video (you’ll have to swipe up and unlock each time).
So a better fix is to go to the Apple iPhone “Setting –> Display & Brightness –> View” and select “Zoomed” instead of “Standard” … your iPhone Plus will restart to implement these changes. This will enlarge icons and change the split screen view on a few apps (to look like smaller and older iPhones), but it will fix the dreaded flipping or pivoting “Home” screen when you pick up your smartphone. Give it a try.
Getting hit or hitting something while sailing
Posted By RichC on June 29, 2017
One of the fears when sailing long distances across oceans is either getting hit or hitting something. Numerous stories have been told by those who survive hitting “something” … and who knows how many are never told? My phobia is striking a partially submerged shipping container, debris or log with our fiberglass boat on a passage in the middle of the night. Other sailors spend thousand of dollars on AIS, radar and deflectors in hope to be seen and avoid a collision with a ship — ie. USS Fitzgerald recent yet avoidable accident.
A lessor worry but still realistic possibility is a whale (photo above or animated gif below) or other marine mammal or fish.
Kito de Pavant and his Bastide Otio hit an unidentified floating object. The damage was fatal for the boat and the skipper was forced to abandon the race and his monohull. .. When the videos recorded on the hard disk aboard the boat become available, it was discovered that the unidentified object was in fact a sperm whale, which was clearly visible in the wake of the boat.
Extra work that makes little sense – salt and pepper shakers
Posted By RichC on June 28, 2017
Did you ever find yourself spending way too much time on something where it makes no logical sense? Well this is the case for a set 
of my wife Brenda’s salt and pepper shakers … of which she has many.
Her grandmother had a collection that was split between her grandchildren and daughter-in-law (Brenda’s mom), which eventually were handed down to daughters and grandchildren. The salt and pepper shakers have little monetary value, but sentimentally they are priceless.
Such is the case for two of the larger shakers that Brenda’s dad used until his death … so when we were replacing things in the new kitchen certain items had more value than others. The Harvest Time "tiny mug" shakers have screw on caps that were rusty and so trying to figure out what to do with them fell to me. Initially (photo) I wire brushed and chemically de-rusted them and then checked with Brenda. She now wants them repainted and sealed so now they will go back to the shop and roughed up for some leftover John Deere "green" paint and maybe a shot of clear lacquer, enamel or polyurethane to keep them from rusting again. As I mentioned in the subject line … "extra work that makes little sense."
New iPhone7plus and new VirginMobileUSA as carrier
Posted By RichC on June 27, 2017
Well so much for waiting for the new iPhone8 to arrive in the fall … as was the plan. On the other hand, the $1000 “rumored” price was frightening me anyway.
Last week for a Tech Friday post I blogged on the VirginMobileUSA “Inner Circle” promo that offered unlimited talk, text and “almost” unlimited data for $1 (for 12 months) if you purchase a new iPhone. 
So after doing the calculations decided that buying a new iPhone now, and paying an 8 cents per month Virgin Mobile bill for a year … and selling my iPhone5s on eBay might work out in my favor. We shall see.
Instead of waiting for Virgin to ship an iPhone, I opted to go down to the Apple Store in Cincinnati to see if they could offer the deal and handle the switch as the Virgin Customer Service rep suggested. On Friday their order taking service went down or was just buggy so I was unable place an order. Unfortunately the usually super sharp Apple Store employees could not figure out the promo (it was new to them) and after spending over an hour with a half dozen working on getting me signed up and switch over from Ting, they gave up. I still came home with the new iPhone 7 plus and SIM card, but decided to wait until Monday to talk with Virgin’s (actually Sprint’s) tier level 3 tech support. By noon all was operational and my number was successfully ported — which was the glitch (something in the Sprint network … the actual towers and hardware Virgin Mobile USA is on).
I also purchase a highly rated but lower priced (cheaper than Otterbox) Supcase Unicorn Beetle PRO Series Full-body Rugged Holster Case with Built-in Screen Protector for $17.69 on Amazon with free 2-day Prime shipping so it does add a bit of bulk to the already large App[le iPhone 7 Plus phone, BUT there is a lot more phone to protect. Cellphones are no longer inexpensive and I’ve seen one too many cracked screens to be dealing with that on this new gadget (even though I did opt for 2-years of Applecare – have never done that before).
New Unicorn Beetle case for the iPhone7Plus vs the old Otterbox Commuter for the 5s
After an afternoon of using the new phone and carrier, I’m pretty happy with the service and speeds. The minor disappointment was in giving up my Ting “included” Personal Hotspot as a way to tether my notebook computer and iPad when on the road (or on the boat). It is something I can add on, but for $10/month for 2 GB of data, I’ll pass for now since I do have my Freedom Pop 4G puck and free but very limited T-Mobile wireless connection on my iPad (I’ve successfully added 5GB for 5 months to it twice now, but think it is only for new purchases — ie. one time???).
Screen display size comparison between my old iPhone 5s and the new 7 Plus.
For now I’ll keep Ting running a few more days and then see if there is any way to finagle getting Brenda’s iPhone7 ported over to Virgin’s “InnerCircle” promo … that would really be great!
Ran a couple speed tests on the new iPhone 7 Plus … one on my home Cincinnati Bell Fioptics and the other on Virgin’s Sprint connection from the house. It was better than with my iPhone5s.
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.