January 19, 2017
Heating with wood is in my genes, since my parents started heating with wood back when we lived on Lake Erie and were constantly without heat either due to power outages in the rural area we lived, floods forcing the power company to turn off utilities or the old finicky oil burner furnace (think “Christmas […]
Filed under: Memories, Personal, Photos, TBT by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: aurora, garage, house, hudson, jamestown, loafing, TBT, woodstove, workshop
January 17, 2017
My mother-in-law passed away last week … or as my good friend Pastor Keith Thomas (groupbiblestudy.com) said, "graduated." The word choice is very fitting for Mom Howard considering she has been a lifelong Christian and loved studying and memorizing the Bible. She has been looking forward to "graduating" from this temporary life on earth to […]
Filed under: Faith, Obituary, Personal by RichC | 4 Comments »
Tags: brenda, family, frances howard, momh, obit, Obituary
January 3, 2017
I’m feeling guilty about receive a Christmas present from my daughter and son-in-law after realizing the price ($$$). I mistakenly admired a bag Drew‘s brother demonstrated to me when they had the baby reveal … and although I knew is was above average in price, I never took the time to do the research as […]
Filed under: Holiday, Photos, Video by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: bag, camera, family, gx8, lumix, mp4, peak design, test, video
December 18, 2016
Testing the new 25mm Four Third Panasonic Lumix prime lens on before "wrapping it up for my Christmas gift from Brenda." I needed to know if it works … cough, cough. (click here for Large Image — be warned) Also updated the GX8 body to Firmware 2.2, so we are up to date on […]
Filed under: Misc, Photos, Tidbits, Video by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: aperture, gx8, iso, lindsey stirling, lumix, panasonic, photography, prime lens, settings, violin, youtube
December 14, 2016
I finally finished up a long overdue project for Taylor … a headboard for his bed. He had giving me a couple magazine images as to what he wanted, but I just haven’t found the time or put together the materials I needed to build it (let alone been ambitious enough to start the project). […]
Filed under: Archive, Misc, Personal, Photos, Woodworking by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: brenda, christmas, headboard, project, taylor, woodworking
December 12, 2016
One of the pleasures of winter and colder weather for me is hanging out and monkeying around in my garage shop with a fire in the woodstove. It has worked out perfectly for those weekends that I know it is going to be "just me" at home …or when I need a man cave (really […]
Filed under: Misc, Personal, Photos, Woodworking by RichC | 1 Comment »
Tags: christmas, fire, headboard, heat, letter, projects, winter, woodstove
December 9, 2016
I helped fund the Raspberry Pi based computer Kickstarter project known as the RaspberryShake networkingworking a large number of inexpensive earthquake monitoring station around the world (www.raspberryshake.org/quick-start-guide). The idea of connecting hundreds if not thousands of independent volunteer monitoring stations isn’t new, but it is a growing force in data collection. Hopefully I’ll be able […]
Filed under: Computer, Environment, Photos, Raspberry Pi, Science, Technology by RichC | 1 Comment »
Tags: earthquake, kickstarter, raspberry pi, raspberryshake, tech friday, techfriday
December 8, 2016
Tis the season to be starting to think about a “Jolly Christmas” as Katelyn and Drew sent back a couple photos from Vienna, Austria this week … and from the looks of it, they are enjoying themselves. I sure hope little “Baby Oostra” likes long flights? It just so happened that Dr. Drew was invited […]
Filed under: Personal, Photos, Travel by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: austria, christmas, conference, drew, europe, family, katelyn, vienna
October 28, 2016
As Fernando Lamas would say (or Mark Howard – it’s on the back of my late brother-in-law grave marker) … "it looks mahvelous!" (paraphrased). Unfortunately the Apple’s newest MacBook Pro has a price to match it’s looks and expected performance with the 13" model WITH the new TouchBar starting at $1799 and the big boy […]
Filed under: Apple, Computer, Technology by RichC | 2 Comments »
Tags: apple, event, macbook pro, tech friday, touchbar
September 24, 2016
We are humbled to call Tim Ellison of Mr. Godwrench our friend. A few years ago when he started his automotive repair business I knew his unabashed and outspoken Christian "modus vivendi" was attractive to me, so I quickly promoted his automotive services and did as much business with him as I could. Due to […]
Filed under: Automotive, Faith, Friends, Local by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: car, charity, christian, godwrench, ohio, Rav4, repair, service, tim ellison, west chester
August 9, 2016
There was a day, when all I wore for casual footwear were boat shoes … but Sperry Topsiders in particular (also athletic shoes of course ). In recent years I’ve opted for simple slip on sandals around house, pool and at the dock or if you preferred flip-flops … or if you go WAY back – […]
Filed under: Advice, Misc, Sailing, Shopping by RichC | 1 Comment »
Tags: boatshoe, boatshoes, flip-flops, insole, keen, shoes, sperry, thongs, topsider, topsiders
August 5, 2016
Sometimes there are things that seemed to be written just for me … like the response to a serious of questions posed to Mike Rowe. I can relate 100% to the want of a Crosman BB gun at the 9 year old mark (and dad was understanding, but mom was worried — a "worrywart" was […]
Filed under: Blogs, Misc, Personal by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: bb gun, crosman, firearms, mike rowe, momc, richc, worrywart
July 18, 2016
Two years has passed since a missle downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, yet 298 families are still without closure. In the US we’ve heard the slogan “too big to fail” when giving a pass to big banks, companies or their decision makers. When it is the powerful like Vladimir Putin and Russia, one wonders if […]
Filed under: Aviation, News by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: jerry skinner, law, legal, mh17, putin, russia
December 29, 2015
Posting a few photos after completing the woodstove project that I’ve been working on this past month or so. It is working great as we used it to dry a bit after the rainy and wet Knockerball fun when the kids were home for Christmas. After spending a few hours cleaning the old stove and […]
Filed under: Misc, Personal, Photos by RichC | 1 Comment »
Tags: firewood, garage, heat, logs, man cave, shop, woodstove
December 21, 2015
Another excuse to try to get Blogsy, the blog posting app on my iPad, to include photos without posting them to Flickr or Google (the two options besides “normal WordPress media” built into Blogsy). Unfortunately the suggestion from the programmer was to use a separate sFTP client — very cumbersome and not the way to […]
Filed under: Blogs, Personal, Photos, Tablet by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: blogsy, chimney, fireplace, house, repair, roof, wordpress
December 16, 2015
When you begin to depend on prompt order fulfillment and reasonable delivery times from online retail stores, it feels like we’ve gone back a decade or two? On Cyber Monday, November 30th, I placed an order with Target thinking there was plenty of time before last minute Christmas ordering. I entered both my email address […]
Filed under: Holiday, Misc, Personal, Shopping by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: fedex, Holiday, rant, shipping, target, usps
December 12, 2015
As I was getting the paper this morning … in a tee-shirt in December … I noticed one branch of our struggling Lilac was confused as to the season. Hard to believe we’re getting ready for Christmas when temperatures are in the 60s.
Filed under: Nature, Weather by RichC | 1 Comment »
Tags: animated, gif, lilac, weather
Well I really am working on getting ready for Christmas this weekend, but wanted to post an updated photo as the dry-stack brick project in the poolhouse/ garage. As mentioned previously, the floor leveling was the biggest pain in order to level the top of the “walls.” I used an aluminum angle to hold a […]
Filed under: Misc, Personal, Photos by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: brick, heat, poolhouse, projects, shop, woodstove
October 14, 2015
My old Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio office in 2015 and before moving in back in 1987 While calling on customers in NE Ohio last week, I had an hour to enjoy the sunny autumn weather and drove by to see my old building. RC Norman Construction has been in it a few years now and […]
Filed under: Archive, Business, Personal, Photos by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: archive, brenda, Business, cpp, cppnet.com, katelyn, Personal, Photos, remodel
May 28, 2015
Shortly after Brenda and I were married, I commented that I was going to write an advice book for new couples that included the good and bad decisions we made when buying things for our home, yard, kids and our life. After all this time I’ve yet to write the advice book, but continue to […]
Filed under: Advice, Tidbits, Tools by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: calphalon, cooking, house, kitchen, knife, knives, tools
January 7, 2015
My daughter Katelyn and her husband Drew were in town to visit this week and we pretended it was still the week of Christmas and exchanged a couple gifts. Brenda had already shipped a box of presents to them, but saved back a frame and print for them. It was an artistic photo taken down […]
Filed under: Personal, Photos by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: brenda, drew, family, frame, katelyn, oostra, wedding
January 5, 2015
Posting both a test post to update MyDesultoryBlog in order to set up the 2015 photo directories and because this is a cute yoga “bunny” photo for my daughter (and because of her rabbit Pumpy Umpy). Katelyn enjoys Yoga and during our Christmas exchange and visit with them we talked about her new “hot Yoga” […]
Filed under: Misc, Personal, Photos by RichC | 1 Comment »
Tags: bunny, family, Rabbit, yoga
January 2, 2015
The slower work days between Christmas and New Years has given me a little time to clean up my files and office, both paper and digital. One productivity app that I’ve been using on my iPad for over 2 years is Notability and I’ve collected a bunch of “notes” and PDFs that have been semi-organized […]
Filed under: Apple, Cloud, Computer, Software, Tablet, Technology by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: apps, Dropbox, icloud, notability, notes, pdf, techfriday
December 23, 2014
A local convenient store today in Liberty Township, Ohio … December 23, 2014. As a Volkswagen TDI and Mercedes diesel car guy … there is something wrong when the spread between regular unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel is this much – over $1.50 difference! Ugh … back to driving the Honda Pilot, at least for the […]
Filed under: Automotive, Diesel, Energy, Local by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: diesel, fuel, gasoline, prices
December 18, 2014
I’m late to the Throwback Thursday social networking trend, but a “just arrived” photo of Brenda and her brother Mark before his passing is good excuse to start – they look too young for this to be 1991? (thanks for the photo Chris) Besides the smiling sister and brother photo (he was a dentist), our niece Jackie, […]
Filed under: Archive, Personal, Photos, TBT by RichC | 3 Comments »
Tags: brenda, family, howard, jackie, mark, TBT, wedding
November 7, 2014
The Stock Trader’s Almanac is always an interesting read in referencing history when it comes to forecasting market moves. If their research is correct we may still have 5-10% to grow. Quite bullish. Since the great stock washout of 2014 the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average have gone up about nine percent in […]
Filed under: Financial by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: investing, markets, stocks, trading
October 12, 2014
Somewhat an excuse to slip in a Hank Williams song, but the Dome Homes article was intriguing because we explored this area with my college buddies in the late 1970s every Christmas break. I’d still like to get back there by sailboat and anchor for a few days …weeks … or maybe months … and […]
Filed under: Music, Travel, Video by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: blog, development, dome, florida, homes, memories
July 20, 2014
After our visit with Katelyn and Drew in Minneapolis ( 7/18 & 7/19), we flew up to Williston, North Dakota to see Taylor. Flight and weather were great and after dinner our first night we stopped at Taylor’s Williams County Zoning and Planning office (below) and took an evening hike along the levy east of […]
Filed under: Archive, Personal, Photos, Travel by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: brenda, family, oil, rich, taylor, vacation, williston
July 13, 2014
In analyzing my Sodastream Christmas gift from the kids … after polishing off the original soda flavors … my 5 gallons of Diet Coke concentrate will last about 6 months. My wife Brenda unfortunately did not become a fan (lifetime Diet Pepsi addict) although I adjusted my daily refreshments choice to primarily the paintball carbonator […]
Filed under: Financial, Marketing, Sailing, Shopping by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: coke, diet, economics, sodastream, soft drinks
March 3, 2014
The snow has returned again to stretch out this already long and cold winter. March has always been one of those questionable months, but one I generally associate with “spring” … so far not this year. Katelyn and Drew were home for the weekend and we had a great time together as usual. Besides talking […]
Filed under: Automotive, Diesel, For Sale, Personal, Photos, Volkswagen by RichC | 7 Comments »
Tags: for sale, jetta, katelyn, tdi, volkswagen
February 20, 2014
Those who are regular readers of My Desultory Blog realize that besides posting commentary on newsy items, be it tech, cars, aviation, politics or whatever, that I also include personal entries and photos relating to my family. This blog, now 4000 posts, is a continuation of a journal that I started in 1977 as a […]
Filed under: Blogs, Personal, Photos, Social Networking by RichC | 1 Comment »
Tags: blog, friends, frog, jeffp, jerry moody, journal, kevin, memories, Travel, trips
February 11, 2014
One of the pleasures of my “adult” life has been enjoying coffee. Generally I’m content with run of the mill canned coffee or “plain Joe” restaurant brew for that first cup of the day, but after dinner or on the weekend I much prefer a freshly ground bean from roasters who know their craft. Recently […]
Filed under: Misc, Shopping by RichC | 1 Comment »
Tags: coffee, jamaica, kona
January 16, 2014
Completing the thank you circle to my kids for their thoughtful Christmas gifts this year, I’ll post a thank you to Katelyn and Drew for their gift of a Sodasteam machine. The thought is that it might be a solution for soft drinks on the boat. Super idea! The small and simple device reduces the […]
Filed under: Misc, Shopping by RichC | 2 Comments »
Tags: pop, soda, sodastream, soft drinks
January 15, 2014
My oldest Corbett cousin Michael passed away on Sunday and although we have not stayed in touch over the years, his “too young” passing is a telling sign that we are all vulnerable when it comes to our health. My dad who talks to his brother (my Uncle Sonny, Mike’s father) mentioned to me during […]
Filed under: Obituary, Personal by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: family, michael corbett, obit, Obituary
January 12, 2014
After receiving a nice percolator coffee pot from my son for Christmas to use on the boat with the propane stove, I saw a neat wooden one-cup brewer on the Core77 industrial design blog. I wanted to replace the cheap plastic filter holder I use to make a single cup of Joe with a “pot […]
Filed under: Archive, Misc, Sailing, Woodworking by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: archive, canadiano, coffee, core77
December 29, 2013
My cousin Diane and I exchanged Christmas greetings and updated each other with the goings-on of our families on Friday night. While talking about gifts, I realized that I didn’t have a photo of the “Tool Stools” that I made for Taylor and Drew. Since one of them was still at home, I took a […]
Filed under: Archive, Holiday, Personal, Photos, Tools, Woodworking by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: christmas, drew, gift, grandfather, howard, stool, taylor, tool
December 21, 2013
Archiving a bit of text (Chapter 5 in Miss Your Lovin by Ann Elizabeth Pfau) in researching some WWII Pacific history. See the Gutenberg link above but text saved below. American veterans of the Pacific war still remember Tokyo Rose. She was the most dangerous and seductive of the enemy radio announcers who broadcast propaganda […]
Filed under: Archive, Books by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: book, History, japan, pacific, war, ww2
December 3, 2013
An early Christmas present to myself. I’ll probably never need an impeller puller for the boat again, but now I have one.
Filed under: Sailing, Tools by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: encore, impeller, sailboat, tools
November 18, 2013
My son Taylor checked in with me during the Bengals win over the Browns for another “battle of Ohio” NFL game this weekend. He is ‘im‘patiently waiting for his new big screen TV to arrive and complains that his little TV is not satisfactory for watching football — in the day of HD it is […]
Filed under: Personal, Video by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: boomtown, family, nd, panasonic, taylor, tv, williston
November 2, 2013
Although video chatting isn’t for everybody, I do appreciate seeing a face and a smile when catching up with my son in North Dakota and daughter in Columbus. Skype was once my preferred method (when “Skype to phone” was free), but now between iPads, iPhones and iMacs it is easier to jump on Facetime. Katelyn […]
Filed under: Personal, Photography, Technology by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: chat, facetime, google, katelyn, phone, skype
October 30, 2013
So much for my air travel shopping tips as the holiday airfares have already risen. I’m seeing $700 to $900 for the flights I’ve been pricing and the ones leaving mid-day are gone. I think I’ve waited too long to confirm my son’s trip home because at one point a few weeks ago I had […]
Filed under: Holiday, Travel by RichC | No Comments »
Tags:
October 14, 2013
Since I’m looking to bring my son home from North Dakota over Christmas, I figured it might be time to archive a list of shopping tips I copied and saved in a document a few years ago … can’t remember where I found them? I can’t vouch for the current accuracy, but I’m using the […]
Filed under: Archive, Shopping, Travel by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: airfare, flights, matrix, pricing, tickets
October 8, 2013
I ran across a “Packard: An American Classic Car” documentary on You Tube the other day and know it is something my dad will enjoy watching. I downloaded a copy to my iPad (using McTube Pro) and am archiving the 44 minute clip to my blog — might purchase the DVD as it would make […]
Filed under: Archive, Automotive, Video-TV by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: dadc, dvd, History, packard, tv
September 9, 2013
I chuckled when I saw this top ten list appear in a hands-on automotive forum (there were more than 10, but I shortened it). It is pretty accurate. Wherever you go, you hear your wife say "let my husband help you fix that." You have many tools (and multiple toolboxes), including special service tools […]
Filed under: Humor, Tools by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: Humor, toolbox, tools
August 19, 2013
I had one of those “knight in shining armor” moments this weekend after a call for help request came in from my wife Brenda. She planned a weekend trip with her mother with a stop to visit our daughter in Columbus then to the farmhouse in New York. The primary goal is to begin taking […]
Filed under: Automotive, Personal by RichC | 1 Comment »
Tags: brenda, columbus, drew, fuse, honda, katelyn, knight, pilot, repair
February 12, 2013
It’s not fun drying out our basement, but I am enjoying finding long lost photos. Here’s one of a canoe trip (one of many) taken during a 1977 spring trip to the Whitewater River in Indiana with Charlie “Kamakaze” Matthews. We spent our free time both canoeing and sailing when we were in high school […]
Filed under: Archive, Personal, Photos, Social Networking, Volkswagen by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: canoe, charlie matthews, volkswagen
January 24, 2013
It may be 15 degrees outside, but that doesn’t keep my firebug wife from heading out to burn landscape grasses and who knows what else. She asked if I had a larger fire blanket (I gave her a small one for Christmas this year), and since I didn’t, she settled for a 5 gallon bucket […]
Filed under: Personal, Photos by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: brenda, dadh, firebug
January 7, 2013
My travel schedule this week was modified slightly to include a couple more cold calls in the Cleveland area that I’ve been putting off until the new year … not really my choice … but it works out so that my son Taylor will be able to go to a seminar and workshop while he […]
Filed under: Misc, Personal by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: cleveland, ohio, seminar, taylor, workshop
November 30, 2012
Playing the tax game as a big business or 1%-er investor must be a challenging problem to have? [sarcasm] Here’s a Wall Street Journal op-ed commenting on Costco’s recent “early” dividend announcement. Uncertainly in the tax code, along with the credits, deductions and complexity, slows economic growth, deters job creation and demonstrates that the more […]
Filed under: Business, Financial, Politics by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: costco, dividends, fiscal cliff, op-ed, taxes, wsj
June 14, 2012
As a casual flag flier, I often wonder if I’m respectful enough of our stars and stripes? Disclosure: I’ve always had a flag, portable staff or flag pole and initially decided to raise our flag and illuminated it 24/7 after 9/11 out of respect for those serving our country. I committed to keep it flying until […]
Filed under: History, Holiday, Personal by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: flag, Holiday, musicmonday, patriotism
May 4, 2012
I received a needed lesson in blessings and being thankful today. My sailing friends Mark and Judy Handley have been sharing their daily lives online for many years while cruising around the world. Their circumnavigation ended over a year ago, but Judy continues to document their return to a “somewhat” more normal life. Unfortunately this […]
Filed under: Blogs, Health, Misc, Photos, Sailing by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: chemotherapy, grandchildren, handley
April 6, 2012
I spent the week traveling “primarily” using the new to me Apple iPad 2 as my personal computer and am working on a longer version of “my impressions” that I’ll either post tonight or Saturday. I CAN say that I now understand why the tablet niche is dominated by the iPad and have to admit […]
Filed under: Personal, Photos, Tablet, Technology by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: apple, ipad, katelyn, tether
March 12, 2012
Ever since I can remember I’ve carried a pocket knife … in part because the first one was given to me by my grandfather when I was 5 years old. Yes … FIVE … and I can vividly remember cutting ants in a sandbox (where was Peta?). Although it was a small single blade tourist […]
Filed under: Education, Personal, Politics, Tools by RichC | 3 Comments »
Tags: bluhm, grandfather, knife, liberty, pocket, swiss army knife, victorinox, wenger
January 19, 2012
My college friend Dallas on Marco Island BEFORE it was developed – 12/1978 Who doesn’t enjoy reminiscing a little bit about “the good ol’ days” after looking through a couple of old photos? Here are a few from a trip to Florida over Christmas break back in 1978 … whoa, we were young. This […]
Filed under: Archive, Personal, Photos by RichC | 2 Comments »
Tags: college, dallas guilford, florida, friend, marco island
January 2, 2012
It looks like we’ll be getting the first real snow of the season today … and definitely the first for 2012, Happy New Year by the way. I’m spending today at home tackling a few chores like helping my son put his snow tires on the VW GTI; it is not the most behaved vehicle […]
Filed under: Automotive, Humor, Video, Weather by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: snow, top gear
December 24, 2011
Almost all companies have customer service issues and what separates the successful from the not-so-successful is how they are able to recover with the least amount of pain. One example this year is Best Buy who in the past was one of my least favorite retailers. During their pre-Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday store […]
Filed under: Business, Holiday by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: best buy, christmas, Holiday, pr, public relations, Shopping
December 20, 2011
Brenda and I are enjoying the evenings with our son Taylor who is home from college for Christmas break. He shared a few stories and a cute video from the Miami University (OH) football field that was shown on Sportscenter. The somewhat viral YouTube video (at least on campus) made by the student film team […]
Filed under: Humor, Video by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: college, football, miami, redhawks
December 19, 2011
Fun new winter Google Easter Egg similar to the partial archived list from an earlier post … “Let it snow.” Also thought I’d include the tasty looking Christmas cookies my daughter made … unfortunately she is taking them to work and not bring them too me!
Filed under: Archive, Computer, Holiday by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: cookies, easter eggs, google
December 5, 2011
After weathering the hot summer and safely making it through hurricane season, our sailboat Encore demonstrated that wind and rain from “unnamed storms” can still find its way into a closed boat. One of the port above the book rack dripped some water onto a few books … a couple of them headed straight to […]
Filed under: Personal, Sailing by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: boat, encore, mildew, mom, surgery
November 18, 2011
Our old house and 5 acres of property on Stow Road in Hudson Ohio On my trip to NE Ohio this week I had both the chance to enjoy dinner with my daughter in Columbus (always a pleasure) and meeting with Mark Goloback, an old friend from when we lived in Hudson, Ohio. I recently […]
Filed under: Personal, Photos, Sailing, Social Networking, Volkswagen by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: charlie matthews, fatty goodlander, kamikaze, mark goloback
May 8, 2011
It was nice to have my son home and finished with finals … and to have him think about me on my birthday. Thanks for the Miami Alum license plate surround, Taylor. My aging first generation Palm Pre is still taking some pretty decent photos (above) Of course he wasn’t the only one to wish […]
Filed under: Misc, Personal, Photos by RichC | 2 Comments »
Tags: birthday
April 14, 2011
For those of us who can relate to being asked for investment advice by family … I’m sharing letter I received today that might help. For some delusional reason, a few in my family feed my ego by asking for investment advice, even though my competence is questionable. I usually keep quiet on the subject […]
Filed under: Financial by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: advice, investing, trading
January 6, 2011
We gave Katelyn’s friend Drew a multifunction “jumpstarter” which includes a small compressor to put in the trunk of his car this year for Christmas … who knew it would come in so handy so soon? Sorry to hear his new tires picked up a screw, but glad he found his Christmas gift […]
Filed under: Automotive, Personal, Photos by RichC | 2 Comments »
Tags: aircompressor, auto, car, drew, jumpstarter, tires
December 25, 2010
A glance at the news pages these last couple weeks and one can’t help but feel a little more positive as we close out the Christmas retail shopping season and a challenging 2010. One hopes that the confidence consumers are showing will translate into businesses expanding and hiring in 2011. It’s been a long recession […]
Filed under: Business, Financial by RichC | No Comments »
Tags:
December 18, 2010
Christmas has come early for me as we finalized the closing on the “new to us” sailboat – 1986 36’ Westerly Corsair called Encore. Although Brenda and I have been looking at boats for years, we realistically planned on putting off owning our next boat until both kids were out of college and comfortably on […]
Filed under: Personal, Photos, Sailing by RichC | 5 Comments »
Tags: brenich, encore, norsea, sailboat, sailing, sonex, thistle, tulla, westerly
December 17, 2010
Palm Pre photo after clearing the driveway on Thursday I’ve had to put the snowblower on my old John Deere 330 a bit early for SW Ohio this year since we’ve had significantly more snow and colder weather this entire month. In years past I remember crossing our fingers that some snow would whiten the […]
Filed under: Personal, Photos, Weather by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: cincinnati, house, photo, snow, weather
December 13, 2010
Just in case your wife complains that you are a procrastinator for putting off all the Christmas decorating and shopping this time of year, all you have to do it point to me. After realizing that Rich hasn’t even closed the pool yet this year, she should appreciate you far more and forgive your minor […]
Filed under: Personal, Photos, Weather by RichC | 3 Comments »
Tags: pool, snow, weather
December 9, 2010
Encore – and UK built 1986 well equipped 36’ Westerly Corsair CC I’ve been offline and a bit out of kilter the last couple of days … I could say I was busy Christmas shopping, but then what I’m doing sort of stretches any Christmas present budget that I’m aware of? I headed to sunny […]
Filed under: Personal, Photos, Sailing by RichC | 2 Comments »
Tags: encore, florida, sailing, weather
December 4, 2010
My 2006 Honda Pilot has been rock solid for 120,000+ miles, but it looks like all good things come to an end and it might be time for some overdue maintenance. Oh, I’ve done the routine stuff, but I have neglected to replace the plugs at about 100K and haven’t tackled the belts including the […]
Filed under: Automotive, Personal by RichC | 2 Comments »
Tags: honda, maintenance, pilot
November 28, 2010
While helping my wife work on her Christmas letter today, she asked about the context for the famous Thomas Jefferson “Question with boldness” quote taken from his letter to his nephew Peter Carr on August 10, 1787. I’m archiving the text of the letter below Jeremiah’s letter to the Exiled Jews. “For I know the […]
Filed under: Archive, History by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: History, president, thomas jefferson
November 18, 2010
Although I’m not rushing to melt down my wedding band just yet, the impressive decade long run-up in gold prices does have me thinking about cashing in. Maybe I can convince my wife to send in a few of those rarely worn gifts to goldstash.com. (If it’s good enough for the conservative financial radio guy […]
Filed under: Financial, Personal by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: gold, jewelry
October 2, 2010
Brenda and I enjoyed visiting our son on Saturday for Family Weekend at Miami University. Although we didn’t spend the entire day with all the planned activities, we did enjoy a brunch with his professors and department head. It was nice to be in a small group talking with them about internships and future options […]
Filed under: Personal, Photos, Shopping by RichC | 2 Comments »
Tags: christmas, lowes, miami, university
August 11, 2010
According to Sherri Wells, a leading expert on SMS messaging, the “SMS (Short Message Service) was developed in 1985 by a collaborated effort between Germany and France and was created by Friedhelm Hillebrand, Bernard Ghillebaert, and Oculy Silaban .” Ms. Wells also states that the first practical message was “Happy Christmas” and was sent in […]
Filed under: Cellphone, Computer, Technology by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: anniversary, beeper, messaging, motorola, pager, paging, sms
April 19, 2010
Letter from Mike Tobin: “… this trip is the one that ends more than half a decade of living in Jerusalem and moves me back to the US. It is with no small amount of doubt that I packed my bags and left the Middle East. The threat of a conflict with Iran is still out […]
Filed under: Humor, Misc, News, Video by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: foxnews, gretawire, mike tobin
January 26, 2010
Wayne Meretsky shares the “Loss of Moonduster“ We arrived in Savusavu, Fiji, on Monday, November 23, after a fairly uneventful 3-day passage from Tonga. Our goal was to spend a month cruising the western Yasawa Islands before leaving from Lautoka around Christmas to arrive in New Zealand early in the New Year. After a week […]
Filed under: Sailing by RichC | 6 Comments »
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January 20, 2010
After years of resisting the thought of using ‘my kids’ preferred social networking site Facebook, I’m starting get the urge to check my “wall” (or “walls” plural – explained below) once in a while. Usually this occurs after being send a link, or receiving an email invite from someone I might, or might not, know. […]
Filed under: Personal, Social Networking by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: college, facebook, friends, skype, Social Networking
January 12, 2010
For many years I’ve contemplated buying a fairly expensive reference style book — one that I really don’t currently need, but have wanted. Since I had a few Christmas dollars to spend (thanks Mom H.) I figured now was the perfect time add the $60.00 628 page book to my library. After spending a few […]
Filed under: Books, Sailing by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: book, cruising, ocean, sailing
January 10, 2010
No comment is necessary after watching the Cincinnati Bengals once again disappoint their fans in a tough post season loss to the New York Jets. About the only thing to say is that the better team won … at least on this particular Saturday evening. As for more positive thoughts, Brenda and I enjoyed moving […]
Filed under: Personal, Photos, Sports by RichC | No Comments »
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January 9, 2010
It is good to be in a warm home after a challenging week. The weather has been less than perfect for driving and most of Ohio has received a little snow. Click image for larger In our house, the family Christmas cheer has given way to winter doldrums; one of my two children is back […]
Filed under: Personal, Photos by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: efe, gazebo
January 4, 2010
Success … finally! I been all thumbs in an ongoing struggle (post one and two) to fix my notebook computer during the Christmas and the New Year holiday. I ordered the suspect part, ‘an inverter,’ for my Gateway notebook computer and after hassles with pre-Christmas shipping, finally received it only to find out it was […]
Filed under: Computer, How-To by RichC | No Comments »
Tags: ebay, gateway