Posted By RichC on June 9, 2014
Originally, Sunday afternoon was going to be spent outside power washing the the pool deck and patio furniture, but that had to change due a slow drizzling rain that lingered most of the day. 
It became a perfect day to tackle a long overdue project … the pool house changing room now that Pumpy Umpy is in his new hutch at Katelyn’s in Columbus (and soon to Minneapolis). The little fellow’s damage was substantial, but for my part, I didn’t stop him after the first few chews figuring it wasn’t worth banning him to his cage since the woodwork and drywall would need to be replaced anyway. So Sunday afternoon I started the project. It will be a small, but fun, project … besides the changing room, hallway and bathroom needed to be pained anyway. Life with pets!
My son sent me something on Sunday that made him smile (and me too).
On Saturday, Senator Tom Carper, serving as chairman for the Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee for the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, made a swing through Williston North Dakota and stopped by the Williams County Planning office where Taylor works. It was the weekend and Taylor wasn’t there, but according to Eric, “his newspaper reporter friend,” traveling with the senator, Carper enjoyed seeing the Ohio State Buckeye items hanging around Taylor’s office space. He then took a moment to write a “Go Bucks!” note on a business card and left it on Taylor’s computer keyboard. Nice touch Senator.
Category: Misc, Personal, Photos, Politics |
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Tags: poolhouse, pumpy umpy, Rabbit, senator carper, taylor, williston
Posted By RichC on June 8, 2014
I was planning to just work on yard and home chores Saturday while Brenda was working, but got completely distracted by a thought that a 2 gallon fuel container would fit under the hood of the Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel nicely. Hmm, looks like it might even work if I plumbed a secondary fuel line so as to be able to switch from one tank to the other? And yes, I’m way ahead of a few readers who may be contemplating a way to run filtered WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil) on a warm day. For now it works as a spare two gallons of biodiesel … but stay tuned.
As for getting back to those chores, I:
1) Power washed pool filter
2 Cut and trimmed the rear lawn
3) Sprayed, wacked and pulled weeds
4) Picked up a repair part at Ace and HD
5) Even cleaned the kitchen!
Category: Automotive, Biodiesel, Diesel, Mercedes |
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Tags: 300d, fuel, hood, idea, mercedes, turbodiesel, W123, wvo
Posted By RichC on June 7, 2014
I’ve probably read every book the Pardey’s ever published as the information help me learn about cruising and our first boat and caring for a spruce mast and boom. 
They were, and are, inspirational when it comes to “go small, go simple and go now” philosophy even though it has been challenging to incorporated the cruising life into our family. In the early days, “pre-kids,” Brenda and I were starting our careers and trying to earn a living and start a business; unfortunately that prevented a vagabond, or more politely stated, liveaboard cruising lifestyle aboard our sailboat Brenich. Then came children, and our priorities changed. The focus shifted to suburban normalcy (for the good and bad) even though the yearning to cruise kept me dreaming, reading and planning the escape; Lin and Larry’s books (and videos) were a big part of that.
This summer I’m looking forward to reading Herb McCormick’s biographical book about the Pardey’s life called As Long As It’s Fun. I’m sure it will be the perfect follow-up to Lin’s reminiscing book Bull Canyon about their time pondering having a family, living in a California canyon, her writing and Larry’s unstoppable focus on building his next boat and getting back to the ocean. They have a magical life and deserve the slower pace on land, but are still by the water in New Zealand. Its always a thrill to have them come back to the states to visit and lectures during boatshow season.
Category: Books, Sailing |
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Tags: mccormick, pardey, reading, sailing
Posted By RichC on June 6, 2014
While closing the first full week of June on a rather high note (all time high!), the financial markets and Dow Jones Industrial Average pushed ever closer to 17K — DJIA closed at 16,923.77 up 87.66 (0.52%). I’m probably not the only one wondering how companies can keep performing when consumers have fewer dollars leftover after their bills and seasonally adjusted unemployment remains above 6% in a so-called recession recovery. Those with an optimistic view will say that “at least it is improving” … albeit ever so slow.
Of greater concern is the lack of job growth and upward mobility for those in the workforce. Pay has stagnated while the cost of living (real things everybody buys – healthcare, energy, food, etc) is rising and 
taking a bigger and bigger bite out of family incomes (ask any mom or dad who balances their budget). Unless you’re living under a rock, the job prospects for high school and college graduates are dismal. We need to do something to stimulate hiring and job creation … and the one thing that will work is to lower corporate income tax in order to bring overseas cash home and convince companies that it is ok to make money in the United States. Critics are concerned lowering taxes will only return capital to shareholders in the form of special dividends, but it will be reinvested one way or another in the U.S. economy and grow business (who will hire workers). Once that happens, companies will compete for talent improving wages and benefits AND creating a larger tax base.
Category: Financial, Politics |
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Tags: djia, economy, Financial, markets, stocks, taxes
Posted By RichC on June 6, 2014
When I posted about the growing worldwide trend we describe as Nationalism, I reflected on the sacrifice required to stop Germany and the Nazis the last time a country went down the Nationalism path.
United States involvement began in earnest on June 6th, 1944 … 70 years ago. 
Americans along with allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy and inland towns of France with 160,000 troops. This 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline saw 9,000 allied casualties, required more than 5,000 ships, 13,000 aircraft and all just to gain a tenuous foothold against the Nazi occupiers. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.”
Below are a few aerial photos from 1944 and 2014 of the cliffs and beaches of Normandy.
Trying Microsoft’s OneDrive for this set of 12 shared photos. Click any thumbnail photo above, then a photo archive to view larger.
(A shortcut hint is to use keyboard down arrow to remove menu and properties and then forward-back arrows to scroll through slides. Up arrow returns menus and photo properties.)
Category: History, Millitary, Politics |
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Tags: d-day, france, History, nationalism, normandy, remembrance, ww2
Posted By RichC on June 5, 2014
Be warned before you contact a company like Quicken Loans with a mortgage refinance request (rates are pretty low again) because they will be pumping your contact information to bunches of boiler room sales people who will send canned emails and make phone calls all day and evening (even different people from the same company – one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing).
I should have known better … and will approach the “gathering information and rates process” different next time. Your experience may differ, but mine was far more intrusive than desired.
–How do I stop receiving Quicken Loans promotional e-mails?
While we do need some personal information to close your mortgage, Quicken Loans does not share your personal information with outside companies for their promotional use. If you don’t want to receive any further information from Quicken Loans, simply notify us when you register. Or you may call toll-free (800) 863-4332, send an e-mail to optout@quickenloans.com or click here to change your privacy preferences.
Category: Advice, Business, Financial |
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Tags: homes, housing, loans, mortgages, refinance
Posted By RichC on June 5, 2014
This content is restricted.
Category: Audio, Music, Personal |
4 Comments »
Tags: anniversary, brenda, mp3
Posted By RichC on June 4, 2014
Yes indeed … a little soul searching by a grandson brings him a healthy dose of respect for his grandfathers. With a few highlighted examples like this, it would be helpful for many in the “me generation” and later to take heart because we could all improve when it comes to how we live our lives.
Category: Misc, Video |
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Tags: grandfather, life, parents, respect
Posted By RichC on June 4, 2014
A few years ago, Brenda and I started to convert our family video tapes to DVD … back when our tape devices (VHS machine and Camcorders) still worked, but recently I noticed my old 8MM camcorder no longer would play tapes. 
In fact, the camcorder munched one of the tapes when my daughter Katelyn wanted to show Drew that she indeed was a figure skater and that we had videos of her competitions to prove it (see early clip when she was 11 below). I decided “no more!” … I needed to finish the job and get the rest of our tapes converted to DVD before it was too late.
Now sending away the original copies of our VHS, 8MM and DV cassettes to just anybody was not something I took lightly, so after researching a few companies, I decided on Southtree. They were terrific concerning the three criteria that I really cared about. They were 1) priced competitively, 2) produced quality DVDs and 3) were exceedingly professional. They sent an email each step of the way – such as when they received my order, confirming each step of processing and then eventual shipping. They were not “speedy,” but that was not my concern particularly since my deadline was for an anniversary present and was a month off. I had no problem waiting. Thankfully everything went smoothly and I have all our originals back and safely boxed up (planning to put them in a spare firebox).
Advice: If you are planning to convert your old video tapes to DVD or another format, don’t put it off until they are damaged or degraded. Do it now and consider Southtree.
*** This was not a paid post or incentivized in anyway by Southtree.
Category: Advice, Archive, Technology |
2 Comments »
Tags: conversion, dvd, endorsement, family, memories, recommendation, southtree
Posted By RichC on June 3, 2014
Sometimes it good to have a place to archive odds and ends items before they are lost and in this case a slide from a Powerpoint presentation (click on photo for a larger image). From what I can tell, each resident at Nationwide Children’s Hospital has a slide announcing where they will be going and in my daughter’s case, Minneapolis and Wayzata Children’s Clinic (they need a new website). Katelyn put together a few photos from the events that marked her time in Columbus including that center one that I shared on my blog 3 years ago. Nice!
Category: Archive, Personal, Photos |
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Tags: columbus, hospital, katelyn, nationwide, residency
It became a perfect day to tackle a long overdue project … the pool house changing room now that Pumpy Umpy is in his new hutch at Katelyn’s in Columbus (and soon to Minneapolis). The little fellow’s damage was substantial, but for my part, I didn’t stop him after the first few chews figuring it wasn’t worth banning him to his cage since the woodwork and drywall would need to be replaced anyway. So Sunday afternoon I started the project. It will be a small, but fun, project … besides the changing room, hallway and bathroom needed to be pained anyway. Life with pets!
