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.
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.
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!
Posted By RichC on June 2, 2014
The solar powered Sunseeker Duo airplane made it’s first two passenger test flight last month as Eric and Irena Raymond prepare for longer flights this summer. Gizmag.com posted a few more photos in their article … what an interesting aviation project.
Solar Flight says that the Raymonds took off together in the company’s third powered airplane from its test facility near Milan, Italy.
For take off, the Duo uses energy harvested from the 1,510 solar cells on its wings and tail and stored in a battery pack in the fuselage. Once in the air, the airplane then cruises directly on solar power. The company claims that, with two people on board, it’s capable of flights of 12 hours or more.
"Flying the Duo, skimming the white fluffy clouds from above and playing on the sky, I feel like a bird," said Irena Raymond. "No limitations, a pure freedom. It’s so quiet. Compared to a normal airplane, it’s like night and day. You need very good headset in other powered airplanes, but in the Duo you can speak normally even when the motor is running full power, no headset needed. It is unbelievable."
Posted By RichC on June 2, 2014
My go-to “supplement” is usually natural whole foods for ailments, but a Google+ friend shared a handy chart for using herbs and I’m taping a version of it on the inside of our spice cabinet thinking that we might give it a try. Noticing that Curry powder is used for joint pain I may just have to add it to my diet along with my Glucosamine supplement (chart below)?
Posted By RichC on June 1, 2014
After considering my options after removing the belt and housing off the autopilot during my last trip on Encore, I sent the old wheel pilot to be upgraded/reconditioned to match the “brains” of the Raymarine SPX-5 that I replace when I bought the boat. It will still be an out of date generation and in my opinion a bit undersized for any blue water passage, but I’d like to eventually get my Cape Horn self-steering gear working as a backup and “zero-power drain” option for long passages anyway. Anxious to get the gear back and see if it makes a difference. (photo above of just the damaged belt and mounting hardware)
Posted By RichC on May 31, 2014
WSJRadio had a short segment with their Washington Bureau Chief Gerald Seibtalking about Nationalismand how it seems to be growing around the world. Usually Americans take pride in our national identity and “American Exceptionalism” … but taken too far history shows that this sentiment can be dangerous – think about the events which lead to World War II.
| WSJRadio with Gerald Seib on Nationalism (MP3) |
Posted By RichC on May 30, 2014
The weather was nice for driving this past week for a Memorial Day trip to Atlanta, so instead of taking the Honda Pilot, we opted to take the 1982 Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel. I’ve been driving it regularly on trips to and from NE Ohio (500 miles rt) and to visit my daughter and her husband in
Columbus (200 miles rt), but this was the first multi tank longer highway trip since driving to New York last year (1000 miles rt). I wasn’t overly concerned, just hesitant about a few aging items … no need to have been concerned as all was without incident.
As a “daily driver” the 300D isn’t the most comfortable of cars. Besides the lack of “off the line” acceleration, the car could really use an overdrive gear for highway cruising. I usually drive around 75mph and the 3300 RPMs is a little high for a 5-cylinder diesel which tends to be far more efficient at RPMs in the mid-2000s – quieter too. That aside, she didn’t miss a beat and offered that powerful sounding torquey growl when climbing through the mountains. I ran the AC much of the time and despite a nice cold stream of air, the seatbacks got sweaty due to the noticeable lack of insulation … particularly the door seals. (fixing the cruise control is still on my “to-do” list)
Diesel fuel prices were actually lower than gasoline this weekend which gave me another reason to take the Turbodiesel car; I even found $3.599 for diesel in Knoxville Tennessee just after logging 461 miles on the previous tank … still only 26.3 MPG. My only “stressful moment” was taking Brenda the 40 miles from her sister’s house, north of the traffic nightmare of a city, to the Atlanta Airport to catch a flight to Minneapolis during rush-hour … and then having to drive back though it again in order to head home to Cincinnati. Ugh!
Posted By RichC on May 30, 2014
Q: What’s interesting about this list? A: Half are clean diesels!
1) 2013 Tesla S P85 (Electric)
2) 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV (Electric)
3) 2014 Audi A7 TDI Quattro (Clean Diesel)
4) 2013 Lexus GS 450h (Hybrid)
5) 2013 Nissan Leaf (Electric)
6) 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid (Hybrid)
7) 2014 Audi Q5 TDI Quattro Tiptronic (Clean Diesel)
8) 2014 Audi A8 L TDI Quattro Tiptronic (Clean Diesel)
9) 2014 Mercedes-Benz E250 BlueTEC (Clean Diesel)
10) 2014 Audi A6 TDI Quattro Tiptronic (Clean Diesel)
Posted By RichC on May 29, 2014
I notice short bit in the WSJ about He Liang and his “homemade suitcase vehicle in the streets of Changsha, China,” and about the only difference I can see is that the Chinese “scooter” is a little narrower when compared to our American-sized versions? (I would include a smiley below, but it is more shameful than humorous.)
It might make Americans feel a little bit better to know that we are not along in having an obese population:
More than half of the world’s obese are from just 10 countries: the United States, China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Germany, Pakistan and Indonesia.
BUT … as with many statistics, we do a pretty good job in leading the world:
It is no surprise that the United States, whose eating habits and fast food chains have revolutionized the way much of the world now consumes, represented the biggest slice of the planet’s obese population – 13 percent – yet it has less than 5 percent of the world’s total population, which now tops 7 billion.
