My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on February 14, 2012

Once again we are faced with the dreaded Saint Valentine’s Day … well “dreaded” for those of us men who fall short in the thoughtfulness category, or end up buying the cheesy and over-marketed box of chocolates, flowers or — gulp — jewelry. Thankfully I have a wife who isn’t all that difficult to please and really never “acts” like she expects anything (I like that). So this year it was a silly card with a couple cute photos with notes and a box top for one of her favorites snacks … Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts. She was happy and appreciated the card and thought … and I was happy to have survived another Valentine’s Day.

Here’s a blog post from a female perspective that I thought it was fitting …

Valentine’s Day is barely on my radar these days. I hate to think my husband feels obligated to buy me chocolate (I love it, but don’t need it – and in fact, should stay away from it); send me flowers (I have a lovely garden that he provided); take me to dinner (he’s a fantastic cook); or give me diamonds (I’d rather go away for the weekend with him).

He shows me his love in myriad ways that are more expressive than being suckered into meaningless gifts.

Want to know the nicest thing he ever got me?

A 99-cent shaker of cinnamon and sugar because he noticed I ate cinnamon toast on cold mornings, and I was always making a mess trying to get the sugar/cinnamon ratio right. I know. This man has bought me houses, new cars, dream vacations, and diamonds, and the gift I loved most of all was a little bit of spice.

Category: Holiday | No Comments »
Tags: cards, love, pop tart, valentine's day

Posted By RichC on February 14, 2012

For years automotive postulaters have envisioned a car being charged by embedded coils in the highway, but a comment in an article attributed to one researcher at Stanford sounds a little far fetched … maybe even stretching the laws of physics?

Stanford researchers say they can develop what’s essentially an electric highway that one of the researchers said may give an EV a higher charge after driving than before the trip started.

I’m a little skeptical unless the car is rolling downhill, has a very efficient charging systems with solar panels on the roof and some kind of induction charging device in the roadbed besides the passive magnetic coils.

That said, it will be interesting to see where EV is heading over the next few decades … I have no doubt that we’ll all being driving some form of an electric vehicle … maybe even a diesel-hybrid in a year or two (what’s taking so long?)

Just the Facts:

• Volvo on Tuesday said its 2013 V60 plug-in diesel hybrid will be priced at $75,218 — about $27,000 more expensive than a conventional V60 wagon — when it goes on sale in Europe in early 2012.
• The U.S. is not included in the initial market launch of the V60 hybrid.
• Volvo said it will build 1,000 units for model year 2013, with production increasing to 4,000-6,000 cars in model year 2014.

GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Volvo on Tuesday said its 2013 V60 plug-in diesel hybrid will be priced at $75,218 — about $27,000 more expensive than a conventional V60 wagon — when it goes on sale in Europe in early 2012.

Volvo has said that estimated fuel costs will be one-third compared with a conventional combustion engine. The diesel-hybrid wagon was unveiled at the 2011 Geneva Auto Show. Volvo says the fuel economy is the equivalent of 124 mpg, with CO2 emissions of just 49 g/km.

READ MORE

Category: Automotive, Diesel, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: diesel, ev, future, hybrid, stanford, volvo

Posted By RichC on February 13, 2012

Every once in a while those interviewed on widely watched financial television channels have an opportunity to mention individual stocks … not a big deal when the companies are larger. Unfortunately mentioning a couple lessor known companies can move the prices.

Today CNBC’s Bill Griffeth on his Closing Bell segment interviewed an analyst from Oppenheimer who suggested that shippers might be undervalued. Carter Worth compared the trend to the Dow and suggested trading a couple of the laggards. Bill pressed him for a couple of names and Mr. Worth complied (can you tell by the charts when he mentioned these two stocks?)

… one way to then, you know, sort of get involved here is to try to play transports by those that have lagged by shippers. Are there shippers that you like or should you buy the group? There are groups that I like but the Baltic Index is at an all time low. So the cost of leasing a boat is going down to record lows the stocks themselves are actually starting to come up off the bottom and there are two that looked good among others, but DryShips (DRYS) is one, and if you look at the chart, it shows that a well established down trend, 7-2, and then we are breaking above the downturn, an important development, stock leading the the way, while shipping rates stay down.

Another one, Genco (GNK), 25-5 and here too, you see the down trend and moving above the down trend, there’s wisdom in price. the prices of these shippers and many others are starting to move up while the shipping rates are at lows. what you are acknowledging is that there’s strength in the key sector, you are trying to find the bargains. again, everything else is robust …

Category: Financial | No Comments »
Tags: charts, cnbc, finance, investing, stocks, trading

Posted By RichC on February 12, 2012

Although we had a relaxing week “on the boat” … we opted to spend our last day in Orlando and visiting the Epcot center and dinner at the California Grill atop Walt Disney World’s Contemporary Hotel (thanks Gary!)

Category: Archive, Personal, Photos | 2 Comments »
Tags: family, Personal, Photos, vacation

Posted By RichC on February 9, 2012

Just archiving a few photos from our wind blown day on the beach Wednesday and rough day sailing on Thursday – winds were a bit strong from the NE and 4-6 foot waves not all that much fun. Cloudy mornings – sunny early afternoon turning back into overcast and clouds later. We had a good time even with the green water on the decks a few times.

Category: Archive, Personal, Photos, Sailing | No Comments »
Tags: archive, beach, encore, florida, sailing

Posted By RichC on February 9, 2012

The expected Volkswagen Beetle TDI made its appearance at the Chicago Auto Show Wednesday all squished down and sporty looking. It is to be offered as a 2013 model and will have the 2.0 liter diesel. The new model will be offered with the manual six-speed transmission or the VW six-speed DSG automatic and will deliver 236 pound–feet of torque with its 140 HP TDI engine.

Prices haven’t been announced for the Beetle TDI but Volkswagen expect fuel efficiency numbers to be 29 mpg city and 39 mpg highway. The TDI will have 17-inch alloy wheels, additional exterior chrome along with special badging and instrument pod with a turbo boost gauge, oil temperature gauge and a stopwatch.

Category: Automotive, Diesel, Volkswagen | 1 Comment »
Tags: 2013, beetle, diesel, tdi, volkswagen, vw

Posted By RichC on February 8, 2012

As for sun and sailing, we did head out in the morning … but between the rain and the associated wind gusts with every batch of wet weather we gave up “the fun” and headed back to our home port. We did visit the fuel dock to both pump out and top of our fuel tank, but by afternoon decided to head to Delray Beach for a visit with Brenda’s parents and a dinner out at Duffy’s … a very nice time (and they are doing great).

Category: Personal, Photos, Sailing | No Comments »
Tags: delray beach, florida, howard, sailing

Posted By RichC on February 7, 2012

All is good so far as some R & R goes, but the drizzle and rain has been with us for the past 48 hours. I’m looking at the forecast and current radar (Encore’s radar photo on the right) and it looks like less rain with isolated thunderstorms tomorrow. We’ll see.

While the girls watched a rented movie from Redbox, I tinkered on a longer term shower project as well as reseated the seals of a couple of ports … really need to order new seals — West Marine didn’t have them. I did get around to putting the propane grill and new outboard motor mount on the stern … I’m ready to grill something. Unfortunately at 10PM I’m tired again, so we’ll be heading to bed shortly – vacations do that to me.

Category: Personal, Photos, Sailing | No Comments »
Tags: encore, florida, sailboat

Posted By RichC on February 6, 2012

It is great to be vacationing with Brenda and my daughter on Encore over Superbowl weekend. We’re having a good time despite a few rain showers, but we used the drizzle as an excuse to help with the deck washing. One of the highlights was a visit from “Mr. Manatee” who enjoyed the fresh water dribbling off the deck (video below).

 
Mr. Manatee pays a  visit our boat

 
Cape Horn self steering gear on Encore and moi relaxing

Category: Personal, Photos, Sailing | No Comments »
Tags: encore, family, Photos, sailing

Posted By RichC on February 5, 2012

Although I’m not claiming to be a New York Giants fan, I’m definitely not a New England Patriots fan … so enjoyed the 21 to 17 win by the Giants. A great game for the NFL fans and one of the better Superbowl I can remember. Congrats to all for a great game right down to the end.

I was thinking that those watching the final minutes of the 4th quarter coaching strategy could definitely agree with  soccer=checkers and American football=chess comparison. Great job by all.

Category: Sports | No Comments »
Tags: 46, football, giants, nfl, patriots, superbowl