Aviation has been a hobby of mine for a long time, even though I no longer fly airplanes or spend time homebuilding an airplane or being active in my local EAA Chapter(Hm, I’m missing our chapter meeting today).
I do still enjoy the social connection with aviation friends on Twitter/X.com … one that posts about “Triple Tail” aircraft on Thursdays (aka: #TripleTailThursday). Last week I commented with a photo of a Bellanca 14 19-2 Cruisemaster as most of the photos are of larger commercial aircraft.
The advertising from Tesla is working on me as the range and charging infrastructure continues to improve. Having driven and watched my son-in-law use his Tesla Model3 (mostly for daily commuting) since 2019 with impressive success, a Model3 might make a great second car … IF the price were lower or incentives better (perhaps a “known-owner” lightly-used Model3 or Toyota Hybrid)?
As mentiioned previously, I’m still interested in a small Mazda CUV with hybrid EV set-up … if it were to ever come to market? The CUV uses a rotary engine “as a range extender” on the Mazda MX30 R-EV. It also is currently the only one my wife has “any” interest in as a replacement for her 2010 Acura RDX(although our 1988 Mazda 626 Turbo was still her favorite car). Unfortunately at this point, the “rotary range extender” MX30 R-EV version is not even imported to the U.S. (see segment from previously included 5/2023 post below).
Well then there’s an ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) for that … finally. But now the decision, which one do you add to your investment portfolio? Check out this article on CNBC and chart of ETFs and fees.
The bitcoin exchange-traded funds launching Thursday after the SEC’s long-awaited approval come at a wide variety of price points, with signs that a fee war is already underway.
The Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) has the lowest expense ratio of all the new bitcoin funds, at 0.20%. Several other funds are close behind, including the Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) at 0.21% and the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) at 0.25%.
The Bitwise fund also has a temporary waiver that will eliminate the fee entirely for six months on the first $1 billion of assets. Other proposed funds have similar waivers, meaning early adopters of the bitcoin ETFs will have little or zero management cost for a brief time.
All woodworkers making projects tinker with making joints and deciding on which ones are best for their drawers, frames and boxes. I’ve experimented with a variety usually based on traditional construction and visual appeal. BUT I also assumed certain joints were stronger an provided both glue and mechanical strength necessary (ie. drawers getting closed and opened). Surprisingly YouTube producer Scott Walsh’s tests opened more than my eyes to the faulty assumption as to which joint are strongest (thankfully adding splines to miters as I have in many projects seemed to be pretty impressive — see below).
Should I be a whiner or just a grumpy old man who stay quiet?
My day generally starts with coffee and a Nature Valley Honey and Oats granola bar. Last week I started chewing and felt something sharp in my mouth after taking a bite and found a piece of plastic. Hm, did it come from the wrapper, in the bottom of the bowl or was it inside the granola bar? It should not have been there even though it didn’t cut my mouth, but wondering if I should eat the next bar in the 49 pouch box more carefully or contact General Mills to get it replaced (or see if there was a recall)?
This may have been the third year in a row that I’ve “pruned” the dry Christmas tree apart in the house rather than yanking it through the back door or having another disaster. Why didn’t I do this in previous years?
Brenda and I also made a trip to visit Katelyn, Drew and family in their new house in Whitehouse, Ohio. What a great community and beautiful home. So comfortable for them … and for us to stay in their guest bedroom and private bath (we call it the “sanctuary”). 😊
The girls enjoyed showing us around (a couple photos below) and I spent a couple hours playing with them in the playroom while Brenda helped unpack kitchen and pantry boxes — although we all eventually got into the act. It was a quick couple of days, but very enjoyable.
Took a screenshot of my iPhone’s Sirius XM app last month while listening to an old Casey Kasem‘s American Top 40 countdown on the 70’s channel.
There’s always something that catches my ear on the weekends when it comes to 1970s songs and thought it was a good choice for Music Monday.
The song was released as a single in the UK in June 1970 by The Kinks and released a bit later in that same month in the U.S. According to Wikipedia, “Lola“reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and number nine on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Kinks – “Lola” | 1970
It has become one of the Kinks’ most popular songs and was ranked number 386 on Rolling Stone’s 2021 edition of its “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list. “Lola” was also ranked number 473 on NME’s own “The 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time” list.
Last week we took our 2010 Acura RDX to our local repair garage, hoping for a minor rather than major issue. So far, so good.
The initial thought that it might be a solenoid controling the turbo wastegate turned out to be “not” the issue … and digging deeper required several more hours of labor. What was found was that the wastegate was stuck and the pushrod controled by the solenoid could not move it. Access is not easy, but before concluding that the entire assembly needed to be replace (likely the solution by an Acura dealer would be $6000-7000), the guys decided if I would leave it with them for the week that they would “try” to clean, lube and try to “unstick” the wastegate. After keeping it a few days more and squirting penetrating oil in and working it manually … it works. Now the question is just how long before it starts to stick and throw emission codes again?
While watching a couple of college football bowl games on New Year’s Day, I updated my “everyday carry” iPad with a new family wallpaper photo — slightly enhanced above. It was an opportunity to tinker with the new iPadOS 17 gadget feature (see stock and weather at lower left) anyway but the wallpaper photo needed updating anyway. Drew took the family selfie photo on the gazebo as we walked around the neighborhood over Christmas. Nice … thanks, Drew!
