Archive: Memories from our October 2023 beachy vacation

| October 29, 2023

Before the photos from our October 2023 vacation to Florida are buried too deep on my phone, I’ll use this weekend post as is an excuse to archive them. Brenda and I had great weather for most of our vacation and enjoy many days walking on Delray Beach. She has recovered from hip surgery impressively […]

Just filling space with a Cicada and a Couple Smiles

| August 23, 2023

Just filling up some space and using these photos as excuses to post a cicada “live photo” (saved as anigif) AND a cute “smiling dogs” photo from the social network “X” … formerly known as Twitter. I’m enjoying the nice warm weather as long as it lasts — August is disappearing fast.

Music Monday: A couple times a hit, “Hooked On A Feeling”

| August 7, 2023

The songwriter Mark James wrote the song “Hooked On A Feeling” that became a hit in 1968 for singer and entertainer B.J. Thomas (see Geraldo video below) and then became a hit for Swedish rock band Blue Swede six years later. Both versions are memorable, although the Blue Swede producer Jonathan King’s “ooga-chaka” introduction on […]

A collection of graphs and charts used on Twitter last week

| July 22, 2023

The week was abnormally filled with charts and graphs while chiming in to news stories and posts on Twitter this past week, but I’ll start with an animated GIF graphic and link to a story regarding offshore wind farm leases opening up in the Gulf of Mexico. As for the graphs and charts, here’s one […]

Tech Friday: Ridgid 9Ah lithium battery claim for failing latch

| July 7, 2023

One of the TWO reasons that I’ve opted for the Ridgid brand of cordless power tools is their LSA … which I’ve used once before on a couple of early batteries. Besides the minor hassle in registering and filing a claim, it seems to be the right way to go considering the problems with tools […]

Archiving our early 2022 Christmas present: A New Rug

| December 23, 2022

Brenda has struggled most of the year to find a replacement Oriental or Persian Rug for our Great Room after retiring our original rug to my office. In November, Katelyn connected her with “Donald,” the decorator she is using to help with their homebuilding, and after several Facetime calls finally decided on a VERY large […]

What to do with an old Amazon Echo Dot? Tear it down.

| December 16, 2022

What “should” a person do when an older piece of tech stops working? Give up? Buy new? Well we have an older first generation Amazon Echo Dot continued to be unreliable in maintaining a WiFi connection to our mesh home network. After several restarts over the last couple of months, full reboots and re-setups, I’ve […]

Brace for Impact, Floridians. Hurricane Ian is here – 9/28/2022

| September 28, 2022

From way up high, Hurricane Ian is a much more attractive (ani-gif above) … but suspect those Ian left under water and in its storm ravaged path in western Cuba … AND has nearly everyone in Florida chewing their nails while they brace for impact. (residents need a “Miracle on the Hudson” moment) Governor DeSantis […]

Moving back into the home office and pondering family artists

| July 30, 2022

This past weekend I started what is going to be a slow, but deliberative process of moving out of the basement and back into the upstairs home office. No window blinds yet, but we did move the oriental rug from our first floor to the upstairs (Brenda would like to get something new for the […]

Stocks, bonds, crypto all down. What to do, what to do?

| May 13, 2022

FoxBusiness/WSJ graphic For the good or bad, whenever I’m away from my daily routine, it seems like the financial markets lose stability and investors go into crisis mode? The past couple of weeks, those invested in stocks, bonds and crypto know that it has been painful; there have been very few refuges from the sharp […]

Bummer, we didn’t plan a winter or spring break this year

| March 20, 2022

Photo from February 2013 in Delray Beach while visiting Brenda’s parents For years … well decades really … we have been fortunate enough to escape winter in February or sometimes March or April and head to sunny or warmer climates for a week. Often it was to visit either Brenda’s or my parents who would […]

Tech Friday: Apple Event and our WyzeCam3 picks up a fox

| March 11, 2022

Here are a couple of technology highlights to mention on a Tech Friday from earlier this week. First, the new driveway Wyze Cam3 set-up (moved it) picked up an evening fox whizzing by and the second, an event on Tuesday from Apple announcing new products. Personally, I’m not sure what kind of surprise was expected […]

A big snowman GIF triggered Ford 800 tractor memories #TBT

| February 10, 2022

In early February 2022, most of the U.S. received a heavy ice and snow storm. There were quite a few shared photos on the social networks and an animated GIF of a huge snowman triggered memories of our Hudson, Ohio winters in NE Ohio. Back then I had an old Ford 800 that I used […]

A storm is coming and few running our country seem to care

| January 8, 2022

It feels like we are obliviously sailing on the Titanic and ignoring a financial storm on the horizon. We know that there is a debt iceberg ahead and yet have convinced ourselves that the United States is unsinkable … and so … continue our TRILLION dollar money printing and our unsustainable spending ways. Congress spends […]

Stargazing on a cold and crisp evening out the back door

| December 6, 2021

I took a quick photo as the Moon and Venus are lit up by the sun well down in our evening sky in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. Cold, clear and beautiful. Be watching for Saturn and Jupiter!

Filler Tuesday? An annoying animated gif from Twitter

| November 23, 2021

Sort of planned to save this embedded Massimo tweet for a “Filler Friday” post or something … but needed something to plug a daily hole this week while getting ready for Thanksgiving. 😉 This has been called 'the most annoying gif on the Internet' [https://t.co/F0nU9wWnGf] but it has some interesting references, because it's a kind […]

Making Monkey Fist ornaments and a fire on the back porch

| November 9, 2021

After learning to tie a Monkey Fist knot this past year, I decided to make a couple Christmas ornaments for my granddaughters. I was planning to attach them to their presents in December, but Brenda suggested they should have them before Christmas so that they could hang them on their tree. Yikes, now I need […]

Music Monday: a commercial for Applebees, John Sebastian, Television themes songs and Welcome Back Kotter (1975-1979)

| June 7, 2021

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Tech Friday: Would you consider buying this iPhone 5G slider?

| May 7, 2021

If you keep your eyes open, there are plenty of interesting Android and iPhone concept videos floating around. As a Palm Pre slider user, I’ve always thought there might be another slider (or foldable) pocket friendly phone in my future. Here’s an iPhone slider demo that has promise … although personally I think we’ll see […]

Yardwork and getting ready to freshen up our mounds

| April 17, 2021

It’s that time of year … cleaning up, getting the landscaping mounds ready for new mulch and of course, Brenda has to burn something … decorative grasses go up fast. Let’s hope she doesn’t burn the fence again. For my part, I’m digging out older stone (what a pain) and prepping to put down some […]

Celebrities Then and Now Photos (popular on social media)

| April 11, 2021

Last week my sister-in-law shared an update on her Facebook page of some well-known Hollywood celebrities that I thought would be interesting to at to MyDesultoryBlog. I downloaded the 30+ different-sized photos, resized a few and decided it might work as an automated slide show (if you want my resized originals, download this .zip archive). […]

Winter weather for mid-February 2021. More snow.

| February 15, 2021

Click here for ani-gif above for full 25 second iPhone slow-motion video The icy sleet on top of our existing snow and pre-cleared roads has made travel dangerous this Monday afternoon in southwest Ohio. Thankfully for President’s Day Brenda and I are home (although it was by chance and not planned) and are able to […]

Archive: Professional Brenda and the Hawk Migration #TBT

| January 28, 2021

When searching for a photo of my 1996 Toyota 4Runner (never found one), I stumbled across a couple personal photos from 1997 and will archive them for today’s Throwback Thursday #TBT. One of “professional Brenda” dressed for the office in 1990’s style (ha!) and the other of our family on an October Hawk Migration birding […]

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Slick roads and an accident.

| December 19, 2020

Although this is the second snow of the season, the weather has turned colder and we ended up with a touch more of the white stuff this week … and with it, yet another accident on Bethany Road to our rear. I saw the flashing sheriff’s car lights and since I’m working from home, I […]

It feels like winter, but those pesky Stink Bugs are still here?

| December 8, 2020

One of the irritations in using motion sensing security cameras (ani gif from previous post) at our house is that no matter how much I tweak the settings, they still detect motion and even declare “person detected” when it comes to movement. The biggest offender is slightly older Canary cam that I have set up […]

Filler post … since I’m busy “Livin’ the Dream” :-)

| October 22, 2020

… and just so the humor category can be checked, here’s an Open vs Concealed Carry photo.

Our granddaughter Ellerie has her first tooth … and big eyes!

| September 17, 2020

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A cute beach crab GIF and an eye-opening #filler shark photo

| August 2, 2020

This is when you are glad that you at least out on the water with a long board.  #surfing And if that is not your cup of tea … maybe strolling down the beach and poking a crab is more your speed?

Jumping dogs, Yoda-like pigs and Ostrich wood #filler

| July 29, 2020

If you spend much time on social networks, this is the kind of stuff you start to collect. So before tossing it … why not force it on someone else? 😊

Love our current vehicles, but do miss my VW Jetta TDI #TBT

| July 16, 2020

The publicity around Ford’s new “bucking” Bronco for 2021 had me thinking about cars this week … as well as seeing a post from 12 years ago highlighting 100,000 odometer reading on Katelyn’s first car. Bronco aside, a few of my favorite vehicles are running through my head, but have a special soft spot my […]

Wishing it away. Unfortunately the 3-mo delayed Tax Day is today

| July 15, 2020

The pandemic delayed April 15th Tax Day for Americans’ 2019 taxes is now upon us and for those who have not filed, you have until 11:59 tonight to do it … unless you request an extension until October 15th. We can try to wish it away like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, but as […]

Winning freedom is one thing, maintaining it is yet another

| July 4, 2020

As we celebrate our country’s freedom from oppression and an independence won from Great Britain this July 4th, it is hard to imagine any US citizen wanting to give up their liberty? Yet once again, it is looking more and more as if a vocal and radical segment in the most successful democracy on the […]

Do not fall for text messaging scams targeting senior citizens

| May 27, 2020

Acknowledge scammers and you become a “live mark.” There’s no way around it, living with smarphones and computers makes life easier and more difficult at the same time. Scammers are busy targeting all of us and seem particularly interested in taking advantage of senior citizens and those often least experience with technology. A perfect example […]

Happy Mother’s Day to my wife … and as mom to our kids

| May 10, 2020

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Watching stocks tank day after day requires a strong stomach

| March 10, 2020

The “old school” razor sharpening animated GIF below has NOTHING to do with my emotional state after stomaching Monday’s stock market crash and “oil war” between Russia and Saudi Arabia … so don’t read anything into my poor attempt at humor. After watching the DOW drop over 2158 points and seeing the index close just […]

Not much snow in Cincinnati for 2019-2020, but it is pretty

| February 26, 2020

We haven’t had much snow in SW Ohio this year .. so before it is totally gone for 2019-2020, I’ll share a few flakes above … after the “BIG FLAKES”  bickered last night in South Carolina (a list of Democratic Presidential Candidates debating in 2020). Democrats jockey for support ahead of S.C. primary The Democratic […]

While waiting for our 2nd granddaughter, here’s #1 for #TBT

| February 20, 2020

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Valentine’s Day is also Single Awareness Day #humor

| February 14, 2020

Nope … I’m not going to forget Happy Valentine’s Day and have remembered to get something “sweet” for Brenda … although it is a good thing she reminded me earlier in the week with a “be sure to pick up a couple gift cards for the kids” comment. Whew! I was also reminded by my […]

Filling space with LTE speed test and humorous automotive GIF

| February 11, 2020

A month ago Virgin Mobile sent this happy customer (great service) an update indicating that due to the Sprint T-Mobile combination that the Virgin partnership would be spun off to Sprint’s Boost Mobile prepaid group.They promised an equal or better “deal” which has yet to be noticed … but then it has only been a […]

Mesmerizing: An ani gif of stitching a star-patch over a hole

| February 4, 2020

If you have a hole in your jeans, instead of a patch, how about “darning” it with a star?

Who really wants Northern Water Snakes in their pool?

| October 2, 2019

Although they are not venomous, the people I know  don’t like to go swimming with snakes … Northern Water Snakes in this case (I think – see screen grab below). After being away for a week, once again the local wildlife has decided to make our pool their home – it has been dry. I […]

Why not just stick with American Standard, Delta or Moen?

| July 15, 2019

My wife does not appreciate the common everyday American branded sinks, vanities or faucets … and wanted something a little more unique for the Condo master bathroom (sort of like the other bathroom update last year – see photo at bottom of post). I really didn’t think that much about it until realizing that not […]

Great advice on using ceiling fans and saving money

| June 8, 2019

We are big proponents of using ceiling fans and “I” have always assumed the electricity cost in running them was minimal compared to running air conditioning and for the most part just leave them on all the time in the summer. BUT … that’s not really the best idea according to an energy saving newsletter. […]

Experimenting with a bit of silliness … “as seen on the Internet”

| June 2, 2019

If you grew up watching Get Smart, then you know about the “cone of silence” … but do you know about the “bottle of protection?” A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a guy work over a stove and frying pan of hot oil. If you’ve done this before, no doubt the spatter occasionally […]

Wasting time fixing a cheap quartz clock to put back on Encore

| March 19, 2019

Nothing like getting bogged down in wasting a weekend trying to repair a quartz clock that should just be replaced! I had the best of intentions on Saturday morning as I was up early and had my weekend project list ready to start. Initially I started to organize my workbench after ordering new bearings and […]

The colorful Coquina Clams emerging from a sandy beach

| February 3, 2019

After watching a short YouTube video of the Coquina Clam emerging from the “swash zone” on a beach after a wave retreated, I thought a short animated gif would make a great winter filler post for the blog. The coquina clam (Donax variabilis) is a common inhabitant of Florida’s sandy beaches. Known for their highly variable […]

It is cold and windy. Another layer of warm clothes please.

| January 30, 2019

An ani-gif of our Canary driveway cam early Wednesday Morning – 1/30/2019 The … dare I say a hated and banished phrase … “polar vortex” has swooped down from the north and frozen everything. It is brutally cold, but then it is winter. Schools, of course, are closed and even mail delivery in Cincinnati has been suspended. […]

Happy New Year – Make the most of each day this 2019

| January 1, 2019

This year our our 2018 Christmas letter included a quote by the Dalai Lama and it reminds me that our time on earth is finite. Once a grain of sand has passed through the hour glass, it is gone … so make each day count this 2019. There are only two days in the year […]

Added a Nest thermostat and a ceiling fan to the condo kitchen

| May 30, 2018

Adding a few more gadgets to the condo update this weekend as we are one step closer to getting it looking as if we’ll have a kitchen again … or at least a livable abode for the winter renters (or next owner). Hopefully the few extra upgrades I have opted to add will not go […]

Happy Valentine’s Day to my three special Valentines

| February 14, 2018

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Giphy.com or Gfycat and an emergency carry technique

| September 25, 2014

Here’s another Giphy.com test after using it for a Facebook share yesterday. I’ve found it a little be better than gfycat.com that I’ve used before since the purpose was to post to a social network.  Besides, I thought this was an interesting demo: A technique for carrying a person/body quickly in an emergency.

Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
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