The Oostra’s new house has their first Christmas tree … and a little baseball podcast for ThrowBack Thursday #TBT

| December 12, 2024

Today’s archive post will be quite the Throwback Thursday #TBT stretch … as the photos and Christmas tree subject matter are from last weekend … even though “The Longest Game” podcast forwarded by my daughter Katelyn is a baseball story from years ago (she knows I enjoy baseball). Let’s start with the baseball story from 1981 […]

With Katelyn and Megan the figure skaters in our family, who knew Taylor would learn through osmosis?

| December 10, 2024

With early November and December winter weather showing up somewhat early, there’s no better time for Megan’s employer to have a holiday gathering at Kings Island. For their business, it is time to promote WinterFest with 7-million lights and some ice skating.  Both Megan and Katelyn learned, and then taught, figure skating for the Queen […]

Archive: Merry Christmas 2024 and a Google “add me” photo test

| December 6, 2024

The annual Corbett Christmas Letter has been reduced to the ubiquitous Christmas card printed by one of the many card producers (below). This year’s card was ordered  before our Thanksgiving famly get-together and unique Google “Add Me” AI feature used in the photo above on Drew’s new Pixel 9. Very impressive — hey, Apple, get […]

Archive: Thanksgiving 2024 photos with our family

| December 3, 2024

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Late night post just to fill a missing December 1, 2024

| December 1, 2024

Who doesn’t enjoy watching a Sunday Night Football game from Buffalo, NY during a “lake effect” snow. It brings back memories of our years both living in NE Ohio and in driving to and from Western NY (Jamestown) to be with Brenda’s family and playing football — we called it “the Howard Bowl.” A quick […]

A beautiful photo of my granddaughters and their neighborhood

| November 30, 2024

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Archive: Megan, Taylor and Gigi out for a walk and Venus rising

| November 26, 2024

Nothing earth shattering, but looked up to see Venus rising on Sunday evening as I was taking out the garbage. It was beautiful in the SSW sky and far more than the iPhone photo … but it was worth posting anyway. Megan, Taylor and Gigi were out for walks on Sunday and shared a couple […]

Archive: More Autumn 2024 family photos and video

| November 12, 2024

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Archive: Bananas and our granddaughter broke her little toe

| November 5, 2024

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Archive: Our family is enjoying the 2024 autumn weather

| October 29, 2024

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Cat 5 Hurricane Milton sets sight on Florida’s west coast

| October 8, 2024

Once again, the second half of the hurricane season is brewing up what looks to be another monster storm in the Gulf of Mexico (post after Hurricane Helene). This one is named Hurricane Milton and has quickly spun up to a category 5 storm as it starts moving from west to east across the gulf. […]

Thanks Mom for everything. It’s your birthday and I miss you.

| September 29, 2024

It isn’t as if I think about missing my mom everyday, but when her birthday approaches, I definitely do. In that way we are a lot alike — remembering her missing her mom. Brenda and I often comment, “oh how my mother would love this or that” … usually when talking about preparing the table […]

Family health issues: We’ll take our Utah trip next year!

| September 25, 2024

A change of plans is something that can cause stress … but nothing like the stress of having a child with a medical condition, no matter their age. Brenda’s younger sister Ann and her husband Gary have a grown daughter who has overcome hurdle after hurdle in living with a chiasmal optic glioma. It has […]

Keeping track of my adult children and grandkids is a challenge

| September 25, 2024

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Archive: Weekend photos, including a Barbie Birthday Party

| September 9, 2024

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Archive: Labor Day Weekend photos in Toledo with KDAE

| September 4, 2024

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A fun family weekend in the pool before school starts this week

| August 22, 2024

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Maine for the weekend. Congratulations Mike and Addie Agler.

| August 20, 2024

It is becoming the norm for me, but Tuesdays are often the day that I end up saving leftover weekend family photos to the MyDesultoryBlog.com. Last weekend was a wedding in Maine for Taylor’s lifetime best friend Mike Agler. So Taylor (Mike’s best man) and Megan flew up to a beautiful and historic Inn to […]

Archive: Once again, a few late summer weekend update photos

| August 13, 2024

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Archive: KDAE vacationing in Minnesota with the Howards

| July 31, 2024

The Oostras are vacationing back in Minnesota and enjoying time “stomping” around the areas near Minneapolis (and in Wayzata) where they spent a few years early of marriage. They initially spent some time with friends “in the city” then up with cousin Justin and Katie Howard and their family of five now at at their […]

Archive: Today is for highlighting my granddaughter Ellerie

| July 27, 2024

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Archive: A couple summer family photos from last weekend

| July 24, 2024

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Connecting with family led to talking about “end of life” planning

| June 30, 2024

Every once in a while my cousin Diane calls or text messages me to catch-up on our lives. She is a few of years older than me, but once you hit a certain age, those “few years” aren’t the same as when she was in high school or college and I was still in junior […]

Archiving photos: Our family busy doing “family stuff”

| June 27, 2024

Storm Clouds mid-June over Mankato MN  After our enjoyable and busy week with our granddaughters, I wanted to archive a few photos that have been piling up in the “maybe” for the blog folder. Above are some of the storm clouds in Minnesota that caused flooding in the midwest in mid-June — ominous! For us, […]

Archive: Summertime with Oma and Bompa – 2024 edition

| June 25, 2024

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For all the wonderful dads out there … Happy Father’s Day

| June 16, 2024

Today has me thinking of the two dads in my life (DadC and DadH) as well as the father of my two granddaughters, Drew. I thank them for being great mentors … by using the stern hand of guidance when it was required … with an abundance of self-discipline … and always being the provider […]

Treasures found prepping old workbench for my granddaughters

| June 6, 2024

My Grandpa Bluhm made this workbench and gave it to me for Christmas back in 1966. His influence early-on likely influenced my interest in tinkering and woodworking (car restoration and rebuilding was probably mostly influenced by DadC).  This past weekend I cleaned it up a bit and added a homemade light strip with a roll of […]

Look who’s “ogling” a cyber truck in Toledo, Ohio …

| May 28, 2024

My son-in-law Drew sent a photo (below) of the Oostra family after spotting a Tesla Cyber Truck in Toledo, Ohio over the weekend … and knowing his consistant interest, I won’t be surprise to see one in their garage someday! He has been “ogling” them since Elon Musk first announced the new truck in 2019 […]

Transplanted buttercups and DadH’s workshop in 2013 #TBT

| May 23, 2024

Upstairs in the Western NY Farmhouse Barn’s workshop in 2013 In keeping with the occasional ThrowBack Thursday #TBT, the above was a pano photo of DadH’s workshop after he passed away. I mentioned to Brenda that I wondered how he was able to climb the stairs of the barn and work on such a large […]

Enjoyed the weekend with KDAE and a wonderful dance recital

| May 22, 2024

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Archive: Swing/Slide repair part and meet Mackenzie Lee Howard

| May 15, 2024

This archiving of leftover weekend photos is becoming a trend on My Desultory Blog and since it is a space for me to mark events and save photos, I suppose it will continue?  Last weekend while celebrating Mother’s Day (along with my birthday) … I started pool opening process. I’m not sure how many more […]

Happy Birthday to my daughter Katelyn … how the risk tolerances and priorities have changed!

| May 14, 2024

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Happy Mother’s Day 2024 to Brenda, Katelyn and ALL Moms

| May 12, 2024

While picking out a card for “the mother of my grown children” this year, I couldn’t help notice how inflation has impacted the price of greeting cards. Perhaps when I was in the business of putting ink on paper, the price per sheet as it were, I wasn’t really given too much thought to each […]

Thanks all for reminding me that I’m another year older 🙃

| May 8, 2024

Late spring yard work and continued Kubota diagnosis and repairs continued over the weekend, but on the 7th, another year for me is in the books; can’t say I’m feeling all that different? But THANK YOU to my family and friends for wishing me a Happy Birthday … and some doing the traditional Howard family […]

The Doppelgänger look-a-likes always impress me #TBT

| May 2, 2024

Every once in a while there is a doppelgänger photo, person, sculpture or something that reminds me of someone else (software isn’t always accurate). 😉  Also a few years back, there was a person who reminded me of my brother Ron, so I posted about it. Back October 2011 at my nephew’s wedding, there was […]

I have finally gone “Full Howard” (an inside family joke) #TBT

| April 18, 2024

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The day after our April 8, 2024 Solar Eclipse #photos #video

| April 9, 2024

Click images for larger images Our backyard may not have been the absolute best location to view a perfectly covered sun for the solar eclipse, but it was very impressive.   Taylor took an afternoon off of work and  came up with Gigi in the afternoon (we are north of Cincinnati), and I suspect he […]

A Bald Eagle photo in Whitehouse, Ohio … and another 100,000 miles odometer photo from my daughter #TBT

| April 4, 2024

Katelyn’s 100K text message (above left) from her 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan reminded me of the one she sent 17 years ago (above right) … back when she was driving her 2001 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Where have all the years and miles gone (hence #TBT)? I’m so glad we have the technology to sporadically send messages […]

Archive: Gigi, Creative Rainbow artwork and Ilia Malinin skating

| March 26, 2024

As has become a routine, I’m archiving a couple family weekend photos. First, last week was Gigi’s rescue day (Taylor and Megan’s dog). It was in 2023 that they found her and after attempting to find the owner by posting signs etc … although they suspected she was abandoned after having puppies … adopted her […]

Archive: Combo family birthday party for Annalyn and Ellerie

| March 19, 2024

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Archive: Since recent family posts were private for most readers, here’s a very cool night “star” photo of KDAE’s new house

| March 7, 2024

Thanks for the great night photo after the completion of your homebuilding project, Drew and Katelyn

Archive: KDAE February 2024 vacation to Florida Wrap-Up Part 1

| March 3, 2024

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Archive: Updating the “goings-on” of Taylor and Megan

| March 1, 2024

While I really wanted to take the time and archive the great time we had in February with Katelyn, Drew and our granddaughters in Florida, I’ll start with a less time intensive post. Last week Taylor and Megan made me jealous by going to a Mac McAnally concert in Cincinnati. It definitely looks like they […]

Archive: A few leftover Valentine’s Day photos to make me smile

| February 15, 2024

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Closing out the month of January 2024 with Oreo LoveBugs

| January 31, 2024

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Family is busy enjoying the winter weather and MLKJr.

| January 16, 2024

Although the temperatures around the US have taken a deep dive and have brought a cold and snowy winter to much of the country, our family is making the most of it. Taylor and Megan spent the long weekend skiing with some in her extended family in Utah and KDAE made the most of the […]

Weekend trip to Whitehouse Ohio and Christmas de-decorating

| January 9, 2024

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 […]

Tech Friday: A new iPad Wallpaper and fix the Harmony remote

| January 5, 2024

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 […]

Taylor impressed me with his handyman skills earlier this week

| December 30, 2023

All fathers who semi-attempt to pass down a few “handyman” skills are proud of their sons (and daughters – mine is amazing!) when they tackle projects by themselves. Taylor continues to amaze me at his fortitude when taking on homeownership projects, although he’s never been hesitant to jump into things with both feet. 😊  It […]

Archiving our Corbett family Christmas get togethers for 2023

| December 27, 2023

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A 70th Birthday for Chris and our first REAL snow in December

| December 19, 2023

This past weekend was enjoyable for our family as we celebrated Brenda‘s sister Chris Skinner‘s 70th Birthday. It was a surprise party planned by her grown children and it was pulled off wonderfully.  Ann and Gary drove up to our house from Atlanta and we drove 30 minutes to meet up with the family and […]

Archive: Some Christmas photos and KDAE finally moving in

| December 13, 2023

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Archive: A family Throwback Thursday #TBT filler post

| November 30, 2023

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Archive: A shark on the beach and a toothless granddaughter

| November 29, 2023

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Archive: Rain showers and our growing granddaughters

| November 26, 2023

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A day for Gratitude: A Journey Through History

| November 23, 2023

Thanksgiving traces its origins to the 1621 harvest celebration held by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people in Plymouth, Massachusetts. This historic gathering marked a season of abundance and marked the beginning of a tradition that would become a cornerstone of American culture. Thanksgiving serves as a universal reminder to thank our Creator for our […]

Archive: Leftover granddaughter photos from last weekend

| November 14, 2023

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Archiving leftover family photos to close out October 2023

| October 31, 2023

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Archive: A couple of Corn-Mazing granddaughters

| October 25, 2023

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The ablity to memorize passes to the next generation #TBT

| September 28, 2023

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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.
My Desultory Blog