The times we live in: Looking at Christmas — 2010

| December 24, 2010

I’m a Christian and make an effort to keep “Christ in Christmas” … but I do my best to be sensitive to other religions going out of my way to send Hanukkah cards to my Jewish friends and ease off offending those that I know have strong objections to the Christian faith and our desire […]

Helping family: A long weekend in western NY

| October 11, 2010

My “greatest generation” father-in-law (Brenda’s dad) has been struggling medically for the past month and a half suffering with pain from his back and a fractured hip. After a valiant attempt at rehab and without significant success using drug and therapy, he opted for back surgery in hope to eliminating pain and to regaining functional […]

Nobody wants to grow old and become dependent on others

| September 17, 2010

We are all getting older and inevitably our human bodies give way to age. Some are blessed with good health for 70 or 80 years, but eventually become dependent on others. Learning to adjust is not something most are quick to accept. The days of our years are three score years and ten; and if […]

Day 7 and 8: Bermuda to NYC aboard the NCL Dawn

| August 23, 2010

I’m wrapping up a final post from a fantastic family summer vacation. The trip to Bermuda and back has me wondering where the week went? The time was both relaxing and exciting … and especially nice considering the four of us enjoyed it together – I probably should “thank” Brenda for pushing the trip even […]

Day 6: Offshore to Bermuda’s barrier reef

| August 22, 2010

Being an atoll, Bermuda is surrounded and protected by an outer barrier reef system which would be more appropriately named a “great barrier reef” since it rings the entire chain of islands. The distance to the outer reef varieties from 1 to 9 miles offshore. Today we “sailed” (powered due to light wind) several miles […]

Day 5: Looking under water in Bermuda

| August 20, 2010

No we’re not the next Tucker family (Teddy Tucker) of Bermuda and even though we were looking at one of the 200+ shipwrecks around the “Devil’s Islands,” we did not find gold. Another day of water sports and fun in the sun, today was spent kayaking over the coral colonies, looking at fish and an […]

Enjoyed the Reds/Rockies game with two great guys

| July 18, 2010

Although the Cincinnati Reds came up short in Sunday’s Ohio Northern University alumni baseball outing against the Colorado Rockies (final 0-1), I enjoyed spending the day at the Great American Ballpark with my my son and my close friend Jeff from ONU dorm days. Jeff Pitts is someone who has been there through thick and […]

New Tires for my daughter‘s VW Jetta TDI

| July 17, 2010

My daughter was home with her little diesel from NEOUCOM for a few days and I took the opportunity to replace her Dunlop Sport A2 tires with a set of Goodyear’s (Eagle LS-2 – $408.00) hoping to get a little more even wear as she’ll be spending more time on the road interviewing for her […]

A Happy Father’s Day to fellow dads in changing times

| June 20, 2010

We had my dad over to our house this past week and enjoyed celebrating Father’s Day a bit early on Thursday evening. The conversation was great while reviewing photos from our trip to Washington DC and reflecting on what a great example my dad has been for me. He did a great job in a […]

Enjoyed putting on the miles this week, but I need a diesel

| June 12, 2010

I’ve been putting a few more miles on the Honda Pilot than usual, for both work and personal travel, which has me thinking about diesel cars and the soon to expire tax incentives on a few models. It would be nice to have a new Volkswagen Jetta TDI or Sportwagen TDI, but with the slowdown […]

Obit: Anne Marguerite Holmstrom

| April 28, 2010

Anne Marguerite Holmstrom passed away on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 after 80 years of joyful, exuberant living. Her keen wit, artistic talent, strong principles, love of family, friends and country, appreciation of music, funny stories and the well-turned phrase, left a powerful and lasting impression on all who knew her. Anne started her life on […]

Spending the day with Mom and Dad

| January 3, 2010

Mom and Dad 01/02/10 — Palm Pre We’ve had a couple of nice family gatherings over Christmas and New Years this holiday season, so why not include two of the most important people in my life … Mom and Dad. It was a great to be together with them and enjoying time reminiscing — I […]

Merry Christmas wishes from me to you — 2009

| December 18, 2009

The house is now decorated, the kids home (or almost home) from college, snow is in the forecast and Christmas is a mere week away. As we reflect on the scrabble to get everything right for the celebration this season, let’s not get so overly wrapped up in the preparation that we lose sight of […]

Heaven bound: Lois R. Sevrence left for Home

| March 8, 2009

Although her life was full and death was peaceful, it is difficult for me to say an earthly goodbye to my wonderful Aunt Lois. She was my closest aunt (my mother’s only sister) and growing up we were always together with her and her family. My brother and I were practically best friends with her […]

My daughter’s VW TDI reaches first milestone

| July 15, 2008

Although this is by no means a challenging milestone for Volkswagen diesel cars, it is a personal milestone for my daughter. Her first car, a 2001 VW Jetta TDI, has been treating her well for 100,000 miles now and she sent me an early morning photo from her Palm Treo Centro as it hit 100K. […]

They have ganged up on me!

| June 18, 2008

My own family has ganged up on me in a ‘vacation’ game of Risk. Its been an enjoyable few days on vacation and we’re all getting plenty of sun — although it has been raining on and off here in Delray Beach, Florida. Today was particularly nice as we topped off the day with a […]

Whew! I remembered my anniversary

| June 5, 2008

Although it wasn’t a close call in remembering our 26th wedding anniversary, I wasn’t exactly plotting weeks in advance either … but Brenda and I had an enjoyable time going to the movies — Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. For us the Indiana Jones movie brought back fond memories as the […]

Graduation, family and an overall busy weekend

| June 1, 2008

It has been a busy few days getting ready for a well attended open house, family for the weekend and my son’s high school graduation ceremonies. (baccalaureate and graduation) The good weather held and everything went very well, thanks to my wife’s planning … and we even have some left over food! Since I’m traveling […]

A Roo, the Zips and the University of Akron

| May 23, 2008

This past weekend my son and I went to freshman orientation at the University of Akron in preparation for his fall semester. The The full day started at 7:45 and ended at 4:30, but the time was well spent in that he’s registered for fall classes and nearly ready to start … and high school […]

Tri-State City Rugby Championship Tourney 2008

| May 19, 2008

This past weekend was full of May oriented ‘goings-on.’ From attending a couple important graduation open houses to working at getting our yard in order for my son’s high school graduation open house, to the culmination of the best rugby season we’ve had. It was a perfect time to have been a senior as Taylor’s […]

Home Improvements: Landscaping and Blacktop

| April 28, 2008

My back is sore and my muscles ach as this past weekend was spent working in the yard … well really in just part of the yard. I’ve been reworking the landscaping as the ‘new porch’ is slowly coming together — this past weekend was the small pond and opening up the pool. (too many […]

Merry Christmas 2007

| December 24, 2007

Last night my wife and I enjoyed reading the small Max Lucado coffee table book “One Incredible Moment” in front of our Christmas Tree. Although the book was published in 2006, the segment included below, Mary’s Prayer, was originally part of the Lucado book “God Came Near.” As you prepare for your Christmas celebration and […]

Back from “The Water’s Edge” on Kelleys Island

| August 1, 2007

We enjoyed being out of touch on an extra long weekend these past few days with my family celebrating my parent’s 50th Wedding Anniversary. Its is wonderful mile-marker for mom and dad which provides both my brother and me with an excellent marriage example. Our families booked a semi-surprise long weekend at The Water’s Edge […]

Western NY High School Graduation visit

| June 25, 2007

We had an enjoyable trip to western New York (my wife’s home) to attend my niece’s graduation from Maple Grove High School in Bemus Point. The weather and drive was beautiful and the time with our family too short. The small rural high school graduation (79 students) did offer an interesting commencement speaker for such […]

It is cold outside, duh …

| February 4, 2007

Colder weather has settled around much of the mid-west this past week as were in the single digits in and around Cincinnati. Thankfully we are only dealing with what is expected — winter, other are not as fortunate; my heart goes out to those dealing with the severe storms, the destruction and deaths in central […]

Congratulations to Madison and Nathan

| December 31, 2006

It has been a busy holiday week which included Christmas, New Year’s Eve, football and my niece’s wedding. I also wanted to ‘archive‘ at least one photo from from the wedding. (and what a wedding it was!) Here’s wishing both Madison and Nathan congratulations as they begin married life together. Oh … and thank you […]

Volkswagen GTI surprise

| December 26, 2006

Christmas has been hectic as usual around our house. We’ve been entertaining and enjoying the festivities including time with our extended families. (which isn’t going to end until after the New Year!) This year was special for my son as you might have noticed above; Santa brought him a ‘car’ … I’m not sure how […]

Christmas Tradition: The Nutcracker Ballet – 2006

| December 23, 2006

To celebrate the Christmas season, Brenda (my wife) suggested (to my moaning) that we go as a family to see the Nutcracker performed by the Cincinnati Ballet. I’m probably the only ‘guy’ in America groaning about spending $50 a ticket to go to the ballet … right???

The ol’ Scared Pepper Experiment

| November 29, 2006

My son came home and demonstrated the “scared pepper” — surface tension of water experiment today. I’m not sure I fully understand the ‘science’ behind the dish washing soap and water, but from an offset printing background we depend on surface tension and even enhance it with isopropyl alcohol or a substitute to dampen aluminum […]

NEOUCOM White Coat Ceremony

| September 3, 2006

On August 30, 2006 the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (NEOUCOM) held it annual White Coat Ceremony where several awards to teaching professionals and the induction of the 2010 graduating class was acknowledged. Margaret Nora, M.D., J.D., president and dean of NEOUCOM offered words of advice and congratulations to the 123 inductees to a […]

Archive: Corbett Christmas Letters 2005 and 2004

| December 20, 2005

Originally MyArchive.us was a place to archive documents, photos, etc but eventually became a much more public (yet personal) blog (richc.myarchive.us and finally MyDesultoryBlog.com). As the daily public shares grew, it became difficult to decide what to share and what to exclude. As our family grew older, it became easier to include them in “family” oriented posts […]

Archive: Older Corbett Christmas Letters 1983-2003

| December 19, 2005

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