RichC | September 24, 2020
We had our first taste of cooler fall weather for 2020 last week as the hot 80+ degree days of August and early September gave way to pleasant mid-to-high 70s and cooler evenings dipping into the 40s. Brr, my body has not adjusted yet. As autumn approaches and the temperatures are more tolerable in the […]
RichC | September 10, 2020
Nine lives, fate, stroke of luck, divine intervention? Here’s a Throwback Thursday #TBT shocker. One never knows just how “forgetting to put on a safety belt” could be seen as the smartest thing someone would do when racing. On September 17, 2000 it would give racer Nigel Corner another day on this earth. After seeing […]
RichC | August 13, 2020
There is no doubt in my mind that I would have tried to do this if Photoshop would have been as advanced when my kids were younger (or if I would have been has skilled – I’m basically a retoucher). As it was, I did include one of Katelyn’s computer art pieces (on my Mac SE […]
RichC | July 30, 2020
We are a product of our youth … and I’ll never forget The Mustache Gang. After seeing my son Taylor’s photo in his Cleveland Indians baseball cap (after shaving off his beard, but keeping his moustache), I had a flashback to the 1970s and remembered the Oakland A’s of my youth. They were the World […]
RichC | July 23, 2020
Having the comradery of social media friends who enjoy similar interests doesn’t necessarily replace face to face friendships, but at least during the Coronavirus pandemic it is a way to stay connected. There are a few of us like-minded car guys who sort of have an appreciation for the mundane cars and share stories, photos and […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | July 9, 2020
While smiling and thinking about my “now domesticated son ” (HA!) after seeing a couple photos Taylor proudly sent me after updated his kitchen apartment, I realized he is now closer to middle age than living in “just out of college” bachelor pad. The pre-COVID19 days of “always going out” have adjusted to “being comfortable […]
RichC | June 25, 2020
Our family went in different directions for Father’s Day this year, but I enjoyed the text messages, ‘last year memory photo’ and FaceTime singing by Annalyn. She sang a great Happy Father’s Day song to the tune of "Happy Birthday to you" … that was very appreciated and enjoyable. Ellerie tried to talk and she […]
RichC | May 7, 2020
Nine years ago, it would have been polite for our FedEx driver to have at LEAST left a note or to have mentioned he ran off the driveway … although it was understandable with the snow cover (see link). On the other hand, it makes me smile now, especially since I can use it as […]
RichC | April 2, 2020
With “stay at home” orders issued for 3/4 of the U.S. population, my good friend Jeff Pitts has been obeying the directive and working from home. It is also giving him time to do those “I’ll get to it someday” chores like cleaning out a spare room and finally throwing stuff away. One of the […]
RichC | March 19, 2020
Every once in a while MyDesultoryBlog’s “Year(s) Ago On This Day" script pops up something that shocks me. It is hard to believe we donated Brenda‘s 1998 Toyota Rav4 back in 2016? It does not seem that long … but "life moves pretty fast …" as the Ferris Bueller line goes. So I’ll repost one […]
RichC | February 19, 2020
Although I have not sought Katelyn’s approval to include her rounded “personal coffee table” or her pregnancy photo (cough, cough – one in the same) to MyDesultoryBlog, but I’m boldly going out on a limb by posting it. The longer I post daily, the more I find myself wanting to archive family milestones … as […]
RichC | February 13, 2020
Last week, a Jasper, Alberta family photo near a glacier for a ThrowBack Thursday #TBT post, had me sharing a few of my thoughts on climate change. I should have included another photo that had a few more from our family (especially since my sister-in-law, Lynda, just returned home from the Cleveland Clinic). The trip […]
RichC | January 16, 2020
While soring through my office file cabinet to make room for more current folders, I ran across an old lease contract and photo from an “almost happened” business decision. It would have been a decision and a location move that may have changed our future and had ripple effects even for the lives of my […]
RichC | December 26, 2019
While sifting through a few old .MP4 files, I found one of my first iPhone 5 test video clips from 2012 and it had a bit of footage of my Sonex airplane project (posted a few photos back then) that I was working on a year before selling it. It was shortly before I sold […]
RichC | December 5, 2019
While searching for a photo of an accident when a helicopter landed in our backyard, I ran across a photo of one of the “tools” I miss the most: a Bobcat 743 purchased when we built our house back in 1995-96. I did the same thing with a more powerful tractor besides our John Deere […]
RichC | November 21, 2019
Hello World! It is frightening to think that I’ve been using computers for FORTY years and have used and have seen the slow evolution in input devices clustered around a device called the Computer Mouse. So for ThrowBack Thursday #TBT this week, the above is a photo of the original “mouse” in 1964 by Douglas […]
RichC | November 14, 2019
I probably shouldn’t make a joke about my brother Ron going in for a surgical repair to his shoulder on Friday, but since he was the one joking with me about how he has felt like a “one and a half armed man” since summer, I continue the joke. Hopefully, he will “slice” (ouch!) right […]
RichC | November 7, 2019
Although we have recently returned from a nice two week vacation (Part One, Two and Three) and finishing up projects at the condo, I was reminded when looking at a post from 5 years ago for Throwback Thursday #TBT, just how relaxed we were and how much we enjoyed our time together sailing Encore (it […]
RichC | October 20, 2019
A photo from August 22, 2009 of a field that is now completely developed Saw this post from 10 years ago on my blog in August of 2009 as I was playing with the camera on my Palm Pre smartphone. At the time, I was impressed with the dramatic sky and quality of photo from […]
RichC | August 22, 2019
This is not the Throwback Thursday #TBT photo I would recommend using when listing a car for sale, but the 2006 Honda Pilot we said goodbye to this week did have a few minor battle scars (1, 2, 3) and occasionally a little something that needed to be cleaned off (salt above and sometimes LoveBugs). […]
RichC | August 15, 2019
Has it really been over 15 years since I was commuting back and forth from NE Ohio in my 2003 Volkswagen TDI (and filling up with biodiesel or seeing my car image on other peoples’ blogs?) Yes it has been awhile. After posting about a friend’s new Volkswagen Atlas (Tim Hunter sent me a new […]
RichC | August 8, 2019
While digging through a few older photos in contemplation for Brenda’s upcoming August birthday post, I stumbled across a few of our “dating years” photos (saving those for later) and one from my mom and dad’s house when we were celebrating her birthday 11 years ago (above). Wow … compared to our Put In Bay […]
RichC | August 1, 2019
CinciTDI GTG at our house August 20, 2008 – Throwback Thursday #TBT It has been a while since posting anything on Volkswagen or to the TDIClub forums; I’m likely I’m still sore over their “dieselgate” failure and the company giving up on diesel cars in North America. Still, I’m drawn to VWs and their excellent […]
RichC | June 27, 2019
While cleaning out a few old files folders, I came across a couple Consolidated Printing and Publishing Co. building photos in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio that my insurance agent took and included glued onto a policy folder. They are likely from the late 1980s and are worth archiving and using for a Throwback Thursday #TBT post. […]
RichC | June 20, 2019
Although the Throwback Thursday #TBT memory of celebrating my late parent’s 50th wedding anniversary in 2007 leaves me bittersweet, I’m so thankful we had our time together (photo above and below the break is with them on Kelley’s Island in 2007). I’m not sure where the time disappeared … but I honestly thought that both […]
RichC | May 23, 2019
I had several hobbies as a teenager, but photography was one that I thought might lead to a career. It “sort of did” since it opened the doors to eventually starting a printing and publishing company. When studying photography, several names of recognized photographers were published in the magazines and books. One French photographer that […]
RichC | May 2, 2019
A tweet from an online friend and an automotive journalist reminded me (Throwback Thursday) that my photography hobby helped me adapt to a new high school back in the mid-1970s when we moved from the Toledo area to Sidney, Ohio. It was at a time when friends were already made and connecting with others was […]
RichC | April 25, 2019
We’ve had many bonfires and parties in our backyard over the years and once again the spring clean-up is building up another pretty good sized pile. An interesting “how to light it” video gave me a ThrowBack Thursday #TBT post idea (photo from a YoungLife party in 2007). Hm … not sure this looks like […]
RichC | April 18, 2019
It is Thursday before Easter and besides thinking about a Throwback Thursday post, it is also Maundy Thursday – the day in which Christian’s commemorate the Last Supper. It also reminds me of the times we would get together with our families on or around Easter. Sometimes it was with my parents and other times […]
RichC | March 28, 2019
A John Cougar Mellencamp post a couple weeks ago had me remembering “my” small town of Sidney, Ohio and four of my high school friends from the late 1970s, hence the Throwback Thursday #TBT. I mentioned the Mellencamp Music Monday post to my friend Jeff a couple days later and the tie-in with Sidney (see […]
RichC | March 14, 2019
Throwback Thursday posts can be interesting, especially when archiving a couple of my old photos from the early 1990s and tidbit of information that is likely not saved any place else (the horse was named Gus). Here’s a little Howard family history (my wife’s side of the family): Brenda’s grandfather, Allen George Howard died young; […]
RichC | February 1, 2019
Ugh … still waiting for my results! One of my gifts for Christmas 2018 was an Ancestry.com DNA kit, so I quickly sent my sample in for genotyping … and from noting the delay, so did about a million others! I’m anxious to compare my results with Katelyn and Taylor (and my brother), but at […]
RichC | January 10, 2019
While reading a few interesting older blog posts at Consumer Guide, my Twitter friend Tom Appel (@Car_Guy_Tom) post got me thinking about the strange company that seemed to be trying to revitalize the Packard car brand. The company built a prototype some years ago and by attending a few shows, generated some attention with the […]
RichC | November 22, 2018
This was probably not a Thanksgiving meal with my late mom and dad, but it was in the fall of 1987 and is a perfect #TBT memory. My daughter Katelyn was pretty close to her daughter Annalyn’s age and my brother Ron and Claire just engaged to be married. It seems like yesterday, but was […]
RichC | November 15, 2018
Above is an early morning “daily” photo from my Raspberry Pi cam looking out back which reminded me of this past (and coming) weekend’s leaf raking, blowing and hauling from around the house and backyard … and a #TBT photo (below) that survived the basement flooding in 2013 sitting in my desk drawer (a lot […]
RichC | July 12, 2018
While adding a photo to a post about Katelyn, Drew and Annalyn on Put In Bay earlier this week, I had a few more from our pre-kid days that might make for a good Throwback Thursday #TBT post. So here are a couple more sailing on Lake Erie from 1985 aboard Brenich our Baba 30. […]
RichC | April 19, 2018
Throwback Thursday #TBT: A lot of my free time in high school and college was spent dreaming about sailing living on a sailboat. I read and reread stories, the monthly magazines and bookshelves of accumulated nautical books about cruising, seamanship and maintaining a sailboat — I was focused on “would be possible for me to […]
RichC | April 5, 2018
From the inside I have watched the disruption in healthcare for decades now. Early on it was Brenda and our somewhat laughable attempt in thinking we could start an independent mail order pharmacy, this was in the early 1990s. We looked at leasing property and duplicating existing “store” pharmacy components of a drugstore and at […]
RichC | March 29, 2018
After noticing once again my business email box pushing the limit on storage, I did the normal "sort by size" in order to delete old and unneeded larger emails with hefty attachments. This is a common practice for me as several times each month my servers automatically back-up databases and email a .ZIP archive and […]
RichC | March 15, 2018
In preparation for an upcoming project that I would usually rent a wet saw for tile cutting (Home Depot’s price is $26/day), but this time I decided to buy a cheap one on sale for $49 at Harbor Freight. I’ve never been impressed with the well used ones I’ve rented in the past, nor am […]
RichC | March 1, 2018
I’m chuckling at the “famous portrait” subject line, but then again, how many people actually have a portrait of themselves painted by an artist? (might as well make this a ThrowBack Thursday #TBT post) My grandmother, Ruth Walker Bluhm, was an artist and painted a portrait of her first grandson in the 1960s. She was […]
RichC | January 25, 2018
Throwback Thursday #TBT photos usually have to do with oneself or at least something from our own lifetime. I’m archiving a unique photo of this great American leader (the first known of him in 1840), as I wanted to save it to my blog. Most of us study our US Presidents in school, but usually […]
RichC | December 21, 2017
Although my memory is a little bit foggy, Brenda and I probably saw each other a couple of Christmas’s prior our first Christmas? We were dating in 1980 and engaged in 1981 and likely celebrated with each other close to the day, but were home with our families for Christmas Day. Anyway, when scanning the […]
RichC | December 14, 2017
Wow … is this really the 35th Christmas? With boxes all over the basement in search for Brenda‘s "special ornaments," I ran across the old photo albums of our first year of marriage and our first Christmas. We both remember it fondly since it was a relatively minimalist Christmas. The tree came from Brenda’s dad’s […]
RichC | November 9, 2017
So this looks like a nondescript photo of an older brick building (click for larger photo)… which it WAS, before being turned into Armstrong Student Center. Back in 1981-82, I was a replacement instructor at Miami University in the college town of Oxford, Ohio for a professor on sabbatical. I moved into his office in […]
RichC | November 2, 2017
I’m so glad as a family we enjoyed the many vacations right from the beginning and were fortunate to have been able to balance work and play. Great memories. Photos like this take me back to those "good ol’ days" (above on Florida’s Panhandle in the early 1990s #TBT) … but that is not possible, […]
RichC | October 19, 2017
While cleaning a favorite photo of Katelyn and Taylor with me that sits on my desk from back in the 1990s (above), I broke the frame and found another photo tucked behind it. It was enjoyable enough to scan them in and call it this weeks Throwback Thursday #TBT post. What great kids both then […]
RichC | August 31, 2017
As I reflect on this past weekend with family and as summer comes to a close, a Throwback Thursday #TBT mental image and old photo reminds me of just how idyllic my own childhood was. Brenda and I hope we replicated that for our own children and are now doing our best to be the […]
RichC | August 17, 2017
Earlier this week, I had a Throwback Thursday moment when reading my Twitter feed. A reporter commented on @PortageNotebook and the logo/icon was a dead giveaway for the spin-off company where I once worked. The Akron, Ohio based Portage Newspaper Supply was the purchasing arm for Knight Ridder Newspapers and I was part of the […]
RichC | June 22, 2017
It is too easy to stumble across great memories and think, "that would make for a great Throw Back Thursday #TBT post!" If I were to do that, there would be no end to "blog fillers" on Thursdays (or really on Wednesday evenings). Here’s a favorite photo of Katelyn and Taylor on a trip to […]
RichC | June 1, 2017
After searching through directories of a couple older computers looking for a document unrelated to the photo above, I ran across this picture of our family on our sailboat Tulla from the miid-1990s. I may have posted something (???) in a sailing related post years ago, but don’t think so? Anyway ia #TBT (ThrowBackThursday) post […]
RichC | January 19, 2017
Heating with wood is in my genes, since my parents started heating with wood back when we lived on Lake Erie and were constantly without heat either due to power outages in the rural area we lived, floods forcing the power company to turn off utilities or the old finicky oil burner furnace (think “Christmas […]
RichC | June 30, 2016
Yes …music post was just made yesterday but I can’t help myself in adding a #Throwback Thursday post another classic song (I think the #TBT trend is starting to fade?). "Blue Sky" is a Dickey Betts (band member) song from the Allman Brothers double album "Eat a Peach" (1972) after band leader Duane Allman was […]
RichC | May 26, 2016
Looking back on this #ThrowbackThursday, we must have been nuts! Brenda and I never really hesitated to have parties at the house until text messaging, social networking, the ubiquitous cellphone and DRIVING became a way for invitees to broadcast what they were doing and where they were at. Although the end of school Memorial Day […]
RichC | April 7, 2016
Here’s a personal "what I’m doing" post after spending an evening with my son Taylor finishing up his taxes. We of course used this excuse to have dinner together too. I think we have both always enjoyed our time together, but the older (and more mature) he gets, the more I really do enjoy talking […]
RichC | May 7, 2015
Another year older and hopefully wiser (birthdays seems to happen too often) and am still trying to live and love life to the fullest. On this ThrowBack Thursday (TBT) I’ll include a couple photos and even an Elton John YouTube song from “just” a few years ago (cough, cough). The Brenich photos were from […]
