Category Archives: Mr. Boy

Mr. B. recovering from stomach flu

Posted on January 30, 2016 | 3 comments

At first I thought he was just reacting to his scheduled driving class. His first time behind the wheel. Which he had put off for a week until I forced him to schedule it. But the illness seems valid.

After the puking and pooping seemed to end, I got some Pedilyte down him and some Jello and finally a bowl of chicken-n-rice soup. Yogurt awaits.

And the driving lesson is rescheduled for Monday. We shall see if it comes off, or if it occasions another round of the illness. Surely not.

UPDATE:  After yogurt and enchiladas, he washed his sheets and pillow cases, and put them back on the bed with my help. Seems to be all better now.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly

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The point of no return

Posted on January 23, 2016 | 1 comment

Finally got Mr. B.’s learning driver’s permit yesterday morning before school started. Took two trips as I didn’t have the proper birth certificate. The hospital’s issued one wasn’t good enough. Even if St. David’s is a local hospital. Sheesh.

I’m leaving the scheduling of the driving practice up to him. Until I have to start riding with him. Yowza! Eligible for full license in July if driving hours completed by then. The point of no return, a pilot’s term, has now been reached.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly

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Mr. B: Three .38 specials in the bull

Posted on January 18, 2016 | 2 comments

The boy is getting downright deadly with our .38 police special revolver. Another good Sunday morning at Red’s indoor range in Pflugerville found both of us often hitting where we wanted the bullets to go.

Including his accuracy with the .38 which bucks so hard it hurts the pocket between my thumb and forefinger if I don’t grip it right. We wrapped up the day checking out one of the shop’s Henry lever-action .22 rifles. As Mr. B. says, we’re almost ready to move up to a long gun (well, he is) and the Henry appeals.

Though, personally, I prefer a hand gun.

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Posted in Guns, Mr. Boy, Texana

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Mr. B.’s new desk

Posted on January 17, 2016 | 3 comments

It only took three hours but we finally found a desk for Mr. B.’s room, in the very place he had scorned not two hours before: Office Depot.

First we had to go to Macy’s in the Domain in North Austin, or what I call North Austin, since it’s north of the rancho and still in Austin. With an argument about how to get there as Mr. B.’s Google skills are somewhat lacking. They didn’t carry furniture. “We’re small,” the nice saleslady said.

On to Louis Shanks, an old line Austin furniture store which had one he liked. Only problem was it cost more than a thousand dollars. Even Mr. Argumentative wasn’t going to argue for that. Finally Office Depot and, lo and behold, the very desk he wanted. And a cheap, high-backed executive swivel chair to boot.

Then the hassle of waiting for the desk to be delivered later this week and him putting the chair together but the latter is another story not really worth relating. I left him to do it because he needs the experience, including the cussing he did when it didn’t go as easily as he imagined. I finally provided minimal assistance, such as… well, nevermind. We have the chair and the desk is coming. On to the next problem in my continuing battle with a teenager.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana

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Facial tissue best bet, at least in January

Posted on January 16, 2016 | 1 comment

A friend insists there’s a financial future in tattoo removal. For whoever can figure out how to get the ink out of the skin of all those Millennials instead of just blurring the death-before-dishonor or the name of that hot bod who is now sleeping with someone else.

In January, hereabouts, however, facial tissue as the groceries call Kleenex and its derivatives, has got to be where’s it’s at. This is cedar fever season in Central Texas, the time for nose-blowing and sneezing. And my annual promise to move to Alpine soonest. When Mr. B. goes off to college, I may do just that—at least every January.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana

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Self-clean oven self cleaned

Posted on January 13, 2016 | 2 comments

For reasons I no longer recall, Mrs. C. did not believe in running the self-clean cycle on the rancho’s self-cleaning Frigidaire gas oven.I think she didn’t like the smell it put out on the self-clean setting. Result: the glass door was incredibly soiled on the inside. Most of the interior was okay. I guess she cleaned that part by hand.

The other day I decided to run it on its two-hour cycle. Opened windows and turned on ceiling fans. Fortunately it was warmish outside (well, in the 50s) so we didn’t freeze, Senor Gato and me (Mr. B. was gone to school) and the smell was tolerable.

Best part is, later, when the cycle was over and the oven had cooled down again, I followed the instructions and wiped down the interior with a damp cloth, including the glass on the inside of the door. Whoop-de-do. The glass is clean for the first time I can remember. Several years, anyhow. I’m so far successfully resisting any more major cleaning efforts, however.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly

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Pumpkin’s illness

Posted on January 9, 2016 | 2 comments

Back in the mid-1980s, I was assigned to cover the local AIDS epidemic. I got used to reading, talking and writing about HIV and its impact on people, usually gay men, but sometimes straight men and women. I got to know a few of them well, and went to their funerals.

Thursday, taking our new furry friend Pumpkin/Garfield to the vet for a checkup, I learned that he has Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, the cat version of HIV. It cannot infect humans and is spread between cats primarily by bites. According to Wikipedia, it is estimated to have thus far stricken a mere 4.4 percent of the cats in the world. According to some web sites on cats, Senor Gato has a maximum of five years to live.

While Mr. Boy and I already were working on keeping our new companion indoors, for our sake as well as his own, we now must do it, according to the vet, to keep him from spreading the disease to other cats in the neighborhood.  And for his own protection since a common bacterial or viral infection that a healthy cat might fight off quickly could kill one, like him, with a damaged immune system. His own litter box could kill him if it isn’t kept clean.

Ironic, to be sure. Having recently lost Mrs. Charm to advanced cancer we have now returned to caring for the dying. And, eventually, to grieving the loss of another loved one. It seems to be the way of our world.

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Posted in Cancer, History, Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Senor Gato

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