Category Archives: Mr. Boy

Violin lessons at age 67

Posted on November 29, 2011 | Comments Off on Violin lessons at age 67

I have rented a violin, embarking upon an effort to learn the instrument. Next is finding a teacher near the rancho. I have no illusions. It took me years to learn to play the trumpet and I was never very good at it. Likewise the acoustic guitar. Violin is just something I’ve been thinking about for a while. So, after a few weeks of Web wandering on the subject, I decided to give it a whirl.

Mrs. C. played viola in school, and we’ve talked about that, but my interest really grew when Mr. B. began playing the clarinet at the start of this school year. I’ve been helping teach him to read music and the sound of him playing everything from Ode to Joy to the Theme from Star Wars gave me the bug again. And I’ve also discovered the clarinet and violin are often paired.

Course having YouTube around is a great incentive: free intro lessons into the violin’s peculiar issues, and multiple chances to watch amateurs and professionals play what I think is going to be a very challenging instrument, indeed. Plus there’s the Violin Lab, part of Blackerby Violin Shop, the outfit I rented from. Adds up to enough instruction to make learning on my own feasible, if not necessarily successful. Have to wait and see about that.

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

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Let’s go Rangers, let’s go!

Posted on October 20, 2011 | Comments Off on Let’s go Rangers, let’s go!

They won the second game, 2-1, thanks to Ian, Elvis, Josh and Michael, in the top of the ninth. Whoo-eee, what a game. Then Neftali closed the Cards out.

The chant title is from Mr. B’s old T-ball team, back in ’06, which was also called the Rangers.

Now home to Arlington for three, which could be the four they need. Maybe.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Scribbles, Texana

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Doug Godbey, RIP

Posted on July 27, 2011 | Comments Off on Doug Godbey, RIP

It’s bad enough to learn that a friend has died, but even worse to find that he died six years ago and you didn’t know it.

Douglas S. Godbey Douglas S. Godbey, age 55, passed away Saturday, December 17, 2005. Doug was born in Dallas to JJ and Louise, where he was raised with his two younger sisters, Lynda and Anita. When Doug was in his early twenties he moved to Austin where he began work as a sheetrocker. With his talent, creativity, and ingenuity he quickly started his own business and was self-employed as a building and design contractor for the duration of his life. His first child, Jessica, was born in 1979 from his first marriage; he later married Raquelle Smalley in 1992, and they had a son Nikolas, in 1993. Doug will always be remembered by his family and many friends for his warm heart, vibrant spirit, nonstop sense of humor, hearty laugh, unconditional devotion to spirituality and his family, and amazing love for life and all the people in it. He is survived by his wife, Raquelle Smalley Godbey; son, Nikolas Godbey; daughter, Jessica Godbey; sisters, Lynda Chambers and Anita Gideon. A memorial service will be held at Cook-Walden Funeral Home on Wednesday, December 21, 2005 at 3:30 pm.
Via Austin American-Statesman.

I met Doug in 1993 when I hired him to help “frost” a window in the bathroom of our new house so we could take showers in privacy. He found a cheaper, easier way to “fog” it with chemicals. Later he replaced a wood floor in our next house and, subsequently, the illegal cedar shingles of the roof, installing a skylight gratis as a gift for the birth of Mr. B. We’ll miss Doug.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Obituaries, Texana

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Mr. Boy at camp

Posted on June 30, 2011 | Comments Off on Mr. Boy at camp

Very quiet around the Rancho these days, with Mr. B. at his week-long camp at Lost Pines, the pine forest near Bastrop, about an hour east of Austin. Weather service says it’s a bit cooler out there than here, especially at night with the breeze off the lake.

This is Boy Scouts, so much of their time is spent in classes (yep) on merit badges and Eagle Quest and advancement generally. Mr. B. excepts to finish his Tenderfoot board of review there and come home on Saturday with many of his Second Class requirements also finished.

But it’s also just fun, with pool time and canoeing and fishing. And, uh, demos of “tomahawk throwing,” according to the scoutmaster’s latest email to parents, which assures us that homesickness among the youngest first-timers (like Mr. B.) is a minor issue so far.

“To put your mind at ease,” the scoutmaster wrote, “none have wanted to call home, and no one had any intentions of going home, just expressed themselves [about it], which is very good.”

They’re also playing Gaga, an Israeli version of dodge-ball, which seems to have migrated to the Scouts from the day camp at Austin’s Jewish Community Center which Mr. B. has attended every summer since kindergarten. “They come back sweaty and FILTHY every time they play.” Mr. B., an old hand at Gaga, probably is enjoying showing off his expertise.

UPDATE:  Oops. Spoke too soon. Mr. B. sent today a scanned front-and-back letter via the scoutmaster telling of his homesickness and (twice) requesting us to come to the Friday night barbeque to which parents are invited. So we’re going.

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Posted in Israel, Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles, Texana

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Bye, bye elementary school

Posted on June 14, 2011 | Comments Off on Bye, bye elementary school

I should have written this already. Like back at the first of the month. When Mr. B. officially walked out of his fifth grade classroom, took about ten steps and was out the north-side door of the school and the door closed behind him on its pneumatic valve. Sigh. Thunk.

Forever. He says he won’t miss it. I already do, a little. All those afternoons in the heat or cold or rain waiting with other parents (mostly mothers) for the let-out and the pick-up. Holding my hand on the walk to the car. Ancient history now.

Next stop Middle School, just down the street.  Yee-ahhh. And puberty. Oh joy. (Or no joy.) Time will tell. He will play the clarinet in band. At least in sixth grade. Boy scouts will continue, and monthly camping trips, at least until he’s a First Class. More evening and weekend youth basketball? Probably.

Other than that? Girlfriends? Sex? Time to begin some serious prayer.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Obituaries, Rancho Roly Poly

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Sex ed at the end of fifth grade

Posted on May 25, 2011 | Comments Off on Sex ed at the end of fifth grade

This is Mr. B.’s last week in fifth grade and it’s being devoted to “health education.” Not nutrition. Not exercise. But puberty, its physical and emotional effects on boys and girls, sexual activity, rape, sexual harassment and sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS.

The school gave parents a chance to come see the curriculum materials and, if desired, to opt their kids out. I did the former but not the latter. Seems pretty tame to me, leaving all the politically-controversial words unspoken, and is therefore (as you might expect) misleading on many things, including the principal way the virus that causes AIDS is transmitted, i.e. by anal intercourse.

One of Mr. B.’s pals is sitting it out. His parents don’t trust the school system. I don’t trust the system’s overpaid administrators to do anything political that might jeopardize their careers, but I think the teachers are doing the best they can under the circumstances.

They do send home a FAQ sheet every day (blue for boys, pink for girls, isn’t that precious?) which asks parents to discuss the material and sign the sheet. Mr. B. and I have had some good, long (and detailed) conversations about the material. None of which my parents did for me in the relatively-repressed 1950s, and I remember my pubertal confusion.

He’s still not sure what all of this is about, saying he has no notion of why he would be interested in doing anything sexual anyhow. Apparently puberty’s light bulb has yet to come on. I’m not sure I will know when it happens, but I’ll be watching for the illumination.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering, Scribbles

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The thing about boy scouts…

Posted on May 22, 2011 | Comments Off on The thing about boy scouts…

…is that it gradually induces honorable behavior, even if it takes the better part of a lifetime.

Thus it did not surprise me when Mr. Boy returned from his latest camping trip—to a beautiful, watered ranch in the hills near Driftwood—and his stint as patrol grubmaster, with a bunch of squishy, black bananas, two of the four apples he took, and an unopened bag of baby carrots.

Gone were the hamburgers, hot dogs, and pancake mix. And, curiously, the two cucumbers. And, of course, the two boxes of Pop Tarts, the whole squeeze bottle of grape jelly and the other bottle of maple syrup. Strange that the peanut butter had not been opened, nor the loaf of sliced bread unwrapped.

The bananas, carrots, apples and cucumbers were cynically included in the menu by the grubmaster to meet a nutrition requirement for his Second Class badge. So it’s no surprise that most of it came back, uneaten. I do wonder about those cucumbers, though.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles, Texana

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