Category Archives: Mr. Boy

Domestic joys

Posted on May 18, 2009 | Comments Off on Domestic joys

Mrs. Charm needed to move some bags of mulch and potting soil around to the back forty and didn’t want to bother me, apparently, so she went and got the wheel barrow out of the tool shed. She noticed it was a little hard to push but only when she got to the driveway did she notice that its tire was flat.

Now this is one of those fat tires that could, possibly, support half of a Piper Cub. We thought about using Mr. B.’s basketball pump to inflate it, but no, it has a real tire valve. So she thought why not take it off the barrow and take it up to the gas station to inflate it? Could not get the bolts off the barrow that keep the tire on it. She suggested putting the barrow in the CRV, but it wouldn’t fit. She suggested putting the seat down so it would fit, but that’s where I drew the line. I carried the bags.

Then I put the barrow back in the shed. What else? I need a torque wrench to get those bolts off. But I don’t want to buy one. Maybe a little WD-40 and more elbow grease? Why did I ever buy such a complicated wheel barrow? I was moving sand to build Mr. B. a sandbox back in ’03. Which reminds me, I need to dismantle the sandbox one of these years. It’s only a haven for ant colonies, now.

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

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The Diamond Age

Posted on May 6, 2009 | Comments Off on The Diamond Age

This was my first Neal Stephenson novel, but it won’t be the last. I did find the ending annoying. The book just seemed to run out of ideas and collapse into an easy lust. But it’s not hard to see some of society doing just that, when everyone (including the poor) have nanotech Matter Compilers and the Feed to draw on.

The nanotech, alone, is compelling. Some of it may even come true, though not, I suppose, in my or Mr. B.’s remaining lifetimes. I especially like Stephenson’s cities, his airships and his Vickys. The multicultural phyles make sense, if present trends continue. Hero Hackworth’s primer was more interesting, though, when Dinosaur, Duck and Purple inhabited it; less so when they were gone. But I’d still take the ride all over again, and may, one of these days.

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Posted in Library, Mr. Boy, Science/Engineering, Uncategorized

Of Liberty And Tyranny

Posted on April 14, 2009 | Comments Off on Of Liberty And Tyranny

Mr. B.’s grandma, a rare reader who joined us at the rancho for Easter weekend, asked me if I was reading the book "everyone is reading" (meaning conservatives like us) i.e. Mark Levin’s Liberty And Tyranny. I haven’t yet, and probably won’t, until and unless I see that it is actually changing anything. Which I doubt it could.

I’ve read too many similar political polemics already. In this case I have to think it’s like that science book of physicist Stephen Hawking’s, A Brief History of Time. Millions of people climbed on its bangwagon to get a copy, but how many actually read it, or understood it? Much less did anything about it? Different horses, of course, and maybe the Tea Party movement will elevate Levin’s work to practice. The TP has lately become a Left Wing media target of ridicule, which is a start of sorts.

Via Instapundit.

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

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Happy Easter

Posted on April 12, 2009 | Comments Off on Happy Easter

Mr. B. is getting almost too old to help Mrs. Charm dye eggs anymore. But he nevertheless rallied to their old effort yesterday. Expect he will still enjoy the jelly beans and other candy today. Eschewing potential diabetes, I will stick to eating the eggs–throughout the coming week.

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

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Cub Scout Adventure Day

Posted on March 28, 2009 | Comments Off on Cub Scout Adventure Day

Mr. B. and I are spending the day east of Austin at Cub World at Camp Tom Wooten. It’s in the pine forest northeast of Bastrop. He and his den are expecting to learn fishing, and archery and shoot at paper targets with BB guns. Some craft work as well. Mrs. Charm gets the day off as we will not be back until about five and have a Little League game at seven. If he has any energy left.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm

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Ichiro at the plate

Posted on March 27, 2009 | Comments Off on Ichiro at the plate

Ichiro

Ichiro Suzuki, hero of the World Baseball Classic, in his Seattle Mariners batting pose. He points his right arm at the pitcher, holding his bat straight up in the air and pulls up his right sleeve with his left hand. He does this before every pitch. All batters have their little rituals in the ballet called baseball: fastening and unfastening their hitting gloves, crossing themselves, adjusting their batting helmets. But Ichirio’s is one of the most distinctive. Although Ichiro is right-handed, he bats left in order to be closer to first base and takes his first step towards the base at the end of every swing.

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Posted in Mr. Boy

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Missing the hail, getting the rain

Posted on March 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Missing the hail, getting the rain

We got lucky in yesterday afternoon’s thunderstorm. We got at least half an inch that will further green up the lawn and trees at the rancho–and sprout some more yellow and pink wildflowers in the bar ditches, among the sparse bluebonnets. Mr. B. and I read right through it. Missed the hail entirely, said to be of the three-inch variety nearby, smashing vehicle windows at one car dealership. Everything was still wet from overnight rains when Mrs. Charm and I took our morning walk thirty minutes ago. Some big storms–green, yellow and red on the weather service radar–are pounding Uvalde at this hour. But they’re headed for San Antonio, not Austin.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Weather/Climate

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