Category Archives: Mr. Boy

Bradley breaks another bat

Posted on June 7, 2008 | Comments Off on Bradley breaks another bat

So Mr. B. and I are watching the Rangers and Tampa Bay and sometime bad boy (though reportedly recently reformed) right-fielder and slugger Milton Bradley strikes out. Then he breaks his bat over his knee. I’ve read about it but never saw it until tonight. Mr. B. didn’t say much about it. He’d probably like to break his bat sometimes when he strikes out, too, but his bat is aluminum. And Ranger shortstop Michael Young is his favorite hitter, anyhow.

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Stanley genealogy

Posted on June 6, 2008 | Comments Off on Stanley genealogy

Most Stanleys, especially the Southern variety, sooner or later get around to trying to connect themselves to the famous lords and ladies of Shakespeare and English history. My father did, though never very convincingly. In the ancestor hunt, you’re supposed to start in the present and work backwards, not pick a famous somebody in the past and try to trace their descendents forward to you. "Over 80% of Stanleys known to have emigrated to America were transported there as convicts," concludes Nigel Stanley, author of a British genealogy site I’ve been following for several years, who has finally gotten around to a section on Stanley migration to the USA. "Stanley was a common surname amongst the ordinary and poorer classes of the population." Realism, especially in genealogy, is good. Ancestor digging helps you locate yourself in time, demonstrates your potential genetic resources and proves that your life is not an accident. But ancestor worship is going too far.

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Posted in Genealogy, Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly

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Wildfire danger

Posted on June 4, 2008 | Comments Off on Wildfire danger

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Meteorologists are saying our high winds, with gusts to 25 mph, bring back memories of the Dust Bowl era. I guess you’d have to be in your eighties to know for sure. But just being outside last evening, while Mr. B.’s tournament team practiced for its first game next week, I got a thin coating of dust. Got some in my eyes when I took my glasses off. Seen here, the Austin area is still in moderate fire danger, but high danger is creeping eastward towards us. The wind, the dry and the heatwave are combining to make it so.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Texana, Weather/Climate

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The heat is on

Posted on May 31, 2008 | Comments Off on The heat is on

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After today’s second scrimmage for the Northwest Austin Little League’s Blue team, the team mom passed out watermelon slices. The temperature was, then, close to a hundred degrees, and the kids were clearly wilting. So the scrimmage was halted after three innings. Mr. B., who is playing right field when he isn’t warming the bench (there are twelve players) got a hit but was thrown out at first. Did better yesterday, with a single, a walk and a run. Tomorrow’s third scrimmage is expected to be even hotter. So who knows how long it will last. Summer’s brutality is early this year, and the meteorologists are saying that only the rain from a hurricane or tropical storm can cool us off now. After a week of high nineties, even the St. Augustine grass at the rancho is turning crispy.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Flags

Posted on May 25, 2008 | Comments Off on Flags

Mr. Boy will go with his Mom and grandmother this morning to put a little stick flag on his Navy grandfather’s grave at the national cemetery near Dallas, in observance of Memorial Day. I think of his Air Force grandfather, my dad, who’s buried in Arlington many miles away. Someday we’ll take him there. Arlington probably put out their flags yesterday for all. There’s this touching Trace Adkins song about that place.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Texana, Troops

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The Blue Team

Posted on May 24, 2008 | Comments Off on The Blue Team

Mr. B. and Mom head for Grandma’s in Fort Worth this morning while I get the weekend off–after today’s parents meeting of the Blue Team, Mr. B.’s new tournament little league team. It’s a double-elimination tournament of little league teams all over the Austin area with some interesting new rules: no coach pitch, four balls and you walk, and stealing bases is allowed, presumably only when okayed by the coach. Mr. B. is the only ex-Scrapper, but he knows five other players from previous teams he’s been on, the Muckdogs and the Rangers. With the two-losses-and-its-over rules, the most playing he’s liable to see will be the two-and-a-half weeks of practice before the games begin. But he’s looking forward to it.

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The Big Game

Posted on May 20, 2008 | Comments Off on The Big Game

Mr. B., whose Cub Scout den received their Wolf patches at last night’s last Pack meeting until the annual July 4 neighborhood parade, before they begin as fledgling Bears in the fall, will have to hustle to get his homework done this afternoon. He needs to be at practice at 4:30 before his Scrappers take the field an hour later for their third playoff game. Win this one, and they move to the Northwest Little League AA8 championship game against the Rockhounds on Thursday. Can they do it? We could say, along with Bob the Builder, Yes They Can. But in a world where there’s a 50-50 chance of a play or an error, it would be safer to just cross our fingers and hope for the best.

UPDATE:  They lost 5-3.There were lot of tears from the Scrappers who were angry about some bad calls. But bad calls have gone in their favor before. This time there were just too many errors, and too many strikeouts, in addition to the bad calls. So their season ends in the semi-finals. Mr. B. moves on to "tournament ball" next week, but we have yet to learn what that will entail.

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