Category Archives: Mr. Boy

Scouts & basketball

Posted on September 7, 2007 | Comments Off on Scouts & basketball

Going to take Mr. Boy to the scout headquarters after school this afternoon to pick up his new duds for Wolf year: scarf, slides, patch, handbook and maybe a cap. I didn’t take him last year, which might have been a mistake. I figure his innate consumer will be thrilled at all the stuff to buy as he works his way up to Boy Scouts and beyond. Of course they tell parents they don’t have to buy all the stuff, and we didn’t buy the trousers or shorts. He wears his own. But some of it, like the shirt, patches, scarf and handbook are hard to do without. After that, we’ll stop by the Jewish Community Center and register him for the rookie (ages 6-7) co-ed fall basketball league. He’s not so sure about the co-ed part, but he likes the idea of competition. I explained to him that almost all Texas colleges have womens’ basketball teams, but, in typical age seven mode, he was skeptical. He’ll learn.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly

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Understanding vs behavior

Posted on August 30, 2007 | Comments Off on Understanding vs behavior

Mr. B.’s school problems are starting early this year. Yesterday, after pickup, he gave me a very pious and unprompted lecture about how he–unlike some of his pals–knows better than to take his Yu-Gi-Oh cards to school to trade on the playground at recess. Teachers, who consider such things a distraction, don’t like to see them except, now and then, at show-and-tell. But behavior, of course, doesn’t always follow from understanding. This morning Mr. B.’s mom caught him trying to take a handful of the cards to school. She insisted that he leave them at home. He did, but he didn’t like it.

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School attire

Posted on August 28, 2007 | Comments Off on School attire

After all the trouble Mr. B. had minding the teacher last year in first grade (his mother said he got in more trouble in first grade than she did in all of elementary school), I decided since clothes-make-the-man, maybe we could change his attitude by losing the batman, spider man and skull t-shirts. Take your choice, I said, polo shirts or button shirts or a combination. "But Dad," he said, "polo shirts and button shirts are only for formal events." "School," I replied, "is a formal event." He looked really good again this morning in his polo shirt. I hope this works, or I may be outvoted next year.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Scribbles

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Today’s the big day

Posted on August 27, 2007 | Comments Off on Today’s the big day

backtpshcool.jpg

Mr. B. goes back to imitating a budding scholar, and I go back to imitating a leisurely retired person. While he’s trying to pay attention, and stay out of trouble, I’m going sailing.

Photo swiped from Miss Cellania

UPDATE: The crush at pickup this afternoon was amazing. More adults than children. I came a half hour early to be sure I could finding parking. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. It’ll thin out by next week. Did last year. Mr. B. didn’t notice. He was bragging about getting more Xs, good behavior marks, than anyone else. Started good last year, too. Hope it lasts through spring. 

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly

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Miss Ellie’s tail

Posted on August 22, 2007 | Comments Off on Miss Ellie’s tail

Miss Ellie, Mr. Boy’s more-or-less constant companion since he was four months old, is worn and tattered and her once-yellow color is now greenish gray. So much so that the "spirit animal," a stuffed elephant I sometimes call the precocious pachyderm has lately been coming apart in strategic areas. This morning I answered the cry for help and sewed part of her tail back on, the part by which she is carried about, in fact. I got a grateful hug for my efforts, though I kept thinkling while I was doing it that my maternal grandmother would not have awarded me any prizes for the thread-and-needle work. It was a little sloppy. Mr. B. didn’t notice, of course. He wanted strength, not finesse. Miss El was the gift of his maternal aunt, who was killed earlier this month in a motocycle accident.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles

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Early rising

Posted on August 21, 2007 | Comments Off on Early rising

Mr. Boy struggled to get up this morning, despite being within ten minutes of the time he will have to leave for school each day next week. The summer vacation lazies are still clinging, and we’re still working on the "early to bed" part of the old Ben Franklin admonition. The "early to rise" part is coming on like a runaway NASACAR, but he has to work at being a "morning lark." This afternoon, we’ll be up at the school checking out the lists to see who his new teacher and classmates are. Mom hopes we lose some of his first grade cronies who helped lead him astray a time or two last year. That would be good, but I’d opt for a little continuity.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly

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Lake Travis declining

Posted on August 20, 2007 | Comments Off on Lake Travis declining

The road to the docks was covered by rising water yesterday at Anderson Mill Marina. I had to turn around on the steep hill descending to the road, in order to retreat. I noticed half a dozen cars and trucks parked on the hill, as if their owners had come early to taken their boats out before the water came up. They would be be in for a surprise, I thought, when they came back and found the water had risen to block their retreat. But I see now that it didn’t. In fact, it has fallen a little, by this morning, to 686.43 feet msl. Mr. B. and I might be able to sail, after all, in this last week before school resumes– if Hurricane Dean stays well south of Texas. So far it looks like it will.

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

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