Mrs. Charm, Mr. Boy and I fly away early this morning for a 10-day vacation in the Promised Land.
No, not Texas. The one on the other side of the world. Israel.
It will be Mr. B’s very first trip out of the country; Mrs. C.’s third; and my sixth. See you again around July 2. Be good. Play nice, now.
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Posted in Israel, Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly
Tagged Israel, The Promised Land
One of Mrs. Charm’s uncles, who lives in a corner of northwestern Virginia, photographed this Bald Eagle near a creek behind his home, the first example of the national symbol he’d ever seen there.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, the useless Green wind turbines (which don’t earn a dime without government subsidies and still fall apart from lack of maintenance) are death traps for these magnificent birds.
Finally…. After forty-one years of President Nixon’s War On Drugs, a group of mothers has organized—just as women did to help end Prohibition.
Their children have been imprisoned (or legally murdered) for nonviolent drug offenses and these California women want the political, social and law enforcement madness to finally stop.
MomsUnited: To End The War On Drugs
“It hasn’t saved anybody, it hasn’t changed anything, it’s created chaos in neighborhoods and shootings, it’s stupid….”
Amen. Happy Mother’s Day.
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Posted in Blogosphere, Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Scribbles, South of the Border
Was tuning up my violin this morning, partly because I enjoy playing in the morning and partly because it helps get Mr. B. out of bed and on the way to school.
Then I launched into the strains of the new Scottish ballad I’m learning
How’d you like waking up to “My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose”?, I asked Mrs. C later.
She replied: “At first, just at first you understand, I thought it was the garbage truck.”
Well, it was garbage pickup day. But still….
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Posted in Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Music, Rancho Roly Poly
Tagged early morning violin practice, garbage truck, Red, Red Rose
Mrs. Charm is the television consumer at the rancho. Unless you count Mr. Boy’s periodic consumption of Sponge Bob. Her fave Roku show these days is Mad Men, a soaper return to the early 1960s urban advertising game, with lots of skinny ties, incessant smoking and martini lunches.
Also the girdled wives and girlfriends, which brings back some interesting memories I won’t mention (this is a family blog). This was back when women used hairspray but men didn’t. Instead, for us, it was grease or oil—Brylcreem or Vitalis, as I recall. Awful stuff, really, even the smell.
Supposedly, according to the show, throwing trash on the ground was also common. I don’t recall doing that, expect for one item. Pulling over to the side of the road to dump the car’s ashtray. How many times did I do that? Too many to count. Shameless behavior, truly.
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Posted in Library, Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Scribbles
Tagged ashtray dumping, girdled women, Mad Men
I played my first violin notes for Mrs. Charm the other day. The old viola player rewarded me with a broad smile and a reminiscence or two. The one-note-at-a-time playing was accompaniment to the Web instructor playing (on video) and a piano behind her adding a flourish or two.
Have discovered in these violin lessons that it’s as much a matter of muscles in shoulder, neck and arms getting used to the preferred playing posture as anything else. Mine ache. Also the fingers of my fingerboard hand (left) are almost too short for good play, and the work-arounds are contorting.
I got a squeeze ball to try and build up strength in those fingers, the stubbiness being (obviously) unsolvable. My intonation (bowing) is the bright spot, so far. Very nice sound, especially now that I know how to tune. Strange instrument to learn, the violin. I see why it is recommended for kids to start so young. Their muscles are untried and can be molded easier.
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Posted in Mrs. Charm, Music, Science/Engineering, Scribbles
Tagged bowing, fingering, intonation, The Violin Lab, violin lessons
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
Tagged clarinet and violin duets, The Violin Lab, violin lessons at 67
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 