Category Archives: Rancho Roly Poly

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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Be careful what you wish for

Posted on May 12, 2011 | Comments Off on Be careful what you wish for

UPDATE: Well, it looked bad here on radar, but it was moving fast. We got a nice soaking of two-and-a-half  inches at the rancho. But other than some minor street flooding elsewhere in the city, there was no frog-strangler to disrupt anything. And now, at 5:20 p.m., it hasn’t rained at all for several hours.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Finally, some rain

Posted on May 11, 2011 | Comments Off on Finally, some rain

Not a lot of rain, but some. Brilliant lightning display last night, across the hills northwest of town. Mostly horizontal flashes, only a few sky-to-ground. The rain only lasted a short while, but more is promised today, tonight and tomorrow. What we really need is a good, old-fashioned, frog-strangling flood. Which, after all, is the way most Texas droughts end.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate

Waiting for the AC guy

Posted on April 22, 2011 | Comments Off on Waiting for the AC guy

All the windows are open and the ceiling fans chucking around. Got heavy objects on the loose papers in the study to keep them in place. Fortunately it’s only in the upper 80s lower 90s and there’s a nice breeze. Regular old-timer Texas (pre-AC) feel to the day so far.

Part of the sheet rock ceiling in the garage fell in last night, bombarding Mrs. C.’s car. No damage to the car, fortunately. She and Mr. B. left an hour ago on their planned Houston weekend. The AC core coil unit’s evaporation pan (above the sheet rock) apparently is rusted through and leaking pretty bad. Soaked the sheet rock real good.

The AC guy, who is busy these days of unexpected April heat, says he can clean the pan of rust and spread epoxy across it. If that doesn’t work, it’ll be time to replace the core coil unit, pan and all. Several thousand bucks, for sure. So, natch, I’m going with the stop gap. But I’ll wait until it’s all  settled before I fix the ceiling.

Nice thing about the ceiling collapse is that when/if (probably, according to a Google search) the leak resumes, it will do so into the garage so we’ll know it’s happening and not be surprised again.

Meanwhile, it’s a balmy Texas spring day here at the rancho. Sans AC. I’ll just pretend it’s the 1940s. Wonder how the Berlin Airlift is going? Have to wait for the radio news to find out.

UPDATE:  The bozo never showed up. Finally got an estimate from him this Saturday morning. Less than I thought, just $1,275. Feeling vindictive, however, I went with an outfit that installs the brand, even though they want $300 more and can’t do it until Monday.

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

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Our drought and brushfires

Posted on April 19, 2011 | Comments Off on Our drought and brushfires

Our heatwave is continuing, fueled by our drought, which the meteorologists say is the third worst October to April dry period since 1856—when the reliable record keeping began.

We’re in the 70s at night and 90s during the day, which is very unusual for April. Reason seems to be that the ground is so dry that, instead of absorbing some of the daily UV,  it’s radiating it back into the atmosphere, heating up the air.

Brush fires are becoming common and high winds are making some of them dangerous. A neighborhood in Southwest Austin lost almost a dozen homes to a brush fire the other day. No fires yet where we live, though we do have some brush (in a dry creekbed) a block or so away.

So I have a garden hose connected out front at the rancho where I usually don’t have one. May, on average, is our wettest month. So maybe….

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Boost for Knoxville 1863

Posted on April 18, 2011 | Comments Off on Boost for Knoxville 1863

My novel has received a four and three-quarter star boost from Red Adept Reviews, one of the gold standards of Indie book reviewers.

Wrote reviewer Jim Chambers: “I’ve long considered Michael and Jeff Shaara’s Civil War trilogy to be one of the benchmarks for Civil War historical fiction. Knoxville 1863 came very close to that mark.”

The complete review is here.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles

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