Mr. B. has finally been convinced, on the last day of our annual Port A trip, that he needs to try and “get back on the horse” instead of letting his Tuesday bout with the Sea Nettles keep him out of the Gulf. He and Mrs. Charm and grandma from Fort Worth are just setting out. Updates on this important news item on the hour.
UPDATE: He did it! Said he didn’t see (or feel) any this time. But the higher than usual heat and humidity (heat index of 105 F) finally drove him back inside.
Comments Off on Getting back on the horse
Posted in Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana
Tagged Port Aransas beach, Sea Nettles
Our annual jaunt to the beach begins Monday and will increase by one day and night this year, as the condo adds a free day to three paid. Sign of the economic times, no doubt—though Texas isn’t suffering near the 22 percent unemployment indicated by some measures.
Hardly in Michelle Obama’s class, of course (“Michelle’s $375,000 Spanish vacation — with the Daily Mail dubbing her a ‘modern-day Marie Antoinette’—closing Mediterranean beaches while booking 60-plus rooms in a five star Marbella hotel for her entourage…”), but, then, we’re spending our own money, not yours.
Comments Off on Off to Port A
Posted in Blogosphere, Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Obamalot, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana
Tagged Michelle Obama's $375000 vacation, Port A, Port Aransas
In the forecast, anyhow. It’s August. July’s cool and rain is over. One of the coolest and wettest ever. It was pretty nice.
Time to whack us with triple-digit heat. So hundred-degree days are forecast thru Wednesday. Ninety-nines on Thursday and Friday. Yech.
Sez my old meteorologist buddy Bob Rose at the LCRA: “the center of the high pressure ridge is now located over eastern Texas. This means the most stable atmosphere and the hottest temperatures have shifted to Texas and the Lower Mississippi Valley.”
Comments Off on The heat is on
Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate
Tagged Bob Rose, high pressure ridge, hundred degree days, It's August, LCRA, triple digits
Strictly unscientific. No statistics herein to prove it. But July is almost over and we have yet to hit a hundred degrees. Usually, well, the last few years, we’d have done that by now. Still time, of course, but so far it hovers in the low nineties.
Comments Off on Coolest July in a while
Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles, Texana, Weather/Climate
Tagged Central Texas weather, cool July, hundred degree days
Mrs. C., whose hearing is much better than mine, said the pool pump sounded strange. She found the pressure gauge riding 10 instead of its usual 26, so she cut it off. Return pipes in the scuppers seem to be clogged. Waiting now for pool guys to come check. Hoping the water doesn’t turn green without the pump. These are the things you learn along the way.
UPDATE: Turned out the “weir” on the scupper was sticking, thereby impeding the normal flow of water to the pipes and the pump. Replacement ordered. Cost to come. Water still blue (reflecting the sky).
Comments Off on Pool fools, part 4
Posted in Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly
Tagged clogged return pipes, inground swimming pool, pool fools, pool pump
I read many more books than I review, on Amazon and in the pages of the Scribbler, and lately that’s become the norm. I keep reading, but I keep being disappointed. And it’s not just the Indie, DIY novels, but the Big Publisher ones, as well.
I keep running across some of the latter which are more afflicted by PC- and New York Liberal-sensibility and hack, anything-that-will-sell writing than usual. And some of the former are not so much damaged by the alleged grammar and spelling errors of Big Publishing’s mockery as by stories that crash-and-burn long before the end—done in by errors of craft, plot- and character-development.
Oh, well. I am committed. And my Kindle makes it easy and cheap. Onward through the fog.
Comments Off on A novel reader gets the blues
Posted in Library, Rancho Roly Poly
Tagged hack writing, Kindle, novels, PC, POD
We’ve had more than an inch since Tuesday afternoon, when moisture from the storm in the Gulf began flowing in. This afternoon we’re expected to get the outer bands of rain directly. Or as the National Weather Service says:
"SPIRAL BANDS FROM ALEX WILL BEGIN TO IMPACT THE LOCAL AREA ON WEDNESDAY AND PROBABLY LASTING INTO THE FIRST PART OF THE UPCOMING WEEKEND."
Appreciate it, Al. We do. Got little rain in May. Only fair to get more now. I will use the occasion to pull some weeds in the flower beds, the ground being softened up.
Comments Off on Thanks for the rain, Alex
Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Weather/Climate
Tagged Central Texas rain, Hurricane Alex
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 