Category Archives: Rancho Roly Poly

Change, and even some hope, for a change

Like the teleprompter reader-in-chief always says, “Change is never easy.” So the weekend shift from my old Dell Dimension 3000 with its dying audio to this new Dell Inspiron 546 has been a trip. Mostly finished now.

Thanks to a $19 Cruzer Micro 8GB flash drive, it was relatively painless. Along with ninety-nine percent of my old files,  I even managed to move the browser favorites and the old email. Can’t figure out how to move the passwords, however, so will do that by hand (i.e., pen and paper).

The only major hassle so far is Skype. I downloaded new software since I couldn’t shift the old over and the new refused to allow me to sign-on using my old account. So now I have a new account and the old one and emailed their powers in Belgium to try and get the new switched with the old. They came back saying sure, you can do that, if you use a new email address. Not wanting to do that, I canceled the old account. I’ll wait a few hours and try setting up the new one based on the same email address.

More snow?

Could be. After Sunday’s high in the low 80s (yep), the temp fell to 40 by midnight at the rancho. Supposed to be colder tonight and then up to an inch is in our forecast for Tuesday. And Accuweather’s Joe Bastardi says:

“By the way, this looks like the worst last week of Feb weather I can remember in Texas since I have been studying maps. It is interesting how late snowfalls are getting more common there, and earlier snowfalls too. If Dallas misses Tuesday IT’S CAUSE WACO AND COLLEGE STATION GET IT! In other words they miss to the south.”

Just not this far south, if you please. Although Mr. B. would be thrilled..

UPDATE: The forecast changed this morning to a ninety percent chance of snow Tuesday and the amount was upped to between two and four inches. Then, this afternoon, it was back to one-half to one inch.

Piano lessons…

…have been canceled until further notice down on the Brazos. Easier to do than with a recorder.

A persistent whistling

I get distracted for a minute and then the whistling starts up again. I think, huh, is there a kettle on? Then I remember it’s Mr. B. practicing his recorder.

Molly-the-Barn-Owl

The Owl Box on Ustream. Live feed of a wild mother Barn Owl sitting her eggs, courtesy of Den 6, Pack 2, Capitol of Texas District, Cub Scouts of America. Yep, Mr. B.’s outfit.

Grrreat video

Dell’s sales techs in India are unfailingly polite but also unfailingly persistent. And they talk a mile-a-minute with a vaguely British accent. The Dell guy who called me the other day to try and fix a credit card problem with my order of a new computer also tried to sell me a video card.

He said the video the computer has is on the motherboard but if I want really grrreat video, I would need a video card. Is this grrreat video card free, I asked? Oh, no, he said, it is sixty dollars extra. In that case, I said, I will have to skip the grrreat video. He sounded crushed but we parted amicably.

The Big Freeze

Not the ongoing snow/sleet/rain/cold event, but the Big Freeze of 1899:

“On this day in 1899, Tulia, Texas [south of Happy, “the town without a frown” in the Panhandle], reported the coldest temperature ever recorded in the state–minus 23 degrees Fahrenheit. This was part of the ‘Big Freeze,’ an infamous norther that killed 40,000 cattle across the state overnight.”