Category Archives: Rancho Roly Poly

Drought buster

droughtender.JPG

Here’s a bit of hopeful weather prognostication. The rains haven’t started falling yet. But the LCRA’s Bob Rose says they might by Friday. The Purple Sage outside his office already is in bloom.

Mr. Boy’s MRI

He had one this morning, at the Dell Children’s Hospital, in search of something that might, or might not, be wrong. They put him under anesthetic so he could hold still inside the hole of the big donut for thirty minutes to an hour. He came out of it okay, just groggy and dehydrated. They gave him a popsicle and let him sleep a while. At home he lay on the couch and watched cartoons all afternoon.

The worst part, for us, was waiting in the outpatient-surgery waiting room. There were several other couples, presumably waiting out something more serious than an MRI. One couple I remember especially. The woman looked stunned. The man looked angry, which I took to be anger at fate. Another man was crying. He had his head down by his knees, trying to hide the fact. The woman was stroking his back. Tough morning. Tougher for them. We got off easy. This time.

USPO blues

People I know hereabouts avoid the U.S. Post Office at all costs. Here’s why:

"It’s like you have left fast-moving Manhattan and zapped yourself into the Deep South in 1934. Picture a drowsy moment in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ A clerk who has finished with one customer takes a good long pause to settle herself, exchange pleasantries with friends, arrange her workspace and so forth before she lights up the little box and asks for the next customer. If you arrive at her window before she has turned on this light, she will curtly send you away. Don’t crowd her! You’re just the customer."

That’s a description of a post office in NYC but it’s a perfect fit for our neighborhood p.o., except we have stamp machines. Imagine that, we’re ahead of NYC. Ours, however, is scheduled to close.

To the edge of space

Six years ago Mrs. Charm, Mr. Boy and I bought the rancho from a couple who were moving away from Texas. She was a homemaker. He was an airline pilot who had flown U-2 spy planes before he retired from the Air Force. I won’t mention names, they’d probably not like me to.

I’ve read about the U-2 so I have some idea of what it is like to work in full pressure suit at seventy thousand feet–more than twice as high as jetliners cruise. But, until now, I’d never seen the curvature of the earth from a U-2’s cockpit, out there on the edge of the black. Magnificent view really.

Via Flightblogger.

Leaving The Alamo

My self-published book of short stories, available for free in pdf in the upper part of the sidebar on the blog’s main page, or for a mere eleven bucks in paperbook at the link above it, has a new fan. Lucky for me, he even posted an appreciation on his own blog. Thank you.

Off to the beach

Off to Port Aransas today through Wednesday, where the National Weather Service forecasts highs in the eighties and twenty percent chance of showers through the period. Sure hope they’re right.

What a nice break it would be from the triple digits here. On the other hand, the humidity is above ninety percent which will push the heat index above one hundred. Port A cam aimed at part of the beach will tell the tale.

UPDATE:  The humidity was high, but it felt cool nevertheless, especially at night. Didn’t rain once. We got the rain coming home on the 12th, just outside of Austin.

AARP: Deaf

This eight-minute clip shows the main reason I trashcan AARP fliers when they come in the mail. It’s not really about seniors. It’s about whatever the execs and their lobbyists want to do with the dues money. And they proved it Tuesday in Dallas.

UPDATE:  About sixty thousand others also have gotten the message and stopped paying their dues. Or are switching. Competition is good.