Category Archives: Rancho Roly Poly

Cats and dogs

Posted on June 30, 2009 | Comments Off on Cats and dogs

Rain, rain, glorious rain. Boy did it pour this morning. For a good ten minutes, overwhelming the gutters as always, raising anew the question of why we have gutters at all. Water even ponded in the Back Forty. It kept our high temp for the day at no more than 88 degrees. Whoo-hoo.

Mrs. Charm said she had left the "rain magnets" out, meaning the cushions on the aluminum chairs on the patio, and that must be what did it. Uh, actually it was a weak cold front. But, whatever. We’ll take it–especially considering that some people missed it altogether.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Weather/Climate

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FM 2222

Posted on June 29, 2009 | Comments Off on FM 2222

2222.jpg

I probably ought to file this under Obituaries as it must have been taken before the road was widened a decade or so ago. Once upon a time, say, back in the late 70s, this was a fairly typical scene around Austin–uncluttered, pristine, and pleasant. The rest of the photos here, while certainly interesting, are more up-to-date and representative. Alas.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana

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Rain ahead…

Posted on June 28, 2009 | Comments Off on Rain ahead…

Well, a reasonable chance for some tomorrow night, anyhow, which will feel good after today’s hundred degree heat (it’s 100 in the city at the moment). But the real chances, according to the federal Climate Prediction Center begin in October and last through April of next year. Thanks to the anticipated return of El Nino, they’re forecasting precip to be above normal for that period. After two years of dry, that would be sweet.

Via KVUE’s Mark Murray.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Map reading

Posted on May 22, 2009 | Comments Off on Map reading

If the Air Force isn’t telling the truth and the GPS system does go down, it would mean chaos for the aviation industry. Me, I could always go back to map and compass. I taught both as a counselor in Boy Scouts many moons ago. But I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the sat system isn’t really in jeopardy.

Cause we like our TomTom. We use the Jane voice, which is British. You have to remember to update the memory every so often. But even when the route she suggests is more circuitous than we like, she picks up on where we’re going and adjusts her guidance. Lots easier than when Mrs. Charm navigates.

Via The Fat Guy.

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Posted in Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering, Scribbles

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Domestic joys

Posted on May 18, 2009 | Comments Off on Domestic joys

Mrs. Charm needed to move some bags of mulch and potting soil around to the back forty and didn’t want to bother me, apparently, so she went and got the wheel barrow out of the tool shed. She noticed it was a little hard to push but only when she got to the driveway did she notice that its tire was flat.

Now this is one of those fat tires that could, possibly, support half of a Piper Cub. We thought about using Mr. B.’s basketball pump to inflate it, but no, it has a real tire valve. So she thought why not take it off the barrow and take it up to the gas station to inflate it? Could not get the bolts off the barrow that keep the tire on it. She suggested putting the barrow in the CRV, but it wouldn’t fit. She suggested putting the seat down so it would fit, but that’s where I drew the line. I carried the bags.

Then I put the barrow back in the shed. What else? I need a torque wrench to get those bolts off. But I don’t want to buy one. Maybe a little WD-40 and more elbow grease? Why did I ever buy such a complicated wheel barrow? I was moving sand to build Mr. B. a sandbox back in ’03. Which reminds me, I need to dismantle the sandbox one of these years. It’s only a haven for ant colonies, now.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly

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Viva Cinco de Mayo

Posted on May 5, 2009 | Comments Off on Viva Cinco de Mayo

Any holiday that celebrates a French defeat (for which we must, in part, remember Gen. Ulysses Grant) can’t be bad–even if our alleged intellectual president uses it to demonstrate his abysmal grasp of the Spanish language. If he was W., we’d never hear the end of it, and the Hispanic caucus would be demanding an apology. Not now, of course. That sort of media hurrah is reserved for Republicans.

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Posted in Obamalot, Rancho Roly Poly, South of the Border, Texana

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Peach cropper

Posted on May 4, 2009 | Comments Off on Peach cropper

It’s always hard to tell with the Hill Country Fruit Council’s guide to finding peaches, whether the "closed for season" remarks for some growers are for this year or refer to last year and just haven’t been updated yet. But the April 7 freeze appears to have zapped more than a few of them, including the Marburger Orchard in Fredericksburg. They say "No Peaches" straight out on their site. So I expect we will see a slimmer supply at the H.E.B. than usual this year. Alas.

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

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