Category Archives: Rancho Roly Poly

Beetle In A Cocktail Dress

Posted on April 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Beetle In A Cocktail Dress

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My year and my color of Karmann Ghia, though mine had a tan convertible top. First it was stove in on the passenger side by a distracted retiree in Palm Beach, FL, then the same door was rammed once more by a youngish driver in Austin. In between, the car hauled a trailer loaded with, mainly, books across the Alleghaney Mountains with the truckers (on the CB) making bets on when the engine would explode. It didn’t, which gives the lie to the second (ad) video at the second link above. But, add to all that a crumpled nose from the bumper of a backing-up pickup, and I finally got rid of it in 1980. Miss it yet.

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Posted in Library, Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles

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Of Liberty And Tyranny

Posted on April 14, 2009 | Comments Off on Of Liberty And Tyranny

Mr. B.’s grandma, a rare reader who joined us at the rancho for Easter weekend, asked me if I was reading the book "everyone is reading" (meaning conservatives like us) i.e. Mark Levin’s Liberty And Tyranny. I haven’t yet, and probably won’t, until and unless I see that it is actually changing anything. Which I doubt it could.

I’ve read too many similar political polemics already. In this case I have to think it’s like that science book of physicist Stephen Hawking’s, A Brief History of Time. Millions of people climbed on its bangwagon to get a copy, but how many actually read it, or understood it? Much less did anything about it? Different horses, of course, and maybe the Tea Party movement will elevate Levin’s work to practice. The TP has lately become a Left Wing media target of ridicule, which is a start of sorts.

Via Instapundit.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering, Scribbles

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Happy Easter

Posted on April 12, 2009 | Comments Off on Happy Easter

Mr. B. is getting almost too old to help Mrs. Charm dye eggs anymore. But he nevertheless rallied to their old effort yesterday. Expect he will still enjoy the jelly beans and other candy today. Eschewing potential diabetes, I will stick to eating the eggs–throughout the coming week.

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

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Growing old is not for sissies

Posted on April 12, 2009 | Comments Off on Growing old is not for sissies

Went to H.E.B. yesterday morning for free blood pressure and blood glucose tests. BP of 110 over 87 73 was no surprise. But the BG of 91 was. A happy achievement. My annual physical, a month ago, had it pegged at 126, the threshold of diabetes. The difference was a month of largely eschewing sweets, excessive fats and carbs, and walking a mile almost every morning.

I can eat the old favs, just not every day, and not very much when I do. And the exercise, which I largely avoided in youth, has become mandatory. All potentially depressing, if not for a conscious effort to introduce more variety into meals and activity than I ever thought about doing when young. Old habits turn potentially deadly as one’s meter reading climbs. Old dogs can’t learn new tricks? On the contrary. Them as can’t might as well get back in bed and turn their face to the wall. It’s over.

UPDATE:  I heard the title from a friend. I didn’t know, until recently, that it was a paraphrase of one of SciFi author Larry Niven’s "Niven’s Laws." Just wanted to set the record straight.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly

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Texas wildfires

Posted on April 11, 2009 | Comments Off on Texas wildfires

We thought the smoke in the air yesterday was the usual spring influx from the Chiapan farmers of southern Mexico burning the scrub off their fields to prepare for planting.

But it was actually coming from the northwest, above Fort Worth, where the drought-induced wildfires have burned-out a couple of small towns. Since some one hundred ninety-nine counties are affected so far, the governor has called for help from the national guard and FEMA. More wildfires appear to be burning around the Fort Hood area which is closer to the rancho but still a comfortable distance. Forecast rain tonight and tomorrow will help, if it shows up.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Testing, testing

Posted on April 10, 2009 | Comments Off on Testing, testing

This on-purpose power outage in California is ominous. Mainly for how easy it was to create. We had an outage last night at the rancho. No idea why. Just another reminder of how fragile the infrastructure really is.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, The War

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Happy Passover

Posted on April 4, 2009 | Comments Off on Happy Passover

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Still my favorite Passover picture. That’s "Moses Transports" on the back of the moving van.

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Posted in Israel, Rancho Roly Poly

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