Category Archives: Rancho Roly Poly

Missing the hail, getting the rain

Posted on March 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Missing the hail, getting the rain

We got lucky in yesterday afternoon’s thunderstorm. We got at least half an inch that will further green up the lawn and trees at the rancho–and sprout some more yellow and pink wildflowers in the bar ditches, among the sparse bluebonnets. Mr. B. and I read right through it. Missed the hail entirely, said to be of the three-inch variety nearby, smashing vehicle windows at one car dealership. Everything was still wet from overnight rains when Mrs. Charm and I took our morning walk thirty minutes ago. Some big storms–green, yellow and red on the weather service radar–are pounding Uvalde at this hour. But they’re headed for San Antonio, not Austin.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Weather/Climate

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Japan wins the classic

Posted on March 25, 2009 | Comments Off on Japan wins the classic

I’m not surprised Japan won the World Baseball Classic or that Seattle Mariners’ right fielder Ichiro Suzuki helped them do it, 5-3 in ten innings. I encountered their play against Cuba while visiting an old Army buddy in Virginia last week and felt they would win and they did. Then I figured they would beat South Korea, and they did, and then Mr. B. and I watched them beat Team USA, with the Yankees’ Derek Jeter, et al. So I’m not surprised the Japanese beat South Korea again in the finale and took home all the marbles. Really a great team, and Ichiro is especially impressive. Seattle is very lucky to have him.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly

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Warm days, cool nights

Posted on March 23, 2009 | Comments Off on Warm days, cool nights

These are the days of spring in Central Texas, and one only wishes they would last all year. With what little rain we’ve had so far, alas, the ditches along the highways aren’t filling with the usual red, yellow and pink flowers, and bluebonnets have hardly made an appearance and probably won’t be abundant in any case. And the scorching days are coming. You can feel them when the early evening hours are still hovering around seventy-five degrees, before the natural dip back into the low sixties.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Pool fools

Posted on March 23, 2009 | Comments Off on Pool fools

You buy a house because it has a pool and you think, yeah, that’s cool. And then you discover you were a fool because the electric bill is double the usual amount (to run the recirculating pool pump umpty-ump hours a day, most of the year, to keep the water from going scummy in the summer or freezing in the underground pipes in the winter) and the pump and various other components wear out and break down–usually when least expected and at the same time that too many other things are competing for the available cash.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly

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Sale boat, gone

Posted on March 21, 2009 | Comments Off on Sale boat, gone

Alan Sullivan’s comment (long since deleted, alas) on Hunter sailboats makes me laugh:

"Their boats are very curvaceous. They were designed to titillate heterosexual men, who constitute an overwhelming majority of yacht buyers. Specifically, they appeal to the type of man who picks a babe for a wife, without wondering how she’ll perform over the long haul."

Of course, he was talking about the Hunter 41, whereas my puddleduck was much smaller, just 22 feet, and it was a Catalina, so it was solidly-built rather than curvaceous. A better boat all around, I think. And you would, too, if you owned one.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly

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We’re baaaack

Posted on March 21, 2009 | Comments Off on We’re baaaack

Flew into a bright, sunny Austin early this evening after nine days of mostly overcast and rain in D.C. and, in the last three days, at Quicksburg in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. But it was a good trip. In D.C. we even enjoyed riding the Metro, which is basically idiot-proof and therefore easy to use. The indigenous population was mostly friendly or else minded their own business. Not Texas-friendly, of course, but you can’t have everything.

We saw, ahem, the National Museum of Natural History, the Air & Space Museum, the National Museum of American History and the National Gallery of Art. The first and last were our favorites, although Air & Space was pretty good. The American History one was surprisingly dull. Trying too hard to be PC, I suppose. We also did the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, the Vietnam and Korean war memorials, and the National Zoo. Walked and walked and walked. Got our feet soaked in the puddles. Most of the crowds, like us, were from the South, where the public school Spring Break is in March. More later.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly

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We fly off to D.C.

Posted on March 13, 2009 | Comments Off on We fly off to D.C.

We’re leaving the rancho this afternoon to fly to D.C. for a week of family reunion before the family there moves to Tyler and we’re no longer able to save money on a hotel. Weren’t able to get into the Spring Break mob converging on the Capitol and the White House. But we have plenty else to see and do, including visiting Mr. B.’s paternal grandfather’s grave in Arlington and, hopefully, catch the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

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

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