Category Archives: Rancho Roly Poly

Stanley genealogy

Posted on June 6, 2008 | Comments Off on Stanley genealogy

Most Stanleys, especially the Southern variety, sooner or later get around to trying to connect themselves to the famous lords and ladies of Shakespeare and English history. My father did, though never very convincingly. In the ancestor hunt, you’re supposed to start in the present and work backwards, not pick a famous somebody in the past and try to trace their descendents forward to you. "Over 80% of Stanleys known to have emigrated to America were transported there as convicts," concludes Nigel Stanley, author of a British genealogy site I’ve been following for several years, who has finally gotten around to a section on Stanley migration to the USA. "Stanley was a common surname amongst the ordinary and poorer classes of the population." Realism, especially in genealogy, is good. Ancestor digging helps you locate yourself in time, demonstrates your potential genetic resources and proves that your life is not an accident. But ancestor worship is going too far.

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Posted in Genealogy, Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly

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Ah, exercise!

Posted on May 19, 2008 | Comments Off on Ah, exercise!

After getting everyone off to school and work, respectively, I tied on my tennies and set off on a mile-walk, as part of a new resolve to lose some suspiciously-reforming around-the-waist weight, and clear the old brain pan for future effort at whatever might come along. I listened to the twittering birdies, and felt the cool morning breeze at the start of what promises to be a scorcher of a day, with an unseasonable high in the upper 90s, before I turned on the MP3 player for a fresh round of Dixie Chicken, etc. Not like some people I could mention who only get up early to stoke up the charcoal smoker to spend all day smoking some artery-clogging brisket. But they’re young and I’m not.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly

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May is the wettest month

Posted on May 15, 2008 | Comments Off on May is the wettest month

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April may the cruelest month, but May definitely is the wettest, at least in Central Texas. Think of Austin at the center of the circle and you have the radar situation last night a little after eleven. This morning the rancho had received almost an inch in twenty-four hours. But Tow, near Lake Buchanan, had had almost four inches. No rising lakes yet, and none forecast. I like the rain. It keeps the nights cool. The only bad part is that it makes the grass in the upper forty grow faster.

UPDATE:  Some others weren’t so lucky, mainly south, north and east of us. We missed it all.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Weather/Climate

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Lilies

Posted on May 12, 2008 | Comments Off on Lilies

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It’s May, so the day white lilies must be in bloom at the rancho. And, sure enough, here they come. 

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly

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Happy Mother’s Day

Posted on May 11, 2008 | Comments Off on Happy Mother’s Day

Mr. B. held the fort while I went to the grocery at the crack of nine a.m. for flowers, frozen pancakes, fruit and orange juice. We’d all come in late last night from his Little League team’s last-game-of-the-season pool party (they lost the game 5-3, but Mr. B. got a good hit, even if he was thrown out at first), then Mom and I stayed up later reading. All made up by 9:30, Mr. B. presented everything for breakfast-in-bed, but Mom chose to come to the table instead. Then he handed over his card with promise coupons, such as cleaning his room without complaint. A revolutionary idea, right there. One of these years, he can drive to the grocery and get it all done himself. I await the day. 😉

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly

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Don’t fix the microwave

Posted on May 10, 2008 | Comments Off on Don’t fix the microwave

Replace it. Especially if it’s a GE.They don’t cost much because the parts are cheap. Ours broke down after five years. It was arcing, like a miniature lightning storm inside. So I called a repairman. First mistake. He came in twenty-four hours. I was impressed. I shouldn’t have been. He replaced the magnetron that makes the microwaves, and charged $180. Said to wait twenty-four hours for the white enamel he sprayed over the burn spot where the microwaves come in to dry. We did. But it didn’t work. Called him back. Took four days this time. He discovered the plug to the new magnetron wasn’t seated. No charge. Worked fine for three days. Friday morning it started arcing again. Burned another spot where the old burn spot was. So it’s off to Lowe’s today to order a new one. But it won’t be a GE.

UPDATE:  It’s a Sharp, more powerful than the old one and cheaper than the repair bill. Working OK. GE, I see, is having financial problems and may be getting out of kitchen appliances.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly

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Cavity magnetron

Posted on May 1, 2008 | Comments Off on Cavity magnetron

We had a power surge at the rancho the other day, from an electrical transformer on a nearby power pole that inexplicably burst into flames. The upshot was no harm to our computers, but our microwave started arcing when we used it. The GE tech who came to fix it said it would be cheaper to buy another one, but I figured since the fix-it price was about the same, why not forgo the hassle of getting rid of the old one and going out to buy a new one.

So he took it apart to replace the microwave generator, and I saw that it was stamped "magnetron." Which reminded me that it was a descendent of World War II’s great secret: the cavity magnetron. It was a British invention that, with some American tweaking, became radar to help bombers find German and Japanese targets through clouds, track enemy planes and help pilots land safely in snowstorms. Not to mention later being used to track storms and tornadoes for all of us. And now we also use it to heat frozen food and coffee and cook fish, broccoli, potatoes and oatmeal. Pretty amazing.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering

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