Category Archives: Rancho Roly Poly

Skype

Posted on February 10, 2008 | Comments Off on Skype

We’re converts, here at the rancho, to Skype, the Internet phone service that works with video cameras so you and your interlocutor can see each other as you talk. My cousin Jerry in Dallas, a ham radio operator since the 1930s, got me onto it, and I talked my out-of-state sisters into it. So the four of us have now had conversations and video visits weekends since the middle of January from one end of the country to the other. The camera and a headset (or a microphone) are all you have to pay for. Skype is a free download, and so are the calls, if you have broadband, of course. The video’s a little jerky sometimes, but it’s still more fun than a phone call–and cheaper. Jerry talks to his son in England all the time. Maybe I can interest Snoopy the Goon in it. It would be fun to talk to Israel.

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Cedar anomaly

Posted on February 6, 2008 | Comments Off on Cedar anomaly

KVUE’s pollen count for cedar/juniper is way low, just 100 grains per cubic meter of air. So why am I as stuffed up as I was when the count was in the thousands? Maybe the rancho needs a good cleaning.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana

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Jack Swilling

Posted on February 5, 2008 | Comments Off on Jack Swilling

Jack_Swilling.JPG

He’s one of my favorite members of the family tree, a founder of Phoenix, AZ, though he called it Swilling’s Mill. He was the brother of my maternal Texas grandfather’s maternal grandmother. Or, in other words, my great, great uncle. Quite a character. Reared in Georgia, he was a Mexican War and Civil War veteran who’s said to have changed sides from Rebel to Union when it was in his interest to do so. That’s the butt of a pistol in his right hand, the barrel resting on his shoulder. He’s reputed to have killed many a man, as they used to say. But he also made use of some old Indian canals and founded an irrigation company to make the desert bloom. He married, had children, and died in federal custody, accused of robbing a stagecoach, though his admirers believe it was all a mistake.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles

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Mr. Raccoon

Posted on February 5, 2008 | Comments Off on Mr. Raccoon

I was sitting on the patio under the outside light, smoking and reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns" when a raccoon shuffled up to me out of the darkness. I was amazed. He appeared to be the size of a small German shepard. A really big raccoon, in other words, though wearing the usual black mask. But he looked friendly enough. Hungry, perhaps. "Good evening, Mr. Raccoon," I said. I almost expected him to say something polite in response, maybe ask for the time or some leftovers. I would have directed him to the garbage can on the other end of the rancho. Instead, he stopped in his tracks, retreated slowly into the darkness and scurried away. Adios, Mr. Raccoon.

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Posted in Afghanistan, Library, Rancho Roly Poly, The War

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Cedar pollen declining at last

Posted on February 1, 2008 | Comments Off on Cedar pollen declining at last

Current_Allergy.jpg

Says here, via KVUE, that it’s medium, but it feels like a lot less, at least around the rancho. Yesterday when I ventured out to pick up Mr. B. from school I came back with a snootfull, itching eyes and plenty of sneezing. Today, nothing. Usually, all the high wind we’ve been having the last few days, stirs more pollen into the air. But, this time, it seems to have blown what was there away, which probably means the season is almost over. Which is fine with me.

UPDATE:  Down even more Saturday morning. No more Prisoner of Zenda routine for me. 

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

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Free music

Posted on January 28, 2008 | Comments Off on Free music

Little revolution underway this morning in the music industry. We’re trying to sort through our technology here at the rancho to decide what it all means to us. For instance, we had not upgraded our CD player. Now we’re glad, as CDs apparently will not be made in the same quantity as before. Mom has an MP3 player in her car, but Dad doesn’t. But Mom has an iPod, and Apple is trying to hold out, whereas Dad has an iRiver, which presumably will not. Confusing to us. More to musicians, I’m sure.

UPDATE:  Well, it would be free, for the "price" of suffering through a little advertising, but the purveyor apparently is still trying to convince the music companies. But if they can’t sell CDs, and they admit they can’t in the quantity they need to, and the young will turn to independents before paying for MP3s, then something has to give sooner or later.  Meanwhile, we’ll put our CD upgrade on indefinite hold.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles

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Mr. Boy’s Dictionary

Posted on January 26, 2008 | Comments Off on Mr. Boy’s Dictionary

Wet and Despair: What he calls these gray, overcast and rainy days we’ve been having. More here.

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

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