Category Archives: Rancho Roly Poly

Miss Ellie’s tail

Posted on August 22, 2007 | Comments Off on Miss Ellie’s tail

Miss Ellie, Mr. Boy’s more-or-less constant companion since he was four months old, is worn and tattered and her once-yellow color is now greenish gray. So much so that the "spirit animal," a stuffed elephant I sometimes call the precocious pachyderm has lately been coming apart in strategic areas. This morning I answered the cry for help and sewed part of her tail back on, the part by which she is carried about, in fact. I got a grateful hug for my efforts, though I kept thinkling while I was doing it that my maternal grandmother would not have awarded me any prizes for the thread-and-needle work. It was a little sloppy. Mr. B. didn’t notice, of course. He wanted strength, not finesse. Miss El was the gift of his maternal aunt, who was killed earlier this month in a motocycle accident.

Comments Off on Miss Ellie’s tail

Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles

Tagged , ,

Early rising

Posted on August 21, 2007 | Comments Off on Early rising

Mr. Boy struggled to get up this morning, despite being within ten minutes of the time he will have to leave for school each day next week. The summer vacation lazies are still clinging, and we’re still working on the "early to bed" part of the old Ben Franklin admonition. The "early to rise" part is coming on like a runaway NASACAR, but he has to work at being a "morning lark." This afternoon, we’ll be up at the school checking out the lists to see who his new teacher and classmates are. Mom hopes we lose some of his first grade cronies who helped lead him astray a time or two last year. That would be good, but I’d opt for a little continuity.

Comments Off on Early rising

Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly

Tagged , , ,

Lake Travis declining

Posted on August 20, 2007 | Comments Off on Lake Travis declining

The road to the docks was covered by rising water yesterday at Anderson Mill Marina. I had to turn around on the steep hill descending to the road, in order to retreat. I noticed half a dozen cars and trucks parked on the hill, as if their owners had come early to taken their boats out before the water came up. They would be be in for a surprise, I thought, when they came back and found the water had risen to block their retreat. But I see now that it didn’t. In fact, it has fallen a little, by this morning, to 686.43 feet msl. Mr. B. and I might be able to sail, after all, in this last week before school resumes– if Hurricane Dean stays well south of Texas. So far it looks like it will.

Comments Off on Lake Travis declining

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

Tagged , ,

Jump or sell

Posted on August 18, 2007 | Comments Off on Jump or sell

The American Automobile Association, a service agency Mr. B’s mom has long insisted on belonging to, isn’t just about maps and emergency road help anymore. It also rents cars, sells used ones and offers travelers checks and foreign currency exchange. But my favorite extra is one I discovered this morning when I called them to come honor our membership and jump start the dead battery I discovered in the CRV when we got back from Port A last night. I figured if the battery wouldn’t start, they’d obligingly tow the Honda to a place that could sell me a new one. Instead, when they discovered the battery was truly dead, they offered me a service they’d just begun: selling me a new battery on the spot, and then installing it. Whole problem solved in about thirty minutes, instead of most of the morning. Now that’s a service that makes me glad I carry a AAA card.

Comments Off on Jump or sell

Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles

Tagged ,

Off to Port A

Posted on August 12, 2007 | Comments Off on Off to Port A

Leaving tomorrow on our annual trek to the beach at Port Aransas, so no posts until we return on Friday. Only glitch might be the storm brewing in the western Caribbean, which  Accuweather’s Joe Bastardi, among other meteorologists, forsees sweeping into the Gulf of Mexico later in the week, possibly as a tropical storm. Maybe Dean unless an Atlantic one gets the name first. But he sees the chances of landfall as better for Mexico than the Texas coast. More tropical storm/hurricane argument here on what has been a quiet season so far. We will keep our fingers crossed that Bastardi’s right. Not like in 2004 when Ivan, crashing into western Florida and Alabama, sent huge waves across the Gulf to hit and close the beaches at Port A. I remember one almost washed away a family from West Texas who had incautiously spread out their blanket on the sand. They were awash in an instant and struggled up a dune with what remained of their stuff to escape the water.

UPDATE  It looks like the name Dean may go to another storm, first, making the Gulf one (if there is a Gulf one) Erin. Unless Dean goes into the Gulf first. Which might not occur before we are back in Central Texas, which would be good. We shall see.

Comments Off on Off to Port A

Posted in Blogosphere, Rancho Roly Poly, South of the Border, Texana, Weather/Climate

Tagged , ,

Encounter

Posted on July 31, 2007 | Comments Off on Encounter

argiope.jpg

Hard to miss this "little" beauty. Not so little, actually, at almost two inches long in the body. I encountered it, a black and yellow "garden spider" (Argiope Aurantia), this morning cleaning up a trumpet vine that had long ago overtaken several Nandina bushes along the wooden fence on the upper forty. All the rain we’ve had this summer finally weighed the vine down so much that it collapsed onto the deck around the pool. So I had to cut it way back, and in the process discovered this cutie, sometimes called a "writer spider" in Texas. Although they are said to be harmless, I maintained a respectful distance. For more on it, go here.

Comments Off on Encounter

Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles, Texana

Tagged , , , ,

Mr. Boy’s sniffer

Posted on July 28, 2007 | Comments Off on Mr. Boy’s sniffer

Mr. B. and I bought a pre-owned vehicle yesterday, a 3-year-old silver Honda CRV with sun/moon roof and fulltime four-wheel drive. He rode along on the test excursion, searching the backseat area for damage (finding none) and using his keen, non-cigarette-damaged sense of smell to ferret out anything untoward. He didn’t smell anything bad, except what he pronounced a little mildew from all the rain we’ve been having. He liked it back there. More room, he thought, than in the old Jeep Cherokee, although that’s unlikely since the CRV is shorter and narrower. Nevertheless. His reward? A can of Big Red soda pop. He thought it was worth it. Also liked the tinted windows, which will let him play his Leapster in the back seat without interference from the sun.

Comments Off on Mr. Boy’s sniffer

Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles

Tagged , ,