Category Archives: Rancho Roly Poly

Rain totals

Posted on August 24, 2017 | Comments Off on Rain totals

Six to eight inches of rain could fall on the rancho this weekend. A pittance compared to what some others will get but plenty enough for us.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Weather

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Headspace

Posted on August 3, 2017 | Comments Off on Headspace

Headspace is Mr. Boy’s new 10-minute companion: Guided meditation from a smooth-talking English Tibetan monk whose $250 million company is looking to grow way beyond its already millions-of-users base.

The idea for Mr. B. is to find relief from stress, more patience and general peace of mind. I haven’t noticed an increase in patience but these are early days. And he’s using the “take 10” free version of the downloadable mindfulness app through earbuds on his iPhone.

If I do see an increase in patience, I’ll spring for the subscriber fee of $6.24 a month for a two-year deal. It’ll be well worth it for me, as well as for him.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly

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Painted Bunting

Posted on April 25, 2017 | 1 comment

A recent visitor to our bird feeders at Rancho Roly Poly. I was stunned when I saw it in my binoculars and didn’t have time to grab a camera. This will do.

Via Danny Bales at allaboutbirds dot com

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Dental discount scam

Posted on February 9, 2017 | 4 comments

When Mr. B. and I lost our dental insurance and I discovered how expensive it would be to get another policy, I signed up for a dental discount service. Then I discovered it was mainly useful for the service with its $30 down and $15 a month.

Then I discovered that most people don’t have dental insurance. Possibly because dental discounts are easy to get if you pay up front instead of forcing them to ply an insurance company with paperwork and long delays. Just ask the dentist’s office manager. You might not get more than 10 percent off, but you never know. Especially if you write a check immediately.

So the so-called discount services are little more than a scam for the untutored. It got worse when I tried to cancel the subscription and discovered the “service” web site claiming not to recognize my sign-in and password. I had to go through my credit card company, instead, and ask them to deny the charges. They did.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly

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Milestone: Mr. B. is a driver

Posted on December 22, 2016 | 6 comments

Mr. Boy passed his DPS driving test Wednesday afternoon and is now a fully qualified, permanently-licensed Texas non-commercial automobile driver.

Later that night he made his first solo run in Mrs. Charm’s sedan to our local CVS to buy some Xmas stuff. Shrugged it off as being no big deal. But I doubt it. I remember my first one. He’ll drive the sedan henceforth because it’s an automatic and mine is a stick which he doesn’t know how to use.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly

Like the snow?

Posted on December 20, 2016 | Comments Off on Like the snow?

The flying flurries on this here blog, I mean, a little something WordPress offers every winter season. And the closest Central Texas is likely to get to real snow anytime soon. Although it sure as hell has been cold the last few days.

We can thank the local Woolly Bear caterpillar, according to KXAN, which is predicting a cold winter. Fortunately things should be warming up over Xmas and into next week, at least for a while—good thing for Mr. Boy as he is off to Scout camp for a week in nearby Bastrop on the 26th.

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

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Fear mongering

Posted on November 30, 2016 | Comments Off on Fear mongering

The anti-Trump poop is getting really deep here in Lefty-land Austin. But this is a new one.

Picked up Mr. B. tonight after his Spanish club meeting. Drove past his favorite burger joint, a local shop called Wally’s. There, on Wally’s digital sign in big green letters: Pray For Our Nation.

Mrs. C. and I did too good a job, I said, meaning our time at the daily with its dominant Democrat reporting narrative and editorial viewpoint. The Democrats of course, are in low dudgeon and high smear as usual when they lose.

But Pray For Our Nation? Preposterous.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, The Culture, Trump

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