Tag Archives: Texas

It’s a boat

Posted on June 3, 2007 | Comments Off on It’s a boat

Caught making lists this afternoon of things yet to do on the sloop before it’s presentable and usable again. The memory fades without lists. Proceeding at a stately pace of an hour or so a day, squeezed in between parenting and other things, I have progressed. After more than a year of no use, the boat was (and is yet) pretty dirty, but it’s improving. Finally got the hull and the deck clean of dirt, mold and mildew, and yesterday took on the forepeak, vacuuming the cushions and the surfaces and wiping everything. I got out two baseball-sized mud dauber’s nests. The smell of bleach finally got to me, despite the open hatches. About then two humongously oversized (for a lake) cabin cruisers chugged by at slow speed. They set up more wake going slow, and I was rolling around in the cramped forepeak like a fish in a can. Finally finished, fought off the nausea, and brought the cushions back in from their airing in the cockpit. Then went home. Think I got dehydrated in the 90 degree heat. Memo: next time, tomorrow, bring more water.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Sailing

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Ignominious end

Posted on May 24, 2007 | Comments Off on Ignominious end

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A 1975 Catalina 22 finds a sad end after 32 years. It was abandoned by its owner, who had removed, among other things, the teak trim. It was leaking sufficiently that it had to be pumped out periodically, and Anderson Mill marina was tired of the game. When they couldn’t get the owner, who was no longer paying his monthly slip fee, to take care of it, they dragged it, scraping, up the ramp on its folded swing-keel. There’s a few more of various makes due to make the trip, victims possibly of the long drought when the docks were moved so far out into Lake Travis that it was hard to get to the boats to maintain them. Some of them were a lot dirtier than ours.

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Posted in Sailing, Scribbles

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School’s almost out

Posted on May 22, 2007 | Comments Off on School’s almost out

Just two more days and Mr. Boy is off for ten days–until Camp Shalom begins on June 4, a day camp at the J featuring swimming, science, crafts, athletics, music and art. And mornings and early afternoons off for me just like in the school year. Yay. In the interim, we’ll play some catch, fly a kite if the wind’s right, and go sailing, assuming the sloop‘s outboard is fixed by then. Should be.

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Posted in Mr. Boy

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Record snowfall

Posted on May 4, 2007 | Comments Off on Record snowfall

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December 25, 2004’s record snow in Texas of anywhere from two to six inches, including the most snow in Brownsville in 109 years. We have pix of Mr. B. romping in it at the rancho. I think that might be Lake Travis, the dark spot in the white, top left. Satellite view, courtesy of NASA’s Visible Earth. 

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Posted in Texana, Weather/Climate

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Fred

Posted on May 4, 2007 | Comments Off on Fred

And I don’t mean Fred, Texas. Imagine. President Fred. FOF. Friends of Fred. Better Fred than… Gotta love a candidate who makes his transcript available beforehand. Keeps the media honest. Go Fred.

UPDATE  His hometown wants him. Fred wants to win in Iraq, as well as to enforce the US-Mexico-Canada border.

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Posted in Scribbles

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Concealed carry

Posted on May 1, 2007 | Comments Off on Concealed carry

From airports to zoos, there’s no place Republican Gov. Rick Perry doesn’t want Texans to be able to carry a gun:

“The last time I checked, putting a sign up that says ‘Don’t bring your weapons in here,’ someone who has ill intent on their mind — they could care less," Perry told reporters. “I think it makes sense for Texans to be able to protect themselves from deranged individuals, whether they’re in church or whether on a college campus or wherever."

The liberal Texas media (which, like everywhere else, is most of it) will howl, but it makes real good sense to me.

Via Instapundit 

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Posted in Texana

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The honeybee scare

Posted on April 28, 2007 | Comments Off on The honeybee scare

Seems the bees didn’t get the memo that they’re supposed to have disappeared. There are millions of them in Central Texas, too, including those hovering about the profuse pink Oxalis at the rancho. Indeed, the beekeepers around here have not reported any major losses.

Via Instapundit 

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Posted in Scribbles

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