THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER » Mr. Boy

Time machine

Dick Stanley — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:50:05 +0000

Mrs. Charm is the television consumer at the rancho. Unless you count Mr. Boy’s periodic consumption of Sponge Bob. Her fave Roku show these days is Mad Men, a soaper return to the early 1960s urban advertising game, with lots of skinny ties, incessant smoking and martini lunches.

Also the girdled wives and girlfriends, which brings back some interesting memories I won’t mention (this is a family blog). This was back when women used hairspray but men didn’t. Instead, for us, it was grease or oil—Brylcreem or Vitalis, as I recall. Awful stuff, really, even the smell.

Supposedly, according to the show, throwing trash on the ground was also common. I don’t recall doing that, expect for one item. Pulling over to the side of the road to dump the car’s ashtray. How many times did I do that? Too many to count. Shameless behavior, truly.

Contrails

Dick Stanley — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:06:18 +0000

Driving Mr. B. to his scout meeting last night, I was startled when he suddenly said “Wow!” and pointed at the sky.

It was just after dusk and the sky was still bright enough to illuminate a dense crosshatching of airliner contrails (condensed water vapor) overhead—east, west, north and south. ’Twas a busy evening up there, apparently.

Back to school

Dick Stanley — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:48:10 +0000

Whew. A few more days of winter break and… Well, nevermind. Mr. B. goes back to school today, in about twenty minutes in fact. Nor will he be around much this weekend, either.

It’s the Lumberjack campout starting tomorrow evening, where the boy scouts spend the weekend cutting down trees and building shelters on some nice person’s ranch out east of here. So, after two weeks of “togetherness,” things are about to return to normal at Rancho Roly Poly.

The bad part is that this will mean resumption of the homework wars.

Headquarters unit

Dick Stanley — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:39:02 +0000

First of several American war in Vietnam photos I’ll be running here. This is my old headquarters unit from RF-PF advisory days in 1969.

Guy on left is my RTO holding my M-79 while I take the pix. Next to him is Mr. B.’s future godfather in his younger days. I hope the rest of them also survived but, since I didn’t keep their names, I have no way of knowing.

Soaking rains

Dick Stanley — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 10:10:18 +0000

Our several long days of soaking rain, which ended Monday, have been really welcome here at the parched rancho. According to our amateur rain gauge we’ve collected a little more than two inches since the steady showers began at the end of last week.

Now Mr. B. has something extra to look forward to on his Boy Scout troop’s Hill Country camping trip this weekend: a camp fire for the first time this year. The rains most likely have been sufficient to lift the burn bans imposed in most parts of Texas this year.

Thanks to all my ebook readers

Dick Stanley — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:48:22 +0000

I happily ended November with six more ebook sales for Alamo and Knoxville—including twice as many of the latter. Which brings that one to a total of 91 since its first month in April, 2010—finally edging in on breaking even for the cost of ebook formatting.

Hardly bestseller material here, these single-digit sales months. Haven’t had a double-digit month since 15 sold back in April. Record still 27 for Knoxville alone in August 2010, thanks to a plug from power-blogger Instapundit. It’s a nice lunch-money hobby, however.

Thanks to all my loyal readers, including those who promised reviews at Amazon but haven’t gotten around to it. Several have good excuses, including one in San Antonio who’s seriously ill. Best wishes to him, of course, for a recovery soon.

Still in the works: polishing a Vietnam War novel which loyal-reader Snoopy was kind enough to read and criticize, finishing a Civil War digital regimental still in blog form, and writing a memoir about growing up in the Cold War.

War-Is-Us, obviously. One of these days I may do something different. Meanwhile, coupled with new violin lessons and full-time parenting, I’m busier than before I retired.

Violin lessons at age 67

Dick Stanley — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:30:10 +0000

I have rented a violin, embarking upon an effort to learn the instrument. Next is finding a teacher near the rancho. I have no illusions. It took me years to learn to play the trumpet and I was never very good at it. Likewise the acoustic guitar. Violin is just something I’ve been thinking about for a while. So, after a few weeks of Web wandering on the subject, I decided to give it a whirl.

Mrs. C. played viola in school, and we’ve talked about that, but my interest really grew when Mr. B. began playing the clarinet at the start of this school year. I’ve been helping teach him to read music and the sound of him playing everything from Ode to Joy to the Theme from Star Wars gave me the bug again. And I’ve also discovered the clarinet and violin are often paired.

Course having YouTube around is a great incentive: free intro lessons into the violin’s peculiar issues, and multiple chances to watch amateurs and professionals play what I think is going to be a very challenging instrument, indeed. Plus there’s the Violin Lab, part of Blackerby Violin Shop, the outfit I rented from. Adds up to enough instruction to make learning on my own feasible, if not necessarily successful. Have to wait and see about that.

Let’s go Rangers, let’s go!

Dick Stanley — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 03:30:53 +0000

They won the second game, 2-1, thanks to Ian, Elvis, Josh and Michael, in the top of the ninth. Whoo-eee, what a game. Then Neftali closed the Cards out.

The chant title is from Mr. B’s old T-ball team, back in ’06, which was also called the Rangers.

Now home to Arlington for three, which could be the four they need. Maybe.

Doug Godbey, RIP

Dick Stanley — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:16:12 +0000

It’s bad enough to learn that a friend has died, but even worse to find that he died six years ago and you didn’t know it.

Douglas S. Godbey Douglas S. Godbey, age 55, passed away Saturday, December 17, 2005. Doug was born in Dallas to JJ and Louise, where he was raised with his two younger sisters, Lynda and Anita. When Doug was in his early twenties he moved to Austin where he began work as a sheetrocker. With his talent, creativity, and ingenuity he quickly started his own business and was self-employed as a building and design contractor for the duration of his life. His first child, Jessica, was born in 1979 from his first marriage; he later married Raquelle Smalley in 1992, and they had a son Nikolas, in 1993. Doug will always be remembered by his family and many friends for his warm heart, vibrant spirit, nonstop sense of humor, hearty laugh, unconditional devotion to spirituality and his family, and amazing love for life and all the people in it. He is survived by his wife, Raquelle Smalley Godbey; son, Nikolas Godbey; daughter, Jessica Godbey; sisters, Lynda Chambers and Anita Gideon. A memorial service will be held at Cook-Walden Funeral Home on Wednesday, December 21, 2005 at 3:30 pm.

Via Austin American-Statesman.

I met Doug in 1993 when I hired him to help “frost” a window in the bathroom of our new house so we could take showers in privacy. He found a cheaper, easier way to “fog” it with chemicals. Later he replaced a wood floor in our next house and, subsequently, the illegal cedar shingles of the roof, installing a skylight gratis as a gift for the birth of Mr. B. We’ll miss Doug.

Mr. Boy at camp

Dick Stanley — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:51:07 +0000

Very quiet around the Rancho these days, with Mr. B. at his week-long camp at Lost Pines, the pine forest near Bastrop, about an hour east of Austin. Weather service says it’s a bit cooler out there than here, especially at night with the breeze off the lake.

This is Boy Scouts, so much of their time is spent in classes (yep) on merit badges and Eagle Quest and advancement generally. Mr. B. excepts to finish his Tenderfoot board of review there and come home on Saturday with many of his Second Class requirements also finished.

But it’s also just fun, with pool time and canoeing and fishing. And, uh, demos of “tomahawk throwing,” according to the scoutmaster’s latest email to parents, which assures us that homesickness among the youngest first-timers (like Mr. B.) is a minor issue so far.

“To put your mind at ease,” the scoutmaster wrote, “none have wanted to call home, and no one had any intentions of going home, just expressed themselves [about it], which is very good.”

They’re also playing Gaga, an Israeli version of dodge-ball, which seems to have migrated to the Scouts from the day camp at Austin’s Jewish Community Center which Mr. B. has attended every summer since kindergarten. “They come back sweaty and FILTHY every time they play.” Mr. B., an old hand at Gaga, probably is enjoying showing off his expertise.

UPDATE: Oops. Spoke too soon. Mr. B. sent today a scanned front-and-back letter via the scoutmaster telling of his homesickness and (twice) requesting us to come to the Friday night barbeque to which parents are invited. So we’re going.