Thought for the day: It's a bizarre but wonderful feeling to arrive dead center of a target you didn't even know you were aiming for. [Lois McMaster Bujold]
The stones found in our first scoop of pay dirt.
Ms. Bujold is absolutely right, and what she's describing is what I'd call serendipity, which Lawrence Block defines as Look for something, find something else, and realize what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for.
Have you ever experienced something like that? Happens to me all the time.
As mentioned in a couple previous posts, for our forty-fourth anniversary, Smarticus and I decided to celebrate our golden years by going to the north Georgia mountains for a few days to try our hands at gold and gem panning.
I promised to tell you today what kind of gem I picked to have cut, polished and mounted for a necklace. Although tempted to go with the large emerald, I decided on a garnet. Surprised? So was Smarticus. Before I show you the finished product, and tell you why it turned out to be such a serendipitous choice, how about some fun facts about gems?
Sapphires come in all colors of the rainbow, not just blue. How 'bout that? And get this: know what red sapphires are? Rubies! Who knew?
Amethyst (violet) and citrine (yellow) are made of the same mineral... beryl. Excessive heat can change a stone's color from one to the other. (Hmmm, that'd make for an interesting necklace choice for a woman experiencing hot flashes, eh?)
Aquamarine and emerald also come from the same mineral.
Violet-blue iolite has the same polarizing capability as a pair of sunglasss. Allegedly, Vikings used to look through a piece of iolite to help them locate the sun on a cloudy day.
Ancient Greeks named amber from their word for electron, because if rubbed, it gives off static electricity. (I'll give ya some static if you rub me the wrong way, too.)
Fossilized tree sap must be at least 30 million years old to be considered amber. (Prior to that, I guess it's just stale sap.)
If you sand malachite, it can give off a poisonous dust.
When exposed to radiation, diamonds turn green. (Hmm, I wonder if there's an industrial application to take advantage of this quality?)
Marlene Dietrich was renown for her massive jewelry collection, especially her emeralds, which she wore in most of her movies. However, when hosting a dinner party one evening, she couldn't find her mega-carat emerald ring anywhere. (The report I read said 37.41 carats, but I find that hard to believe.) Anyhow, the ring turned up, safe and sound. Inside a guest's slice of cake. (I'm guessing there was no finders-keepers rule invoked.)
The word amethyst comes from the Greek methustos, which means not intoxicated. The ancient Greeks often made their drinking vessels from amethyst, in the belief that using them would prevent imbibers from getting drunk. (But offither, you muthn't arreth me... I'm methustos.)
Okay, ready to see my garnet necklace?
Beautiful, isn't it? It has a deep reddish purple color, and no, I didn't pick it because the color reminded me of a nice glass of merlot. Okay, so maybe I did. So sue me. It's a pretty color. But in spite of my shallow choice based on a pretty color, choosing a garnet for the occasion actually turned out to be ... how shall I put this?... a brilliant choice.
Are you familiar with the Greek myth about Persephone? She was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest. When Persephone accidentally fell into the Underworld, Hades wanted her to stay and be his wife, but Demeter was so distraught, she said she wouldn't let anything grow on Earth until Persephone was returned to her. Before allowing her to leave him, Hades gave Persephone a pomegranate, the sweet fruit of the dead, in the belief that if she tasted it, she would come back to him. She ate six of its seeds, and as a result, she thereafter spent six months of the year with her mother, and the other six with Hades.
So what does that have to do with a garnet, you ask? The garnet got its name from the Latin punica garanatum, which means pomegranate... partly because the coloring of some garnets is similar to the color of pomegranate seeds, and partly because the ancient Greeks considered the garnet to be a symbol for lasting love, and would give them to their lovers to ensure their return.
See? A perfect anniversary present, right? Talk about serendipity! Sometimes serendipity is just intention unmasked. [Elizabeth Berg, The Year of Pleasures]
Oh, and that's not ALL...
Here's a picture of three of our grandchildren taken a couple years ago. The cutie sitting on the toy car? Believe it or not, her name is... Persephone.
Yep, serendipity out the wazoo.
Serendipity is looking in a haystack for a needle and discovering a farmer's daughter. [Julius Comroe, Jr.]
Serendipity is putting a quarter in the gumball machine and having three pieces come rattling out instead of one — all red. [Peter H. Reynolds]
Serendipity is having the good sense to fall in love with your best friend. [me]
Oh, that necklace isn't the only perfect memento we brought home with us. We also found these smooching salt and pepper shakers in an antique shop. What can I say? I love whimsy.
Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.
When love feels like magic, you call it destiny. When destiny has a sense of humor, you call it serendipity.
Remember the old Roger Miller song, You Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd? I reckon folks who live on the Standing Butte Ranch near Pierre, South Dakota, don't do much skating then, because there's TONS (literally!) of buffalo roaming around there. Matter of fact, it's home to the largest buffalo herd in the United States. I'm sure they're, um, quite friendly, but frankly, I'd roll up my car window when riding in the area.
Okay, no surprise here. We're gonna be taking a virtual tour of the fine state of South Dakota today. Don't let 'em fool ya, either... just because one if its nicknames is The Sunshine State doesn't mean it's a tropical paradise. (Another of its nicknames is The Blizzard State.) But there's a good chance someone who lives there may try to convince you that they're the warmer Dakota. So fine. Take your sunblock, but don't forget your sweater and snowshoes.
In the truth is funnier than fiction category: Once upon a time, a Black Hills gold miner named his new, and very promising, claim after a neighbor's daughter, and called it Little Allie. His wife wasn't impressed. In fact, she was furious, because he'd never named a claim after her. So she put her foot down, by golly, and insisted that he change the name, and rectify the situation at once. He did. He changed the name to... The Holy Terror. Guess what? It's still known by that name today. (Ya think it satisfied the wife?)
Okay, ready to do some looking around?
Mount Rushmore is one of the most famous and readily recognized sites in South Dakota. This impressive carving of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln was started in 1927, and took fourteen years to complete, at a total cost of one million dollars. (Fast and cheap by today's standards.)
Nearby is another ambitious work in progress that isn't progressing nearly as fast, because unlike Mount Rushmore, it's being funded by donations alone. When completed, the mountain carving of Crazy Horse will be the world's largest sculpture. His head alone is nine stories tall, and took fifty years to complete. (1948-98) This carving of the iconic Lakota warrior and tribal leader is the focal point of an educational and cultural museum to and for Native Americans, many of whom call South Dakota home.
The Badlands National Park covers 244,000 square acres, and encompasses buttes, pinnacles, spires, and the country's largest protected mixed grass prairie. In other words, lots of natural wonders of nature to enjoy. Although the terrain is rather inhospitable looking, it contains a unique kind of beauty. Care to take a look-see?
Can you imagine what a cave lined with calcite crystals like these would look like when the light shines on them? Then you can understand how Jewel Cave got its name. It's the second largest cave in the world, with more than 157 miles of surveyed passages. (So far.)
This unusual mineral formation, in which thin strips of calcite intersect kinda like a honeycomb, is called boxwork. Wind Cave, with 82 miles of mapped passages, contains the world's largest known display of these rare formations.
And here we have a formation of an entirely different type. Not so much minerals as it is iron, lots of shiny iron and deep-voiced throbbing Harley engines. This, of course, is Sturgis, home of the annual Black Hills Motorcycle Rally. Held the first week in August, this gathering of upwards of 650,000 motorcycle enthusiasts may include hill climbs and other racing events, but it's essentially a 15-day party, and THE place to be for freedom of the road celebrants from all over the world.
South Dakota isn't just a mammoth gathering place for bikers. It was once a massive gathering place for... mammoths... as well as other prehistoric behemoths. The Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, a museum and paleontology site, contains the only in situ display of mammoth fossils, both Columbian and woolly, in America.
Another famous paleontology site can be found in Faith, where this tyrannosaurus rex... dubbed Sue... was discovered by paleontologist Sue Henderson in 1990. Measuring forty-two feet long, and fourteen feet to the hip, this is one of the largest, and most complete and well-preserved T. rex specimens ever found. In 1997, Sue was sold at auction to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago for 7.7 million dollars.
In addition to all the caves, geological formations, and fossils, South Dakota has something else rather unique. (Sounds pretty darned unique to me, anyway!) You've heard of artesian wells, and you've heard of natural gas, but have you ever heard of a fountain fed by an artesian well that contains so much natural gas, it can be ignited? The Flaming Fountain, located on State Capitol Lake, is a memorial to all veterans. Some sources called the flame perpetual, but evidently, it must go out upon occasion, as you can see in this video, where someone is re-lighting the watery flame:
Ooh, look! A museum full of petrified wood! My kinda entry price, too.
Lest you think South Dakota is long on fossils and short on fun, check out this place. It's the Corn Palace, and yes, it's built with 3500 bushels of ear corn. It was first built in 1892, and later rebuilt in 1905 and 1921. The minarets were added in 1937. Actually the whole thing isn't made out of corn, but the murals on the outside walls, which are changed a couple times a year, are.
Hey, with all that corn, you've gotta have some potatoes, right? How about a visit to Clark, where they celebrate Potato Days every year, complete with... mashed potato wrestling:
What? No gravy?
Okay, let's wipe off the potatoes and take a look at some of the crazy laws still on the books in the fine state of South Dakota. Guess what? There aren't very many of them...
If there are more than five Native Americans on your property, you may shoot them.
Horses are only permitted in Fountain Inn if they are wearing pants.
It's illegal to lie down and fall asleep in a cheese factory.
It's against the law to show movies in which police officers are struck, beaten, or treated in an offensive manner.
In Spearfish, if three or more Indians are walking down the street together, they can be considered a war party, and fired upon.
I told ya! South Dakota has the fewest loony laws of all the states we've visited so far. (But don't worry; Tennessee— the next state we'll be exploring— more than makes up for it.)
Okay, it's now time for (ta-DA!)
The Weirdest News Stories of the Week
It's been a while, but after spending several hours browsing through online newspapers, I didn't find a whole lot of weirdest news stories, but I definitely found some strange.
While one cat was detained in Russia for being used to smuggle contraband into a prison, designer Karl Lagerfeld announced that he wants to marry his cat.
A hot and thirsty burglar helped himself to a few beers from the fridge while he was robbing a house in New York this week. Nice of him to leave his DNA behind on the empty cans. Needless to say, he's gonna have plenty of time to chill... in the cooler.
An Idaho woman celebrated her 103rd birthday by base jumping off a bridge this week. A 105-year-old New Zealand man still drives a car, and says he doesn't feel old at all, but this oldster takes the cake. Literally. In Australia, centenarian Cassius celebrated his 110th birthday with a cake made out of... chicken necks. Ate it faster than a speeding bullet, too. Yeah, you got me. That's a big croc. (According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest saltwater crocodile in captivity.)
In Colorado, a poor hapless moose has evidently fallen in love. He visits the object of his affections every morning, and spends most of the day, um, enjoying it. Yeah, it. It seems the poor moose is enamored with a bronze statue of a nearly life-sized moose. Guess you could say he gives a whole new meaning to statutory rape.
How appropriate that this story popped up this week. It seems that officials in South Dakota are finally considering renaming a dozen or so of the places around their state. Yeah, they've had those names a long time... since the 19th century... but lawmakers are thinking they may have run their course. The names? Places like Negro Gulch and Squaw Humper Dam.
Okay, two stories worthy of a pic and a little more ink:
*** Getting a publishing contract can't be all that hard. After all, a real pig recently rated a 3-book contract. No, I'm not making a slur. Really. I'm talking about an honest-to-goodness snorting, grunting, curly-tailed pig! Technically, his owner Len Lucero will be penning those books, but without a doubt, Chris P. Bacon, a paralyzed piglet, is the star attraction. Wanta see the cutie?
*** All this fossil needs is a microphone and a guitar, and he'd look like a skinny rock star with bad teeth, wouldn't he? As it turns out, paleontologists at the University of Nebraska, who've been studying the 40-million-year-old fossil of a giant lizard discovered in Myanmar, (Burma) actually named that fossil after a rock star. Yep, they dubbed the new species Babaturex Morrisoni. Now I'm a Doors fan, but this struck me as a little... strange. Could be that paleontology team leader Jason Head is a big Doors fan, too. The paleontologists admitted to listening to their music while they worked. However, they claimed they named the critter after Jim Morrison because of the fascination he had with reptiles.Uh-huh. Makes sense. But I think I know the real reason it was named after Morrison. The giant lizard was a vegetarian. Get it? It ate... weed(s).
Wait! One last thing... for those of you who have never heard of that Roger Miller song mentioned at the top of this post... or for those of you who remember it, but haven't heard it in a long time. Always nice to end with a smile.
Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.
[Images from the fine folks at Wikipedia and Morguefile]
Thought for the day: There are little gems all around us that can hold glimmers of inspiration. [Richelle Mead]
Last Friday, I told you about panning for gold at the Crissom Gold Mine in the north Georgia mountains. What a way for a couple golden oldies to celebrate their anniversary, right? Well, today, the saga continues:
Not gonna bore y'all to death with a bunch of info and pictures about our tour of the Consolidated Gold Mine. Just this one pic and a couple interesting tidbits, okay? The mine extends two hundred feet underground, which means, if the owners didn't siphon the water out on a regular basis, the whole thing would flood. As it is, there's plenty of water to see... and feel. (But we didn't let it dampen OUR spirits!)
Consolidated was one of the first mines in the country to use electric lighting. Trouble is, all those lights were in series, which meant if one bulb blew, the whole mine went dark. Then someone had to come in with a lantern to check miles of lighting until he could find and replace the culprit. (And you thought it was a pain to find a burned-out Christmas tree light!) There's still so much gold in the mine, it can readily be seen in the walls and ceiling, but the owners can't remove a single nugget. Why? The mine is now a national historical site. Bummer, huh? Then again, if they were still mining, we wouldn't have been able to tour it.
I won't show you a bunch of pictures from the Gold Museum, either, other than this one of some of the gold coins from the Dahlonega Mint, which operated from 1837 until 1861. Although 1.4 million gold coins were struck during those twenty-four years, complete sets are extremely rare today. A full set of 58 coins is on display at the Gold Museum, as well as at the Smithsonian.
Okay, just one more picture from the Gold Museum. One of the cool things about the museum is the fact that it's housed inside the oldest courthouse in Georgia. This is a shot of the judge's chambers. Even after all these years, the leather on that chair looks absolutely gorgeous, and the hardwood floors have character out the wazoo. There were a couple wonderful roll-top desks and other relics from the courthouse days in the museum, too. Almost as neat as looking at all the displays on the history of gold mining in the area. Almost.
Okay, enough of that stuff. I promised to tell you about panning for gemstones, right?
At the Crissom mine, gemstone panning was done at the same troughs as gold panning, only instead of using a pan, we used a wooden-framed screen set-up. We got a BIG bucket of gem-filled dirt, and used the water to wash away the dirt to reveal all the hidden lovelies. MUCH quicker and easier than panning for gold.
We also panned for gold and gemstones at Consolidated, but there, gemstone panning is done over a steady flow of moving water. Kinda neat. Anyhow, wanta see some of the goodies we brought home?
Here's an overview of them spread out on top of our pool table.
We haven't identified everything on this tray yet, but as best we can tell, there's nothing real exciting here.
Here, among other things, we have some amethyst, rose quartz, and tiger's eye.
Some more pretty stuff, whose names have mostly escaped me. Peridot maybe, citrine, and aquamarine.
Here are some of the better gemstones. Would you believe emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and garnets on the right-hand tray? That large piece at the lower right is an emerald. Nice big pieces of amethyst and amber on the other tray, along with more tiger's eye.
Looks like we're gonna be having even more more fun with these stones. We already bought one gizmo for tumbling and polishing them, and are waiting for the postman to deliver another, along with some other stuff. Huh. How 'bout that? Looks like we may have stubbed our toes on another hobby...
Oh, and since we were celebrating our anniversary, Smarticus told me to pick a gem to have polished, cut, and set in a necklace. Next Tuesday, I'll tell you which stone I chose, and show you the finished product. How about you? If you could choose any gem in the world, which would you chose for a special piece of jewelry for yourself... or for someone you love? Turns out, just by dumb luck, I picked the perfect stone. I'll tell you what that means next week, too.
Before I sign off, I guess you'd like to know who won that signed copy of my book, huh? (Insert drum roll here, please.) The winner of my little treasure IS...
Congratulations, Wendy! Might take a while for the mail truck to traverse the ocean, but the book is already on its way to her. Because there were over four hundred (!) entries, I felt a little chintzy picking just ONE winner out of the hat, so the cats and I picked another one. (Another drum roll, please.) And the second book is on its way TO...
the equally lovely Arleen, who has one of the prettiest gardens in the whole darned state of Pennsylvania.
If you aren't familiar with these two ladies, check out their blogs. (Try 'em... you'll LIKE 'em!)
Oh, yeah. One more thing. Finally, FINALLY the paperback version of my book is available on Amazon. It's kinda funny. When I contacted them to find out why it was so darned late for its own party, I was assured it was already there. Yep, they said, their records showed it had been available since the 20th. After a couple back-and-forths, someone finally took his nose out of the blooming records and looked at the site. Too funny. Oh well. It's there now. For a widdle discount, too. Cool.
Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.
My memory shrinks, my hearing stinks. No sense of smell, I look like hell. The Golden Years have come at last. The Golden Years can kiss my ass.
(Um, not that I AGREE with that little ditty, but I DO think it's funny!)
