Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A cast stone Meditating Turtle from Designer Stone.


His back.

The tag tells us:
Meditating Turtle
Those who connect
with this Zen Creation are
Environmentally Conscious,
Determined, & Loving in Spirit
...or they just love turtles

The tag translates words on his robe as "(May your life be filled with) Longevity."

Friday, March 25, 2011

Ghosts of Christmases past

Picture torture time again! I'm burning a vacation day even though I'm rather busy at work. I'm not going to donate my hard-earned vacation time back to the company.

It's a wet day so the outdoors aren't calling me. I did a little tidying up around my computer desk and found a scanner under the mess! That made me remember all the slides we have yet to see.

Here's Carousel 21!

We're still stuck in a rut. Christmas, Christmas, Tucumcari and Christmas. All in 100 slides.

Christmas 1970 (on brilliant Kodachrome) was underway before 6:00am.

That year I got my telescope mirror blank and the grinding material. Jack got me a heavy metal table that we put in my bedroom. I used that for my grinding platform. I worked on grinding that piece of glass for more than a year. I started out with enthusiasm but it became a chore. I got it ground down to the approximate sagitta for an f/8 mirror. I even polished it. I couldn't figure out the knife-edge test for determining the shape of the mirror's surface. Without mastering that test and the follow-up correcting of the surface I couldn't finish the mirror. After more than a year I bought a finished mirror. The resulting telescope never worked very well. It's still in the rafters of the garage.

But I saved my disk of Pyrex with its smooth, curved surface.
My mirror (in progress) with the chandelier reflecting in it
Christmas 1971 (horribly overexposed) was under way at 7:00am.

Allan was our guest this year.

Karen got some nice loot:
  • A purple cow
  • A really groovy sleeping bag
  • A cucumber!
We visited Mom's kinfolk in Tucumcari in December, 1972.

We posed for pre-present photos at 6:40am Christmas 1972 (many overexposed). 

This year Bobbie had a gentleman caller.

Peggy and Poss got some crocheted caps and stuff. Who made those? Why didn't I get a cap? I got a blazer instead.

I got a soprano recorder and a lesson book for it. Dogs will howl tonight!

If you want to see a lot of the same thing just look at this photo album. Not recommended for non-family...you'll be bored out of your gourd.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A porcelain turtle from Russia whose shell comes off to reveal a little storage compartment.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A turtle made of plastic to look like it's covered by mosaic tiles.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

"Emergence Story" by Randy Chitto. (If you click on this link you need to scroll the page up to see the picture at the top.)


This has shown up in the background of our story of an accident.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A turtle made of a stone that looks like solidified smoke. I think Poss gave this one to us. Maybe Poss can tell us what the stone is.