Tuesday, September 24, 2013

A fun day at Sci Port Discovery Center, Shreveport LA

I took a friend to one of my favorite places Sci Port Discovery center.  She was interested in looking at the animals and so that is what we looked at after she spent a lot of time at the stream table trying to make a lake that wouldn't form a drainage channel. 


Green Anole - here's a closer view of it.  She really liked it saying it looked like that TV ad.
Green Anole

I tried to take some pictures of the water table but they did not turn out.  They also have a exhibit for a lock and dam operations.  Its in the background of this picture.

In our area a lot of cotton is grown and I always thought seeing a cotton gin work would be fascinating since I know how hard it is to get the seeds out manually.
This is what I wanted to show her.  This was the type of stuff I used to do years and years ago.
This is a seismic section across north Louisiana.

This is an electric log with a core sample next to it.  I always liked the Ferry Lake Anhydrite and so I took this picture to explain what  the squiggly lines meant. 
It still blows me away that Pluto is not considered a planet anymore.  They had this special exhibit on it along with a lot of other information on the other planets.
We needed to take a break and while waiting I notice this on the wall.  Two years ago Sci Port was rated as #8 in the Parent magazine best science centers.  I knew it was good but I didn't realize it was so good.  Makes me proud of my city and having such a great place to take friends to visit.

This was my friends favorite thing to do.  Previously she had pulled some other ropes and used pulleys and other things to lift things up.  She thought this was so neat the way it lifted her up.
I found out I had a virus on my cellphone and so a lot of my photo's got wiped out.  There is so much more to see and do there.  The main reason we went was because she wanted to see a movie and I wanted to take her to a child friendly show.  They have an Imax theater there and she just love see the film on the Artic and all those polar bears. 

If you ever have a chance you should go to the Sci Port Discovery Center its well worth your time and money. 

Friday, September 20, 2013

The Pumpkins are coming!!


I need something to pick myself up.  One of the things that does it for me is to know:
The pumpkins will be coming soon- on Sept 29 2013 to ST Lukes .


I can hardly wait.  I do enjoy working in the pumpkin patch so much
Come visit them sometime in October. 

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

'At Rainbow Bridge' a poem for pet loss & my Rainbows

     Awhile back when I went on a trip to the hill country of Texas with my husband we saw this most incredible rainbow.  It was so bright and outstanding.  I thought it would make a great picture.  Trouble was I was driving.  I got my husband to get the camera out; the next trouble was I had taken so many pictures previously the batteries were dead and he didn't know how to change the batteries on my camera.  Then I thought of my cellphone but I failed to charge it the night before and so I couldn't have him use that.  He decided to try and use his cellphone which he had plugged in and was charging at the time.  He got some really good ones.
    This was the 1st one he got that I cropped to go with the rest of the blog.
Rainbow near Palestine Texas
   We did not download them when we got home from his phone. On Saturday, I discovered some really upsetting stuff.  All of my photo's on my cellphone SD card were gone.  I couldn't believe I had lost them  all.  On Thursday I thought I had virus protection on my cellphone and I got a warning.  I followed the instructions and when I did that let the virus into my phone and it  wipe out everything on my phone.  On Saturday I took some photo's and went to look at them and thought it was unusual that the phone said SD card not detected.  I tried to find the photos and they were all gone.  I was just heartsick over the loss of all those images because they had the last photo of Buddy and KC.  Luckily I had downloaded them to the computer and they are still in the computer.  I'm also glad I had blogged about them in this blog so I still have them.   (please make sure you back up your images too- you can never be too careful.   I'm  just glad there were only of few that I hadn't back up and they were things that I could take over again.)
Because I had lost my stuff we wanted to make sure my husbands photo's weren't lost either on his cell phone and I've gone ahead and downloaded them too.

   When Buddy and KC died I thought about using one of the rainbow photo's but I decided it was already too long(http://rockhoundingaround.blogspot.com/2013/09/saying-goodbye-to-mans-best-friends-my.html  ).  But now I'm going to used them because my sister sent me this poem her vet had given her and I thought that is the perfect time to use some of these photo's.  The poem touched me so much and I would like to share it with the rainbow pictures.
This is one I cropped and enhanced:
Rainbow Bridge

 I wanted to find out who the author was and try to give credit that way and send you a link. At first  I couldn't find the author.  I first checked with Wikipedia Rainbow_Bridge .  Next I googled it and got some stuff - I clicked on Ask and found one that said free printable one.  Clicked on that and got sent to  Wow.  Wow sent me back to Ask.  Most of the things I would click on would send me back to Ask.  I did find a Rainbow Bridge blog http://rainbowsbridge.com/Poem.htm .   Here's also a book that was written about it http://www.legendofrainbowbridge.com/poem.html called the legend of Rainbow Bridge written in  1994 by William Britton.  And here's ( http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=1094) a different version at site for coping with pet loss.

I think I finally found the version I got, and since this is copyrighted you will just have to click on the link below.
AT RAINBOW BRIDGE by  Steve and Diane Bodofsky 1998 http://www.newrainbowbridge.com/NRB/rbpoem.htm


The photo's are mine and I'm going to include some of the photo's we took of the incredibly beautiful rainbow.  When I saw the first one with the cows in the field I thought it was perfect.  Then it disappeared for awhile and we thought it was nice to get what we did since that is usually all we get as far as rainbows go.
 But the road turned just enough and all of a sudden we could see it again only this time it was a lot stronger.
.   As we drove it kept on getting longer and longer.
 Trouble was we were starting to go into the town and lost the pastoral scenes of it. 
But it just kept getting longer and longer.
 Then we saw it arch over.  I just wished we could have gotten the whole image of it arching over the road.  And the other problem was it was about that time the rain started and we had to turn the windshield wipers on.    I included this one of Sonic because my dog Buddy thought he was human and whatever I ate he should get some of it too.  My kids love to eat at Sonic and so Buddy used to love Sonic food too. It's only fitting he should have some of his favorite food too where he's at now. 
 And here's another one of it arching over. 
Rainbow Bridge
I have a couple of more images of the rainbow bridge, but these are some of the better ones.  My husband did try to video it but it just didn't work.  I'm just grateful we got the pictures that we did get.


It's been awhile since I've posted this post.  I do get some hits on it and because of that when I got some more rainbow pictures the other day I thought I would include them here.  I was driving in the Mississippi flood plane and thought of the rainbow bridge poem.
 I did crop out some of the cars and and other stuff.

a Rainbow bridge
 This one I enhanced while the one below is unenhanced.

 This was the best one, but it wasn't over a field like I wanted it.


I was looking through some old photo's and came across this other rainbow.


I was cooking dinner and noticed it was raining outside but the sun was also shinning - I figured that there had to be a rainbow somewhere.  I took the pots off the burners and went outside and found it right outside my front door.  I just wished my camera could have gotten the whole bow like I was seeing it.
  I guess from now on I'll just add my rainbow pictures here.

I did get some more rainbow pictures. Here's 2 I took on 8-10-2014.  With these I just happen to have my cell in my pocket as I went out the front door to take you the trash.

 I liked the one below because a flock of birds when flying by as I was trying to get the picture.  All those black specs are birds.  It kinda made me feel like they were helping the dogs go over the rainbow.


Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Saying goodbye to man's best friends - my dogs

I started this as a letter to a friend.  I knew it would be long and I might want to edit things and so I decided to type it in Word verses writing it out long hand.  I got to the point I wasn't sure if I was going to mail it to them or not.  But I also got to the point where I found it very therapeutic to express my feelings like I was.  It was helping me a lot and I continued to write my thoughts on what had happened over the last couple of days. There was so much going on and also much for me to contemplate on the circle of life. Since this was for a friend I've edited some things out that was personal to them, but left most of it just as I had written it. I did expand some of it too since I have the space to do it and am not trying to keep it to a certain length.  I doubt if my friend will see this blog post but if they do I hope they do read one version of it, like I said I may not mail the other one anyway. 



Dear
   I hope you had a better week than I had.  In fact it’s been a pretty awful week, one of my worst ever.  On Wednesday I had an appointment with the vet for my dog Buddy.  At bed time the night before he had collapsed and couldn't get up.  In the morning he had an accident in his bed and was greatly distressed over it.  He never soils his bed and I knew something was terribly wrong with him.  The vet said  Buddy (who was about 17-18 yrs old, we had gotten him fully grown) had pancreatic cancer and was severely anemic.  I thought I was going to have put him down right then and there but the vet said he doesn’t appear to be in pain, I don’t think it’s his time yet.  Take him home and make him as comfortable as possible and when its time you’ll know because you are so in tune with your pets- but don’t expect him to live very long – he’ll probably be gone in a month. So that’s what I did I took him home and loved on him.
    On Thursday, it started out as a routine day.  My other dog KC (16 yrs old) was fidgety like she gets when the weather gets bad.  She was breathing a little heavy but I didn’t think much of it.  She’s had problems like that before and that was nothing unusual for her.  In fact 3 years ago she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.  At the time we were told she could go at any time due to a heart attack and probably wouldn’t make it a week, let alone a month.  She wasn’t in pain and so the vet didn’t think we should do anything but take her home and make her comfortable.  And that’s what we did and she just kept on going and going and going.   She wouldn’t take her medicines and everyone was surprise she just kept on hanging in there as long as she has.  Well on Thursday I was working on the computer and she just was just hanging out in her bed like she usually does and I thought nothing of it.  Buddy was in a bed next to the computer/ desk area and she was in her’s about 10 feet away next to my reading chair - both of them resting peacefully.   It was about 2 o’clock in the afternoon and I knew I had to leave to get my son from school at 2:20.  I got up to start going and realized she was gone.  She died the way you would want most pets to go, peacefully in her sleep.  She didn’t yelp out or anything – and I didn’t even know it happened until I got up and saw the poop in the bed and then looked at her face and realized she was gone.  I called the vet and they said they could cremate her.
    I didn’t know what to do – I wanted my family’s advice. My husband was out of town on a business /fishing trip and I didn’t want to ruin it for him.  My oldest was at friends helping them out so that left the youngest. I picked him up from school and took him to football practice.  It was so weird.   My youngest normally carpools with two other boys.  One boy went home sick and the other arranged to go home with his aunt not realizing that I was coming to get them so it ended up being just my youngest son and I in the car when I told him.  I couldn’t have planned better than that (Coincident??).  He did not want to see her and thought that cremation would be best.  I was so proud of him for being so mature about it.  He had grown up with this dog his whole life.  For 3 years we knew it could happen at any time but yet now that it has it was such a shock to loose her. He shed some tears but still wanted to go to practice.  He didn’t want to let his teammates down.  
    I went home and took her body to the vet.  I was so relieved to be doing something and to get her out of the house.  I really didn’t want to have to look at her body while waiting for them all to come home. I couldn't believe she was gone. 

     In our family it’s been a tradition on Thursday night to get pizza for dinner.  It all started when the kid’s school used to have once a month fund raiser at this one pizza place on Thursday nights.   Then when the older boys had soccer and piano lessons on Thursday there was no time to cook and they usually wanted pizza anyway.   I would call and order ahead and pick it up on our way home from piano- it couldn’t get anymore convenient than that.  
    Well on this night the boys asked if they could have pizza for dinner since we hadn’t had it in a long while and my husband was out of town. So I was like sure why not? I called it in and got our traditional order – one meat lovers and one with just plan cheese (for me).    I got it after my youngest football practice. When I picked it up, the order was right on the order slip and the order slip was correct so I did not check them assuming it was right.  Well this time they goofed which is so rare for this establishment – they very rarely screw the orders up and that is why people like them so much.  My cheese had pepperoni on it. (Now, I’m sure you are wondering why I’m writing you about this? Please just read on and please read it all.)
    That night Buddy, the dog with cancer wouldn’t eat anything except the pill pocket that had some medicine for him in it. 
    The next morning, Friday, I had to take my youngest to school.  While I was gone Buddy started to vomit and get sick.  I got home and saw it and cleaned it up.  I then sat at my desk and Buddy went to the bed that was right next to it and was lying there listlessly.  I paid some bills and had some letters to send so I went to the post office which is at the end of our street.  When I got back Buddy had gotten sick again.  I tried to give him some pain medicine but he wouldn’t take it.  I picked him up and then sat for hours in the reading chair with him.  I could tell he wasn’t doing well.  My oldest son came home and we talked about taking him to the vet.  He said lets wait until my youngest gets home so he can say goodbye and see how he’s doing – he does not seem to be in pain right now so it might be he’s upset about loosing KC. 
   I got up and did some laundry.  When it came time to put the load in the dryer around noon, I decided to get a piece of that leftover pepperoni pizza.  I took it to the chair and started to eat it.  Buddy perked up and wanted some.  Buddy has always loved pepperoni and has always gotten mine from my pizzas that had it on it.  He expected and wanted it (Coincident?? – It should have been just plain cheese and in that case he wouldn’t have gotten anything. ) So I gave him a couple of pieces of very thin pepperoni.  He ate it like he always did. I took this as a very positive sign.   I then gave him the pill pocket with his medicine and he took it too. I was pleased by this since earlier he wouldn't.  I waited awhile and he didn't vomit again - things were going well. 
   We both settled back into the reading chair and ended up taking a nap together – The night before I hardly slept at all because of my grieving over KC.  About 3 my youngest did not come home and I remembered he had a football game to go to with his friends and one of the other carpool moms was suppose to take them there since I knew my husband was going to be out of town and I might have accompanied him. I was relieved I didn't have to leave Buddy. I started to read and Buddy just slept, but a half hour later he got up and just started howling in pain.  He vomited again.  And started to howl some more.  My oldest came running to see what was happening.  We both decided it was time and called the vet. 
    That was the hardest thing I had ever had to do.  I’ve only put down one other pet before and that was for a safety issues- when my second son was born the dog bit my dad, I couldn't have a biting dog in the house with two small children- the dog had to go, he was also old and had health issues too and it was obvious he was not feeling well when he bit my dad.  It was his time because he would not have adjusted well anywhere else so for him it was a no-brainier to put him away.  This one was so different since it was a voluntary option.  It was so hard to make that call.  But I couldn’t see Buddy in pain like that. I knew I was being selfish if I kept him the weekend.  The vet leaves at 4 and if we were going to do it, it had to be then because otherwise we would have had to wait the whole weekend.  I couldn’t see going though his howling all weekend long.  Quite frankly I didn’t think he would have made it through the night because he was so listless all day long.  It only seems fitting that Buddy and KC should be back together again. 

    And that got me thinking about life and the circle of life during the night.  Buddy died on my great nieces 2nd birthday.  I will always remember this day because for the last two years its been such a special day for me.
     The next day  my husband and I were literally talking about a friend and about giving her tickets to a La Tech game for that day when she called.  (Coincident?) She could tell I had been crying and she said oh you heard about our friend James passing away.  I couldn’t believe James was gone- he died Friday too. (He was 40 and has two children – his son (15) is a year older than my youngest and they have done a lot together.  He was in my confirmation class.  His daughter is about 11 and I had taught her too in Sunday school. )  I told my friend about Buddy dying and she was shocked over that news because she had already heard about KC going. She couldn't believe they were both gone now. 
    We both talked about our friend James and how a month ago he didn’t even know he had cancer.  He had been told he had pneumonia and bronchitis but then he kept loosing weight and when his voice got raspy people convinced him to get a second opinion.  He had cancer of the throat.  What really got to me was his son was the same age I was when my dad got cancer of the throat – 15.  My dad lived 28 years after that but did eventually die from it.  I was hoping he would have the same course and live a long while too.  Oh it’s so hard to believe he’s gone.  It brought back so many memories of my dad and what I went through when I was in high school and then later when he actually did die from it.
    All I wanted to do is to eat comfort food but I tried to avoid most of it since it’s not good for me since I have type II diabetes and control it by diet and exercise.   Nothing I wanted more than a piece of cake with ice-cream and lots of lots of chocolate.   Also I wanted to drown my sorrows in alcohol another no no for diabetics.
       Friday night my family started to get hungry but I wasn’t up to cooking.  We had planned on a shrimp boil from when my husband came back from his fishing trip.  I just wasn’t up to it so the comfort food they got was Popeye’s Chicken another thing that is not so great from me but better than the others especially if I pull off the fried skin.  There was a frozen daiquiri place right next door to the chicken and without asking my husband got me a fuzzy peach navel something or other.  There’s nothing like comfort food items when you are down like that. I had never noticed the daiquiri place before since we hardly ever drink.  I could believe my needs were being taken care of without me even having to tell them what I wanted.  For one night I thought it would be okay to splurge and did so.  Everything tasted so good and really hit the spot.
   
   So that’s been my week. 

    I’ve done a lot of thinking about life and God.  I went to early church and the sermon was about how God can give us multiple grief’s at a time but he is there with us.  I felt like it was written just for me (Coincident?) If you give your grief over to him, he will give you peace.  I could feel peace settling on me as I simply said a prayer to lift this grief.
     And another thing happened that got me thinking about everything.  On Saturday we needed to go to the grocery store to get a few items.  My husband decided to go since I didn’t feel up to it but I forgot to put eggs on the list since my mind had been on other things.  My oldest son is on a special diet and eats eggs everyday now.  We had enough to last a day or two but would need them soon.  I didn’t want to go to the store just for that one item and decided to wait until they ran out.  We got to church and one of our friends lives out in the country came in with a whole bunch of free range eggs.  He came up to me and wanted to make sure I got some.    Some chickens have decided to take up residence on his porch and he has more eggs than what he can deal with now so when he has more than he can eat he gives them away to people, today he just happened to bring them to church and offered them to me (Coincident? How often has someone just come up to you and handed you 2 dozen eggs when you needed them without you asking for them? I've only had something like that happen to me once before by the same person but other than that things like that just do not happen to me.  Have you had someone give you two dozen eggs for no reason - probably not because things like that just don't happen to most people?  It just blew me away when he gave them to me wanting me to have them, especially when I just needed one but to get two instead.  I really felt like I was being provided for.  I was so touched I was speechless.)
     Another tradition for my family is we try to eat Sunday dinner together.  I just did not feel up to cooking so we ended going out.   They messed up my son’s order and it did not come out with the other food.  We had to wait a real long time for it.  The manager came over and apologized and gave us a free desert.  This was the most decadent food imaginable, a chocolate brownie with mousse imbetween and whipped cream on top, drizzled with a chocolate fudge sauce over all of it.  I felt like my wish for comfort food was granted.  All I needed was a bite or two of it and I was satisfied. That was all each of us wanted and the piece they brought out was just the right size.  In fact the waitress said to us that this is just the right amount for four people.  If two eat it they go feeling like pigs and it’s a very rare person who can eat all of it by themselves but for 4 you each get a bite and can be satisfied.  And she was right.     This was something we definitely would not have gotten on our own- we couldn’t even eat all of our meals and had to get doggie bags to go.  The only time we would order something like that is if we were out celebrating a birthday or some very special celebration – yet here we didn’t even order it – it was brought to us- how amazing was that – That manager had no way of knowing that was exactly what my family needed at that time.  We all had been commiserating about the dogs and we needed comforting like that.  (Another Coincident? – I think not.)  

I see these things and feel like something or someone is looking out for me and is trying to comfort me.  I feel the presence of loved ones caring for me.  I have a deep sense of when I die it is not the end but only the transformation to another state.  I do not feel like when something dies that is it – the end! -- they or it no longer exists, poof they are finish and are gone - there's nothing more.  I feel their (pun intended) is a spirit that is left behind.  By feeling these ways then I have admitted to myself that there has to be a higher power that controls things.  Because I feel so strongly this way and have since my grandmother has died I can not say there is no God.  I can not be an atheist.  This is what makes me believe in God so strongly because I do believe in an afterlife. I believe someday I will be with some of my love ones again that have already died.

    Another way to look at things is I recently saw a video where a simple question was asked of scientist and geologist who believe in evolution and considered themselves atheists.  In their lifetime can they show one example of a new species evolving from another species – no one could.  Most of them used Darwin’s finches as an example but as was pointed out to them a new species did not evolve in recorded history - they were still the same species.   They just have to believe that in time a new species will evolved which is a reasonable belief.  They have to have faith to believe that the scientists are right in their theories that eventually a new species will evolve. So then the question was asked them if they have to believe that why can’t they believe in a supreme being that made everything?  Sooner or later belief comes into play with living things and how they got here.    Do they really believe everything on earth came about by shear coincidence or is there a divine force guiding things?   Do they ever see patterns repeating themselves like the way atoms are and the way the solar system is?  Do you really think those similar shapes are just shear coincident?  If you have to believe in something why didn’t they believe in God yet they could believe what other people tell them?
   Some of them said its because you can't prove God exists- there is no evidence for his existence.  So then the person asked 'Do you believe in love?' They all said yes of course - then guy said then how do you know it exists?  They said because its something you feel.  The guy said but I don't feel it - show me how it exists since its all within you and your consciences but not mine. There is no evidence for your conscience - its not like you can prove it exist either.   Prove to me the physical evidences for it - That was something that got most people to stop talking.  

And then finally I think of things this way and I think its Pascal’s idea but I could be wrong for this since I’ve seen it a number of times presented different ways but always similar.:
   If there is no God and yet I believe in him and I die its no big deal that I did believe in him- no harm done. It just made me a better person. 
    Now if I did not believe in God yet there is a God and I die that is a big deal because I have rejected him and he will reject me to for all of eternity.  Do I want to want to go through all of eternity without him and his love? Probably not.
  Now if I do believe and God does exist - won't that be the best situation since that way I get to spend eternity with him.  Besides what harm does it do me to believe while I am alive.  It’s better to believe and be accepted than to be rejected because nothing is worse than the feeling of loneliness - it can eat you up inside and has me when I’ve been on my own and thought no one cared.  So if it’s better for me to believe then I might as well go on and believe even though it’s not very scientific to believe.

     Again the loneliness is such a powerful feeling and can be such a devastating one, and as long as I feel there is a God then I know I’m not alone and none of this really matters. 
    Finally I just felt like I had to get this off my mind.   I only write things because I do care about you.
    I've just had to many coincidental things happening to me to think this is all random.   There is one last coincidence I want to mention.  I wanted to host the Accretionary Wedge and had contacted the person in charge but have yet to hear back from them.  I wanted it to be in the Summer so we could do Keepsake geology of one of our favorite places to visit.  I also want December for Geo-ornaments.
I didn't get the summer one - but Evelyn at Geoneys got to do two.  One of them was about seeing geology everywhere.  I decided to do sidewalk geology.   While I was walking Buddy I was taking pictures.  We got to a spot and he just stopped and was like Mom how about here?  I thought he was so cute I took his picture.  As far as I can tell that is the last picture I ever took of him.  I know why I wasn't suppose to host in the summer because if I did I would not have gotten one of the better pictures I have of him.    Things do seem to work  out for a reason.
(addendum:  I took the photo on my cell phone, and because it was there I've been able to use it as a screen saver for my phone.  If I had it on my camera I never would have been able to do that.  I just wished I had one of  the two of them together on my phone but I don't  - Its so hard to have to choose which one to use and I'll probably be alternating them because KC's was also on my phone.  In fact I had just recently gotten the phone and was trying to figure out how to use the camera and that was why her picture got taken.  It was more for learning the phone than it was me trying to get her photo.)

 For anyone reading this here is the link to other blog posts on KC & Buddy here- when I first almost lost herhttp://rockhoundingaround.blogspot.com/2011/03/kc.html,  here 1year laterhttp://rockhoundingaround.blogspot.com/2012/02/buddy-and-kc-almost-year-later.html . These have some better photo's of them.

Now onto some of  the last photo's I ever took of these dogs.  I know some of them are not in the best of focus but I never expected them to be the last I had of them.  They were taken over the last 9 months.

KC - half dachshund and half chihuahua  - her last photo's
 KC
KC's last photo 2-14- 2013
KC - the first day I got her and her first photo Sept 19, 1997
 Buddy always wanting to go for a walk.  June 14 2013  the last photo's of him.

 Buddy in his bed.  Buddy was as the vet put it a pug mutt.  You could tell he had pug in him and a few other things.  
  Buddy in the reading chair with me.
Christmas 2012

Buddy's first photo (3-6-1998)
 KC and Buddy in the reading chair without me.  This was their favorite place and how they usually were together.  I think this is the last one I got of them together.

Two best friends forever- Buddy & KC 2-16-2013
 And finally this picture was one of my favorites of them together.  Its sat on my desk for many a year.  My dogs were not allowed on my bed by themselves.  One day I went into the room and caught them up on my bed.  They had jumped on the bed all by themselves.   KC knew she did wrong yet she stayed on the bed while Buddy was trying to act like everything was Okay and wouldn't leave her.  I laughed so hard when I saw them I just had to get a picture of it.


 I will miss them so much.  I've had a dog in my house for the last 29 years and I can't believe I am now dogless.

Goodbye my friends I did love you and we had a lot of good times together.
Addendum 9-18-13: my sister sent me the nicest poem called "At Rainbow Bridge" I did a post on it http://rockhoundingaround.blogspot.com/2013/09/rainbow-bridge-poem-for-pet-loss-my.html So now I want to say Goodbye my friends till we meet again.


Postscript:  About the eggs.  The man that gave me the eggs had recently lost his home in a tornado.  He had been taking care of the neighbors chickens when it happened.  The neighbors came back but the chickens decided they rather be with him and took up residence on his new porch.  I do feel like he was being provided for too.

I just came across a couple  pictures of Buddy I want to share.  Its his way of helping me do the laundry.  Sitting on the dirty stuff so I can see it.



Now I wonder if I shouldn't use the last photo of Buddy on the leash as my Gallivanting Rockhound image?   - any ideas about that?

I just came across this picture that was on my camera - when the card gets full it rolls over to the camera and I had some stuff I didn't know was there.   I'm glad I found it because its good of both of them. It was about a year ago.



Nov. 1, 2013
On November 1, I was always taught it was ''All Saints/ All Souls Day" and I should pray for those who have passed away especially the people who had departed this year.  So that was what I was doing on that day.  But I just couldn't keep it to just the ones that had passed this year I also had to include my dad, grandparents and my older brother.  As I was seriously praying for my old brother letting him know how much I missed him even though I knew he was in a better place and such.  All I know he was all that was on my mind until I got a phone call.  Guess who it was?  It was his widow.  We didn't even have to talk about him but he was on both of our minds.  We had a great visit and was on the phone for about an hour - coincident? I think not.  God was letting me know he was hearing my prayers. 

Friday, September 6, 2013

R I P - Buddy; My dog and friend

   Yesterday I lost my dog and best friend - KC to a heart attack. I never expected to loose my other dog in twenty-six hours too. Buddy was suffering from severe anemia and also probably had pancreatic cancer.   Today was a bad day for him and when it was obvious he was in a lot of pain by his howling after taken a pain pill we knew it was time to visit the vet. We had had him for 16 1/2 years.  He was a good dog and was everyone Buddy.  That's how he got his name since he was so friendly with every one.
  I take comfort in the fact that they are now back together again.  They always were inseparable and its only fitting they died so close together. Needless to say I can't stop crying today.  I'll try to post some pictures soon but not now.

   Its going to be such an adjustment not having a dog. Its been 29 years that I've had a dog around.

Here's a picture of him

RIP - K C my pet doodle bug/puppy

What a week this has been. A week ago I was visiting a friend in the hospital.  He had cancer of the throat.  My dad died from cancer of the throat and seeing him reminded me so much of my dad and what we went through with him. The one thing with my dad was he had it twice in his life. The 1ST time when I was 15 and he lived another 28 years after that. This friend also has a 15 year old and I'm praying he has the same outcome as my dad.

Then over the Labor day weekend my one dog Buddy had a seizure.  He seemed to had recovered but then all day Tuesday he was really out of it.  As I was heading to bed he just clasped on the floor and couldn't get up. So Wed I took him to the vet.  He had been in the vet the month before with problems.  I've had him 16 1/2 years and he was full grown when i got him so he's probably 18 years old. The vet did blood work and came back that he has pancreatic cancer and is anemic. He does not appear to be in pain and so the vet didn't think it was time to put him down. So I took him home and have been spoiling him. Trying to enjoy the last few day together.  He probably won't last the month.

I was so focused on Buddy I wasn't paying much attention to my other dog K C.  I've had her for 17 years.  Even though she was so old I always called her my puppy because she was so small.  She was half miniature dachshund and half Chihuahua . Her other nickname was doodle bug since she loved to crawl under covers and things to get warm.
 For the last 3 years she's been suffering from congestive heart problems.  The frustrating thing about her was she would not take medicine that would help her so we just tried to make her as comfortable as possible and let her do her own thing.  We never expected her to live this long. Wouldn't you know it she picked today to die.  Its been a rough day and week.

She was a good dog and I'm grateful that I was able to have her and her dad as long as I did.  I had her dad T C for 13 years so between the two of them it's been 30 years.  It feels like it is an end of a era to me. I will miss them so much.  And now I need to have a good cry.

A while back when I found out about her heart problems I did a post on her. I'll amend this soon with the link but right now I just can't go there.

Here's a picture of her in later life

postscript: on 9-6-2013 both my friend and other dog Buddy died.  Isn't that a bummer.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Fossil Park, Sylvania Ohio

One of the places I think that is so neat to have is a fossil park.  There is one located in Sylvania Ohio. A while back in 2011 I went and visited it with my son.  I started this post back then but ran into technical difficulties with my computer.  I left it in draft mode and forgot all about it.  Its about time to finish this. 




I saw this post and it was what got me wanting to go to it.  I had the link but lost it  when I saved it in Word, now can't remember where I saw this and have tried to find it again. I even searched for Roy of Times Scientific but couldn't find anything related to it.   (if anyone knows where this came from I want to give the proper link and also recognition and will remove this copy of it.) 

About the Silica formation:
In the middle Devonian, a vast sea covered Ohio. The sea floor was very muddy, creating a remarkable place for fossilization to occur. The Silica Formation in northwest Ohio represents this marine environment from the middle Devonian; it leaves a well-preserved and abundant fossil record. The preservation of these Devonian fossils are among the best in the world. In this formation, one can find the abundant remains of corals, brachiopods, echinoderms, and trilobites. These exquisitely preserved fossils are found in soft, gray shale, and quickly weather free from matrix.



The Silica formation is only accessible through quarries in the area. Access to these quarries is restricted, however, the Hanson quarry provides spoil from the Silica formation for a Fossil Park in the area, where people are welcomed to collect.

Collecting site:



Fossil Park

Fossil Park

My camera batteries died when I got to the park. This pic was taken by Roy of Times Scientific.



# A few employees of the Hanson Quarry came up with an idea to allow the public access to these famous Devonian collecting grounds. They came up with an idea that eventually became Fossil Park!

# Fossil Park is open to the public.

In the park, truckloads of Silica Shale from nearby quarries are dumped into a few large areas, where the public can simply hand split the shale, and find the same fossils one can find in the quarries.

# The park has two dig sites and a trail around the quarry. It is also staffed with knowledgable people that will help identify your finds.

# I personally have not collected here. However, by the looks of things, families were finding lots of fossils, mainly brachiopods and corals.

# Currently no tools are allowed to split the shale.



Location:

Fossil Park is located in an abandoned mine in Sylvania, OH. It is on the west side of Centennial Road in Sylvania, which is just north-west of Toledo.



The direcitons sound a bit long, but they are easy to follow. From the Ohio Turnpike, take exit 59, the Maumee/U.S. 20 exit. Follow signs to U.S. 23/Ann Arbor. Go south on U.S. 20 to Dussel Rd. Turn west onto Dussel Road. Follow that road to U.S. 23. Take U.S. 23 north to Central Ave. Make a right (west) onto McCord Rd. Stay on McCord road for about 1 mile north and turn left (west) onto Sylvania Rd. Follow Sylvania Road for about 2 miles to Centennial Road. Turn right (north) for a little under 2 miles on Centennial Road, and you should see a sign marking the park.



The park is open weekends from Memorial day until October 22nd.



Read the fossil park entrance sign for more information.

 I went looking for that link but could not find it but I did find this stuff on it.
  Here's a link to it Fossil Park - Ohio,

 and another visit-fossil-park-sylvania-ohio-562615.html
 and another    northwest/toledo/fossil-park.html


 Now this is the stuff that I have gotten.
This is the path way that led to where the collecting was.
I could tell by the looks of the formation that this was once a quarry that had been abandoned.  According to Mark J. Camp in the 'Roadside Geology of Ohio'(2006 pg 80),  the out crop showing in the park is the Dundee limestone.  Camp points out that the managers have the Silica formation stuff shipped in from other places.
They had this to help you identify the different Devonian fossils that have been uncovered here.
And this is what the park looks like.  Just piles of debris that you get to sort through.  It was frustrating not being allowed to have tools, but you could use buckets.  You mainly just pick a pile and then sit on it and use something to sift through the material.  In our case it was just our hands and so gloves were a good thing to have.    They did have these tables where you could put the things you found and also there was some running water so that you could wash some things off too.

There were some people who were into collecting that were very helpful with things, explaining how it was done and showing you some of the stuff they did get.  The one thing they said its always best pickings after they bring in a new load of material.  It had been awhile since they had brought anything in on the day we were there and so the pickings were not to good.  But my son did have fun doing it and I was glad I could share that experience with him. All we seemed to get was bits and pieces of things.  There was lots of pyrite there too.

This is the quarry from which they get their materials.





              I used to go to Sylvania  and collect when I was an undergraduate.  Things sure have changed since then.   We used to go into the Medusa quarry and were able to collect on the weekends when the quarry wasn't in operations and only in the area where they had the tailings and not the active area.
Here's what it look like in May of 1977 and what we had to look through.  The water was a problem and we had to sign waivers stating we would not swim in it.  The pickings were a lot better but then again we had so much more material to sort through too.
 And here are two of my all time favorite fossils that I had collected from the area.
 The first one used to be in a whole lot better shape with a lot more of the black steinkern area but with all the moves it made through the years and all the places its sat and all the times it was picked up and handled,  I'm amazed that I still have it at all. 
Trilobite  -   Phacops_rana
Trilobite - Phacops
 and a Brachiopod - Spiriferida  - Paraspirifer?.
Brachiopod - Paraspirifer?
What I really liked about this Brachiopod was it steinkern was pyrite which makes it very durable.  Back when I had a lot of them, I used to soak them in hydrochloric acid and take some of the lime away thus leaving the pyrite.  Non geologist would really like them and through the years I gave them all away so that now I just have this one specimen left.  I'm glad I kept this one and didn't try to do anything to it.

I am grateful that there is a park like this available and I'm glad that I could take my son to it.  I find when you collect it yourself it's so much more fun and you appreciate what you get so much more.  The other thing is when you do see something that is really nice at a show or museum you appreciate all the work that went into getting it too.