Old Timers Contest

Helen, that was one of 3 officers that I "schooled". lol I was known for not taking anything from junior officers with lots of book learning and no practical knowledge. For that reason I never got above E-6. Every time I came up for advancement, some Jr. officer would piss me off, and my recommendation was pulled. Oh well, I had fun and still managed to retire without getting booted out.

Oops, my bad. Make that 4 Jr's that I schooled. Just remembered another one.

This should make you happy Don. We were sitting in the shop BSing at shift change and there was a boom outside of the shop in the hanger. We ran into the hanger and there was a 2nd Lt standing there covered in white and shaking like his body temp had dropped ten degrees. He had tried to fill a fiberglass tank fire extinguisher with one of our carry around bottles for filling tires and pressurized actuators and it blew up in his face. The bottles held 3000 pounds of pressure and the filling pressure gauge did not register until it hit 50 pounds. Like any other regulator the more you turn the knob to the right the higher the pressure goes. In a panic anyone not experienced with regulators would turn the know to the right to shut it off like a valve. Apparently the pressure jumped to 50 pounds and he panicked. You can visualize the rest. Once we figured out that he was not hurt (surprisingly) we were literally rolling on the shop floor laughing. As I am writing this I am still laughing. Junior officers got their thingie in a wringer on a regular basis but none were as funny as that time.
Jim

Thought I'd paste this here, just got Don's 'prize' box for this contest... WOW!!!!! Don sent 31 slabs, from bigger to small single cab slabbettes (some marked already:)).

I can't put up 31 photos, so I'm only going to post the ones I cannot ID, and hope Don or others can help me label them. Everything was wonderful and the ones I didn't shoot because I knew what they were included golden tigereye, red tigereye, tortella, agates, sodalite, coprolite, snowflake obsidian, and flower tube agate.

Thank you so much Don!!! It was well worth the hours glued to the computer trying to guess what you could do with those tools, then FINDING one to get the name! Very neat:). I'm sure the others who won your contest had a blast too:)!!

In order of most curious:
1 - pink!!! Quartzy? Not rose quartz... what is it??


2. jet black with almost aurora like color streaks, but it's NOT glass, and not chatoyant:


3. Greenish/brown big fluffy dendrites in clear agate:


4. Is this a sliced up death plate?? Those look like little bones in there.. so distinct, so colorful, in black!


5. Black plumes in white agate.. I've got some of this already, but don't know what it is, it's GORGEOUS:


6. Olive green and red... wonderstone?? Some other type of rhyolite or dolomite? Didn't know if it came in these colors:


7. Would guess this to be some type of owyhee, but it's not. It's like a porcelain jasper, very hard and 'crisp', but all brown with pictures:


8. Is this amethyst sage??


9. This is definitely amethyst crystals, but what is it called growing in a banded matrix?


10. No idea, but seems like a feldspar maybe? Has a slightly sandpapery texture:


11. This sort of looks like blue lace agate, but it's only the palest blue and the stripes are different colors, going to yellow:


12. Another feldspar looking piece, but has embedded copper bits in it, and is blue:


13. This is orangy red... but not really a plume. The red part is jasper-like, not agate, but it's held together with clear/white agate:


14. This is another feldspar-like piece, with bands, and dendrites. Not very agate-like at all, has a rough sharkskin like texture:


Everything was amazing! Thanks again Don!!! Wow!!

First is Rhodonite from California.
#13 is very old stock Lavic Jasper from California
#14 is silver lace onyx from the old diggings at Calico Ghost Town, California.
#4 is a slice of agatized death plate. Mostly crinoid.
#7 came from the Biggs Oregon area. Not exactly Biggs jasper, but takes a very good shine.
#10 is a nicely banded onyx.

AHA~! Thanks Don!!! I had no idea that was what Onyx was!!! (Never got a piece of labeled onyx before).

Thanks again! They are awsome!!!

Bill, you got about the same as I got, but because your slabs were bigger, you got fewer of them:).

Heck Don, One of those slabs would be a fine prize. Happy? more like sheepishly elated. . .

Like Grayfingers and Helen, I was also the recipient of Don's unparalleled generosity! Yesterday, I received my SFRB box full of slabs for naming the tool in the latest contest. I took photos as I unpacked the box (everything arrived safely, BTW), but still need to re-size them and get them onto Photobucket. I will try to get them posted here sometime today.

Thanks again, Don, for all the great stuff. It was truly above and beyond! Jean

Here's all the wonderful things that Don sent to me! Don't know how he got it all in the box?

1


2


3


4


5


6


I especially love #5, a black agate? Don, could you give me IDs on the last separate pics? Thanks again. Jean