E is for Emerald

This was covered in B under beryl so I had to do some more digging to find more info on this one.

Impurities in beryl cause different colors that create different gemstones.  Beryl is a colorless mineral, but when chromium is added it becomes green and emerald.  Beryl with iron added becomes blue and is then aquamarine.

Isn't this beautiful?  This is from Musa Columbia

Emeralds are hard, but inclusions (flaws) can cause them to crack.  Sometimes gemstones are heated to increase color and clarity.  Of course caution has to be used during the heating process.  

I found this fact interesting.  Emeralds with fissures are treated with wax or oil that is colored.  This creates a stone with more clarity thus making it more desirable.

Raw uncut, unpolished emerald

Gemstones can be natural or lab created (synthetic).  It’s almost impossible to tell the difference between the two.  But synthetic gemstones are usually more perfect in color and clarity because they weren’t created by nature where impurities exist.

Most of the largest emeralds are in museums or private collections.

Most of the info and photos are from Wikipedia, GIA and Gem Select websites.

D is for Diamond

I guess nothing much needs to be said about this.  We all know what diamonds are.  Let’s see if I can give you some facts.

Diamonds are just carbon, the same element as graphite.  Diamonds are the hardest natural material because the atoms are locked together.  It’s harder than any man made material.  They can be used industrially for cutting, such as diamond saw blades.

Cut and polished diamonds

Cut diamonds sparkle in the beautiful colors they reflect when they catch the light.  The diamond market is strictly controlled, even making the uncut ones valuable.

Diamonds were traded and taxed in India before 300 BC.  So they even had taxes way back then.  Good grief!  I guess taxes have been around forever.  Diamonds were exported by sea or land along caravan routes.

Uncut and unpolished diamond

There are several famous diamonds in the British crown jewels that were presented to Queen Victoria.

Diamonds are the stone of love, yet they are the hardest mineral known and can scratch anything.  Is there a hidden story in that?  I wonder.

C is for Copper

Copper is both shiny and opaque.  Being a metal it’s also quiet heavy.  This is probably the first medal used by man.  Copper was found on the island of Cyprus so many think this is where it gets its name. 

Raw copper

The metal copper makes bronze when mixed with tin and was used before iron was in general use.  Today it’s used in wiring and water pipes.

While living in California we had all our plastic pipes replaced with copper after the plastic burst and flooded the house.  What a mess that was.  And of course this “adventure” happened over Thanksgiving.  The house was torn up for weeks.

B is for Beryl

Pink beryl

Beryl can be green, blue, yellow or pink.  It’s a transparent crystal.  If it’s green, it’s emerald, blue is aquamarine.

Green beryl not yet cut and polished

The green form, emerald, has been valuable for a long time.  It was mined in ancient Egypt from the second millennium BC until 1370.  India and Europe received all their emeralds from Egypt.

Aquamarine beryl in quartz

Aquamarine beryl

The name aquamarine wasn’t used until the sixteenth century.  Long ago it was a sailor’s talisman.

A is for Alabaster

This is a mineral that’s been around since ancient times.  Back in the Roman era it was carved into vases, used as monuments and windows in churches and made into vessels.  The purest form is snow white with a fine uniform grain and is thin enough to see through, thus making it suitable for windows.

Artifact in the Egyptian Museum Cairo 

The origin of “alabaster” is from the middle Ages, but it seems no one knows exactly where this word came from.  Some say old French, others say Latin, and still others say Greek or ancient Egypt.

Alabaster is soft so carves easily, but this quality also makes it unsuitable for outdoor work.  Fine alabaster is used as ornamental stone, especially in cathedrals and on stair rails, vases, etc.

From the Roman Empire

Alabaster is porous so it can be dyed into any color by immersing it into the dye bath and heating it to certain temperatures.  Caution must be used, however, because it can be easily ruined by too much heat and that causes the stone to have a milky white look much like chalk.  This ruins its translucent appearance.

Fossanova Abbey in Latina Italy

Gypsum alabaster is the softer of the two alabaster types.  The other is calcite alabaster found in caves.  Gypsum alabaster artifacts have been in Egypt.  They date back to the late fourth millennium BC.  Gypsum alabaster can also be found in Spain, Italy, England and Wales.

There is also a rare black alabaster that can be found in only three places in the world, Oklahoma, Italy and China.

All pictures courtesy of wikipedia

The ultimatum

Sorry I’ve been away a bit again.  There’s so much going on in my life right now that I find it hard to get on here and write a post.  I was hoping to do the A to Z blogging challenge in April, but I’m not sure yet how I’ll manage that this year.  I haven’t written it off yet though.

About a week ago at work I was blindsided by my boss who gave me an ultimatum that I wasn’t expecting at all.  I’ve got a tiny gold ring I wear on my right hand.  It’s been there for forty-three years.  They couldn’t even get if off in the hospital when I had emergency surgery a few years ago because I have arthritis in my knuckles and I can’t get it off.  They let it go.  Well, it seems it’s against company policy to wear this ring.  Only a simple wedding band is allowed, so I was told to lose the ring.  She didn’t care how I got it off my finger, but it has to be off there if I want to continue my employment.  I was saddened and stunned. 

Of course it surprised me to find out later that the new boss was so upset over this that she spent all morning calling corporate and also our regional manager for advice.  Good grief!  I guess she can’t make any decisions on her own.  She is new and not very experienced at managing people.  At least that’s my opinion.  I don’t wish her any ill will.  I just wish she’d leave me alone.  I’ve never liked people to dictate certain areas of my life.  I never even liked it as a child when Mamaw would come to take us to the beauty parlor every summer.  I knew that meant chopping all our hair off, so I would hide until she left with my sisters.

Later in the afternoon at work, our boss sent a gal out to watch my station while I went back to the office to talk to her.  She told me I had to cut the ring off if I couldn’t get it off any other way.  Of course she said she wasn’t ordering me to do it when I objected, but if I wanted to keep the job I had two weeks to get it off.  What????

I was so pissed off that I don’t think I did a very good job for the rest of my shift.  Needless to say cutting this ring off would be a last resort for me.  I don’t think this is any of her business and I’ve been wearing this ring every day since I was hired three years ago.  It was a well-known fact I couldn’t get it off.  There’s no way this ring is falling in the food.  Besides we always have gloves on too.  But of course she did her homework and had a copy of the employee field guide with that part highlighted for me to read.  No jewelry is allowed of any kind except a wedding band.  I got a plain band for this job for two reasons.  They’d never let me wear my real wedding band because it’s full of diamonds and sapphires and is very big and gaudy.  And I wouldn’t want to mess it up anyway dong all the crap we have to do at work.

So I’ve been busy looking for work, but also have a jeweler lined up to do the unthinkable if it comes to that.  So far not much is happening on the job hunt, but things move very slowly with employers.  I still have another week to make something happen.

On a positive note, I saw the first lizard of the season today and also the orioles are back, so I know our cold weather is over until winter.  I can rejoice in that fact and know that something good is happening in my life.  Warm weather is coming.  Yippee!  Now I just need a new job to go with it.

Happy Spring

And you don’t know how bad I wish it would arrive.  It’s been quite chilly here (about 20 degrees below normal) after we had a couple of teaser days that it was actually warm enough to put on shorts.  Yay!  But I know it can’t be far away now.  That thought keeps me going.  I’m very tired of being cold.  I need to bake in some 80 degree weather for a while.

I apologize for being absent so long.  I couldn’t believe it’s been two weeks since I turned my computer on last.  Where does the time go?  It gets away from me all the time. 

This is me three months after my surgery

I’m still recovering from my eye surgery, but things are going very well.  I’ve been working hard to get this huge bill paid off.  It’s definitely worth it though when people tell me how good I look and that I’m so much better than before.  I have to admit I was awfully tired of my drippy eyes.

So you may wonder what I’ve been doing.  Well besides working, I’ve been getting everything ready to file taxes.  I hate this time of year.  Plus, hubby had eye surgery on the fourteenth so he’s needed some help with that.  It’s quite an ordeal to go through all this.  Medical procedures are necessary, but not always fun.  His eye lids were interfering with his vision so that should be remedied now.  It’s just a long healing process.  I have to say he’s doing much better than I did at this stage, so that’s a very good thing.  I’d rather him have it easier than me.  I have a lot more patience for things. 

Other than that my life is one big blur.  All the days blend together.  I never know exactly what day it is.  That’s bad I know, but our weeks at work run from the middle of the week to the next so when the weekend is in the middle of the week it really screws everything up in my head.

Raven and Koki in the bathroom

Koki walking on top of the shower

My cats are getting along better, so that makes for a happier experience around here.  However, they’ll never be best buddies.  Raven always wants to play, or wreak havoc, and Koki has her moments when she’ll put up with him.  But Koki will be thirteen in May so that’s quite a difference from being four like Raven is.  But she still has a lot of spunk about her.  I caught her on top of the shower bar a few days ago.  She loves to scare me by doing her daredevil things.

This is the squirrel who lives just beyond our wall.  He may lose his home if they build back there.

We’ve had visits from the wildlife that live in the desert behind us.  I’m not sure how much longer that will continue.  Right now that property has been sold to a developer that wants to build homes back there, so all the neighbors are up in arms.  We’re trying to stop this before it starts.  There is a law on the books that may help us.  We’ll see.  More on this later.

Happy spring equinox everyone.