Something Shiny

Iolite and Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Earrings

Iolite and Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Earrings

According to the Anniversary Gemstone List, the gemstone for our 21st anniversary is Iolite, a purplish stone with a medium rarity. I found these earrings which are composed of 4 iolite stones (each) and three (each) Sleeping Beauty Turquoise facets. Stirling silver decorative metalwork holds them together. Very Pretty – Click on the image to enlarge.

Our anniversary is still almost a week away and by then, we should have an iolite, peridot and blue topaz ring to complete the set. More pix to come.

New Throwback Dining Room Set

Dining Room Set

After finally retiring the old dining room furniture to a local charitable organization, Bob and I assembled the new table last week. Today, we ate our Easter Sunday Dinner using the new furniture.

The photo does not clearly show the snow white color of the table top but it does render the candy-apple red faux Naugahyde™ chair color and the shiny chrome on both table and chairs. The whole dining room set effect takes us back to the 1950’s Diner era with its appearance.

We think it’s charming. Click on the image to enlarge.

2018 Cops Who Care Car Show

Self Portrait Reflection

We drove over to the Community Center this morning to attend the Annual Cops Who Care classic car show. We donated a few unwrapped toys for their Christmas Gift program.

Verna took a photo of a very shiny 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air Coupe which turned out to be a self-portrait of ourselves. There were also scores of other vintage and custom cars like those pictured below. Click on any image to enlarge.

T-Bucket 39 Chevy Interior

See these and more at CapnBob.us.

Rainbow Light Up Shoes

Verna’s Lighted Shoes

We took what is likely our last trip for this year down to the West Valley today to shop at Lowe’s and Walmart in Surprise. The snowbirds are already starting to show up and the traffic down there is bad enough in the summer, let alone when the population doubles in the late fall and winter months. Our population more than doubles here in town, but the traffic and crowds in the stores here are tolerable. I grumble some, but that’s to be expected from an old curmudgeon.

The point of this post is actually to show the electric sneakers Verna picked up in the store. She had socks on her list and they are located by the shoe department. She saw these shoes and liked them for their sturdy appearance and comfortable look. We did not realize until we were back at home that they had rainbow lighted soles.

The shoes each have a battery, a light array around the soles, a control button and a charging jack. The lights can display single or multi colors with billboard motion. The shoes came with a remote control and charging cable that plugs into a charging port. What will the techies think of next?

Electric Pepper Mill

Electric Pepper MillWith both of us experiencing discomfort in our hands with osteo-arthritis, we have had difficulty using simple kitchen tools like our traditional pepper grinder. The grasping and twisting motions were difficult for us to dispense fresh ground pepper without experiencing pain. Sure, the pain was minor, but, still it was unpleasant. What could we do to alleviate the pain?

Enter the OPUX Battery-operated Salt and Pepper Grinder Set! Our order arrived today which included two grinders, one for pepper and the other for salt. However, we use a salt shaker for when we dispense salt and seemed to have an extra grinder. But Wait! We could use a battery operated pepper mill for the RV. So Verna installed the batteries in both, loaded them with peppercorns and placed one on our kitchen counter in the house and the other in the galley in the RV. Perfect! Now, with the press of a button, freshly ground pepper is painlessly dispensed on our foodstuffs either at home or on the road.

One Year Ago Today 08/21/2017

Total Eclipse of the SunIt was a year ago that we were in Casper, Wyoming to witness one of the greatest astronomical events of our lifetimes; the All-American Total Eclipse of the Sun. We were camped in an RV park near the centerline of the eclipse. Totality lasted just over two minutes and it was magnificent.

Verna took this image (and many more) during the totality; this image was taken at about the middle of the Moon’s shadow passing across our location.

When you click on the image to enlarge, you can see a prominence at about two o’clock on the limb of the sun and the planet Mercury at the four o’clock position below and to the right of the disc. We didn’t see those specifics with the naked eye, but inspection of the astrophotography after the fact revealed those details.

Click on the image to enlarge.