Big painting

Ship in a storm - painted with acrylic on canvas by me back in 1994. I'm especially proud of this one, although the photo does not do it justice. It's approximately 34" x 36",

It's Fossil Friday #2

These bullet-like fossils are called belemnites. They are the inner 'skeleton' of ancient squid-like mollusks. These are from the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in Delaware, and are Delaware's "State Fossil". These fossils abound along the C&D Canal - if you know where to look. There's one particular trove of them less than a mile from a seedy bar full of seedy guys who couldn't give two shits about fossils. If you go to the Canal for belemnites, be sure to stop in for some beers.

I'm no philatist...

...nor am I a stamp collector, but this 50 year commemorative piece was given to me on said anniversary by my grandfather. He was at Pearl - not for the attack itself - but he was flown in the next day to help with the clean-up. He had nightmares about it for the rest of his life, and of his many WW2 experiences, he talked about this one the least. What I gleaned came from unguarded snippets of story and his hollering in his sleep when he was having those dreams.

Here are a few recollections of his - you can no doubt piece together the horrible scene from just this:

He mentioned pulling bodies and body parts from the water, which although gruesome and vivid, did not seem to stick with him as much as the fact that they were covered (along with everything else) with bunker oil that had spilled into the harbor. I'm sure he flashed to that every time he smelled diesel or kerosene, since smells trigger memories way down deep in our lizard brains.

The other recollection he had was of guys in capsized ships banging on the hull or bulkheads to signal they were trapped inside. From the outside in their little motor launches, my grandfather and his colleagues could hear this banging as recovery efforts got underway. Some of those guys stopped banging before rescue came...

He told a few other bits and pieces to me over the years, but these are the two that resonated with me the most.

He also had a little bit of the red sun from a crashed Japanese plane from that day - it was about the size of a silver dollar and had clearly been cut from a larger piece with tin-snips for distribution to US troops as mementos (souvenir is too light a word). He gave this to me many years ago - unfortunately through college and several moves, I lost it.

Unconventional rifle

This short little rifle is a Marlin Camp Carbine in .45 ACP. Yup - it eats a steady diet of .45 ACP rounds, and even accepts the standard magazine from the Colt 1911. This is a great little camping gun, where permitted, and packs enough stopping power for just about all of the dangerous wildlife one might encounter. Yet, becasue it chambers a pistol cartridge, recoil is virtually non-existant (compared to large caliber rifle cartridges). This always gets looks at the range, because it's a short little rifle that leaves nice 1/2 inch holes (with semi-wadcutter ammo) in paper. It's pretty accurate out to 100 yards - after that, the terminal ballistics tend to curve downward due to air friction. This is my answer to the famous Thompson sub-machine gun, which also chambers the .45 ACP.

Sadly, Marlin does not make these anymore.

Insulator redux

This a another Brookfield insulator from the tracks near Clayton, DE. This one is a CD145 shape, for those who worry about such things...

Tavern horn

Pewter tavern horn - this comes from a mixed tradition of imagery. First, it echoes the typical "hunting horn" of European fox hunting fame. Second, it continues a long European penchant for "drinking horns". This one has a Lyman crown hallmark on the bottom. I doubt it's that old, although I remember by dad drinking beer out of it when I was a tyke. He used to put it in the freezer so his Lowenbrau would have a nice frosty mug. If I recall correctly, my first sip of beer was out of this mug when I was probably 4 or 5. I recall liking beer, although I recall it having a strange metallic taste. Now that I'm older and wiser, I recognize that the metallic taste probably came either from this mug or from the Lowenbrau itself.

Chunky silver ring

Here's a big old chunky solid silver ring with a lapis lazuli stone. The stone echoes the deer motif on the sides in intaglio - it functions as a signet ring for pressing a mark into melted wax when sealing a letter. Word has it that this was an old Roman ring, although the date is uncertain. It is definitely European, anyway, just based on the stylistic touches. Suffice it to say that it's well over an ounce of silver.

If I actually sent letters, I might consider using it to seal envelopes. Unfortunately, with e-mail these days, a signet ring would just punch holes in the flat screen...