Pretty rock of the decade: The Missing Gypsum!
We've been watching a lot of classic Twilight Zone here at Sector 7, and one of the most common catch phrases you'll hear is "You've GOT to believe me!" After a while even the most convicted of protagonists experiences a Moment of Doubt.
Until tonight I had that problem with a piece of gypsum. This piece:
I KNEW I had a specimen like this. I just KNEW IT. When that amazing Mexican site full of super-giant gypsum was found I knew exactly what it was. I had a piece just like it, albeit a tad smaller. Problem was I couldn't find it. The additional problem was that I remembered thinking that I knew I had had it and had failed to find it before. Was my memory built upon a lie? Had I merely seen this thing so many times on shop shelves that I was convinced it was Mine All Mine? But it was well within my budget, and I didn't have any similar ones, so I wouldn't have spent much time drooling or procrastinating, and thus planting false memories of fantasy ownership. Logic insists I would have just bought it, and while I've often given pretty rocks as presents, this one isn't exactly in the My How Nice gift department. There was nowhere else it could possibly be.
I hate it when I start to doubt my sanity like that. Very inconvenient.
But out of the blue it occurred to me to look amongst the packing materials for the collection, on the offchance that 7 or so years ago I'd simply failed to unpack it with the rest. And there it was, just like that, wrapped in a tissue. Given that it belongs with all the other ridiculously fragile gypsum specimens I own I'm not going to be too harsh on myself for missing it during the multi-sessioned Great Unpacking. It was safe after all. And here it is. Woo.
If you happen to swing that way I know where you can score some 2' long chunks of this stuff for about AUS$1000.
In other good rock hunting news I found a lot of labels amongst the packing material so I'll be able to identify a lot of pieces now, and more importantly where they came from. I haven't completely murdered the scientific value of the collection after all. Yay!
Until tonight I had that problem with a piece of gypsum. This piece:
I KNEW I had a specimen like this. I just KNEW IT. When that amazing Mexican site full of super-giant gypsum was found I knew exactly what it was. I had a piece just like it, albeit a tad smaller. Problem was I couldn't find it. The additional problem was that I remembered thinking that I knew I had had it and had failed to find it before. Was my memory built upon a lie? Had I merely seen this thing so many times on shop shelves that I was convinced it was Mine All Mine? But it was well within my budget, and I didn't have any similar ones, so I wouldn't have spent much time drooling or procrastinating, and thus planting false memories of fantasy ownership. Logic insists I would have just bought it, and while I've often given pretty rocks as presents, this one isn't exactly in the My How Nice gift department. There was nowhere else it could possibly be.
I hate it when I start to doubt my sanity like that. Very inconvenient.
But out of the blue it occurred to me to look amongst the packing materials for the collection, on the offchance that 7 or so years ago I'd simply failed to unpack it with the rest. And there it was, just like that, wrapped in a tissue. Given that it belongs with all the other ridiculously fragile gypsum specimens I own I'm not going to be too harsh on myself for missing it during the multi-sessioned Great Unpacking. It was safe after all. And here it is. Woo.
If you happen to swing that way I know where you can score some 2' long chunks of this stuff for about AUS$1000.
In other good rock hunting news I found a lot of labels amongst the packing material so I'll be able to identify a lot of pieces now, and more importantly where they came from. I haven't completely murdered the scientific value of the collection after all. Yay!