It's Sedimentary My Dear

Sometimes people gift me with rocks. 

Growing up, we always looked forward to It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown never got any goodies in his Halloween treat bag. Poor guy. As Halloween evening wore on, he grew resigned to his ill luck. While the other kids in the Peanuts gang, minus Linus and Sally who are in the pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin, excitedly exclaim over their cookies and candied apples, Charlie Brown quietly says, "I got a rock." 

So, I wasn't surprised when, a few years ago, my dad gave me a rock with my name on it for Christmas. My brother received the same gift with his name on it. We fulfilled our dad's expectations by looking sad and telling each other:  "I got a rock."  We really were unhappy when it was time to lug them home from his house.

 Here are a few of my favorite rocks.

 Large deposits of limestone prove Kansas was once a sea. Central Kansas is famous for stone posts. Turn one on its side and, voila, people know your name, or the name of your business, or your favorite sports team.

 The grinding wheel is cut from sandstone rock.

The two large, shapeless rocks at both ends below are also Kansas limestone.

  


I've been dragging rocks home with me for years. Mostly from Colorado. Sometimes I pack less so there is more room for an extra specimen or two. 

Rule 16: If I can get it to the vehicle and load it up by myself, I can take it home.

My rock collection/display isn't finished. I think I need to fill in the gaps with some sand or black lava rock. So far the gophers haven't chewed through the weed barrier.

Rainbow rock. Kind of reminds me of a Tequila Sunrise. 🍹

I think the pattern in the little guy at top left looks like a whale. 







 

Actually, the design formed is a nice example of Liesegang rings.

Texas holey rock, or honeycomb limestone. Apparently, this is popular in home aquariums.

Sandstone ribbon rock.

Iron oxides, manganese oxides, and other impurities can cause bright and contrasting colors in sandstone.

Banding is due to layers of deposits with differing characteristics. Sandstone is formed in many deposits, and the resulting layers can be very different from previous layers.








See the patina, or desert varnish, on the dark rock on the left?


Sometimes the sand is courser or finer than the previous layer, and this difference causes the banding.






 

 Whenever I go for a hike, my eyes are usually on the ground instead of the scenery. Besides my rock collection, I've come home with a handful of arrowheads and points and functional tools. 

Technically, these are a continuation of the rock collection since they are knapped from chert and flint. 

Rocks aren't necessarily objects to craft into tools and structures. They can be weapons. 

I don't think the shape of this one is coincidental. The smaller end of this five-pound rock fits comfortably in the hand for up close, personal combat. It could also be used as a pestle. Attach a stout piece of wood to the waist, and it's a hammer or the infamous blunt object.  Attach a length of leather, and it is as effective but weightier than a bar of soap in a tube sock, for all the guys who remember carrying those in their trunk.

HOUSE RULES

My Dad's family was crazy for two things: fishing and card games.  The fishing lure (pun intended) skipped a generation with me. I still enjoy a rousing game of 10 point pitch or Aggravation.

I learned to count and add with Dominos. As soon as my brother and I had learned the rudiments of the game with Double Sixes, Dad graduated us to Double Nines. The only indication we ever got from him that we had accidentally played a tile that scored was if he asked if we wanted that count. When we got older, we learned to watch him like a hawk because he would claim he scored when he hadn't or write down 25 points when he had only made 10 or 15.

When we played Aggravation, which was already a fast-paced game, we discovered it would move a lot faster if every player had his own set of dice, instead of waiting for the preceding player to politely pass them on. 🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲

Here are the House Rules for board games.



 Rule One:  Watch Dad.  He Cheats.

Rule Two: Don't let your playing pieces roll off the table.  All other players may move their pieces at warp speed until you get back to the table.  If your playing piece/s roll/bounce into the floor furnace, you are out of the game.

Rule Three: Don't repeat any words Dad said.





A genius invented 10-point pitch. There are an astronomical number of combinations of hands that can be dealt. The human element of players and their bids increase the combinations to an unfathomable level.

House Rules for card games are a little different.

Rule Four: The object of the game is not to win.  The goal is to keep my dad from winning. Period.

Rule Five: If you are in the hole (have a negative score) and shoot the moon (a bid worth 20), and make the bid, you lack 1 point of getting out of the hole. This is a time-honored tradition dating back to the day my grandfather proclaimed the rule when my Dad and my aunt were kids.
Just FYI, going SET means not making your bid. If you bid 7 and fail to get 7 points, you go SET. 7 points are taken off your running score. That's how you can be IN THE HOLE. 

This looks like a good hand. I'm a cautious player. I'd bid 6 in Spades and hope my partner had some trumps. I know people who would bid the maximum 10 on these cards. Why not go crazy and shoot the moon?

Mom and Dad belonged to a card club for about 50 years. They met once a month at alternating homes. In the early years, the host couple gave out prizes for high, low and the Galloper.  If you bid 7 and made it, you wrote your name on the Galloper prize. Whoever had their name on it the most, took it home at the end of the evening. In case of a tie, they drew for high card. Most of the prizes were white elephants, especially low prize. When the lottery was legalized, $2 tickets became popular prizes. 

My folks taught my kids to play pitch when they got big enough to hold the cards. I think my daughter was about twelve before she caught on to what 'going set' meant. We thought it was odd that she didn't react to losing points. One day it hit her that every time she or her partner went set, they lost that many points.  "WHAT!!" she shrieked. After that, when someone lost a hand, my Dad would mimic her.

I told one of my Dad's friends what a low-down cheat he had been when my brother and I were kids.  
"You learned to pay attention to the game, didn't you?" he said.