Rocks in socks

For the second year in a row Pamela (Olsen) was the program director for the June cub scout district day camp in Central Point, Oregon.  The theme was Rocks and Stars and it lasted all week.  There were 180 boys attending.  Each day there were 7 forty-minute sessions.  The boys rotated to the various stations in patrols of a dozen kids with an adult den leader.  The archery range and beebee gun ranges are always favorites with the boys.

My station taught the boys how to find the hardness of a rock, which is one of the advancement requirements.  I had them each do the hardness tests on a chunk of obsidian (hardness 6) and a chunk of granite (hardness 7).  It was hands-on and they did really well.

Breaking geodes at Cub Scout Day Camp

Then we had the boys break open Keokuk Geodes which I had gathered from stream beds in Nauvoo, Illinois last summer.  For safety we had the boys wear goggles and also wrap the geode in an orphaned sock.  The boys would hit the golf ball-sized geodes with a hammer repeatedly until it broke open.  Almost all of the geodes had beautiful quartz crystals inside.  The boys added these to their pouches along with the other rocks which they had accumulated each day.  By the end of the day camp they will have about a dozen very nice specimens of many different types of minerals.

Pam and Esther had gone on many expeditions collecting rock samples.  Pam also purchased a supply of some of the harder to find minerals.  For example, there were quarter-sized pieces of petrified wood, gypsum, graphite, basalt, granite, quartz and obsidian.  The Olsen kitchen was a small sweat shop breaking larger rocks into 180 pieces of each of these.

During my sessions there were only two injuries.  One slightly smashed finger from a misdirected hammer blow which caused a 10-minute crying fit.  The other was a cut finger from a flying chip (which is why we had the boys wrapping the geode and wearing goggles).

In my opinion Pam did a superlative job of organizing and executing a character building week for 180 well behaved Cub Scouts.  The periodic morning rain and afternoon sun did not dampen the enthusiasm.

Maya Writing

We went to Mesoamerica in February of 2013 to view the Mayan ruins.  I became fascinated with the sculptured writing on the monuments.  These writings are hieroglyphs or glyphs for short.  The Spanish Catholic priests forbade the reading or writing of the Maya language in the mid 1550's.  Thus the ability to understand what  had been written was lost.

The glyphs contain dates, names and events that identify the time and purpose of the monuments.  Until 1990 they were thought to be an unsolvable enigma.  There are about 800 different symbols.  In the last 2 decades the code has been broken and researchers now can read about 80% of the writings.

The writing system can express anything that can be said in spoken language.   My favorite glyphs are the calendar dates.  The Maya calendar is very sophisticated and accurate.  In July at our annual family reunion I will give a workshop on reading the glyphs.  Guatemala prize money will be given to those who pass a quiz.

In addition to glyphs, elaborate pictures are carved in stone or painted on murals.  For example many Mormon scholars feel the carving below may represent the Book of Mormon revelation to Lehi.

The Tree of Life stela

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Hunting for Keokuk Geodes in Nauvoo

This past month has been a blast collecting geodes.  A typical trip lasts about one hour and nets about 20 pounds of geodes.  This is about 3 milk jugs full.  The geodes vary in size from a hazel nut (1") up to a small cantelope (5").  At a later time I crack open the bigger ones with a chisel and three pound sledge hammer.   I currently have about 350 geodes of which 200 are small ones that Pam Olsen wants to use at her Cub Scout Day Camp in Medford next summer.

A geode is a hollow spherical rock.  They can be distinguished from the other rocks in the stream bed in four ways.  First they are almost always round whereas other rocks have sharp edges.  Secondly the outside is rough like a cantelope never smooth.  Thirdly since it is hollow it is lighter than similar sized rocks.  Lastly it is usually the color of a cantelope.  When I'm in doubt I'll throw the rock against another bigger one in the stream bed to break it open.  Most of the time it is only a rock and bounces but I've occasionally ruined some beautiful geodes this way because it usually shatters them.

The outer rind of a geode is always a one centimeter crust of chalcedony (silicon dioxide) that is grayish.  The inter layer is quartz crystals.  If the entire center is filled it is called a nodule and is less prized.  The inter ring can be calcite (white powder like crystals) or occasionally a blue gray layer of semi precious chalcedony bubbles.  There are also yellow and orange formations that are iron based.

This Nauvoo area is famous for an abundance of geodes.  The rock hounds call them Keokuk Geodes and they exist in a 50 mile radius around the town of Keokuk, Iowa which is on the Mississippi river.  I have found most of my geodes in Joseph's Creek which is on the northern edge of Nauvoo, Illinois.  The stream is about three miles long and runs through Joseph Smith's farm site.  Just before the stream empties into the Mississippi it runs by the limestone quarry that was used as the source of the Nauvoo Temple stones in 1840.

The drought this year has left the stream bed dry which is one of the reasons the "pickings" have been so good.  In the LDS Church movie "Legacy" there is a scene where a wagon slips over a stream bank and turns over.  This is where I found the geodes in Joseph's Creek!

The geodes are in a bed of shale called the Lower Warsaw Formation.  When a stream cuts into the ground it exposes this formation.  The geodes are interpersed in the shale like bubbles.  When the geodes are exposed they fall into the stream and lay there for decades waiting for a rock hound to pick them up.

If a person is too lazy to find the geodes in a stream bed, then e-bay is a good alternative.  The unopened geodes cost about $3 per pound.  A three inch diameter geode weighs about one pound.  Opened geodes cost about twice as much.  My favorite geodes contain "dog tooth" crystals which are clear angular crystals with a sharp end that looks like a dog's canines.

I'm hauling about 150 pounds of the geodes home in November.  Drop by our house in Corvallis if you would like one of the small 2" ones as a gift.  We'll have you put on the safety glasses and see what surprise is waiting inside.

God Bless America

This is a lengthy quote from a book called "An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror" by David Frum and Richard Perle published in 2004 which is several years before the Arab Spring Uprisings:

"Take a vast area of the earth's surface, inhabited by people who remember a great history. Enrich them enough that they can afford satellite television and Internet connections, so that they can see what life is like across the Mediterranean or across the Atlantic. Then sentence them to live in choking, miserable, polluted cities ruled by corrupt, incompetent officials. Entangle them in regulations and controls so that nobody can ever make much of a living except by paying off some crooked official. Subordinate them to elites who have suddenly become incalculably wealthy from shady dealings involving petroleum resources that supposedly belong to all. Tax them for the benefit of governments that provide nothing in return except military establishments that lose every war they fight: not roads, not clinics, not clean water, not street lighting. Reduce their living standards year after year for two decades. Deny them any forum or institution--not a parliament, not even a city council--where they may freely discuss their grievances. Kill, jail, corrupt, or drive into exile every political figure, artist, or intellectual who could articulate a modern alternative to bureaucratic tyranny. Neglect, close, or simply fail to create an effective school system--so that the minds of the next generation are formed entirely by clerics whose own minds contain nothing but medieval theology and a smattering of third world nationalist self-pity. Combine all this, and what else would one expect to create but an enraged populace."

A day in the life of a Dial-a-Bus driver

As a volunteer Dial-A-Bus driver there are often heart tugging encounters.  My first rider today lives up the mountain on a road called Mary's River Estates.  It starts out two lane paved, then goes to one lane paved, and finally one lane gravel.  As soon as she got in the car she squeezed my hand and started crying. She had just been diagnosed with kidney failure at age 55. Her only living relative is a sister whom she hasn't been able to reach by phone for several weeks. She is currently recovering from a broken arm which was a result of a large dog knocking her down on a slippery deck.  Her career as a silicon valley "head hunter" ended a couple of years ago from a brain injury.  I really enjoy chatting with her.  She asked me to say a prayer for her which I did.  I then tried to assure her that there is a joyful after life although she hasn't been able to have many of the joys such as family life and a fulfillment of other dreams. I did have a moment of pleasure when we had to brake for a couple of deer.

My next client was a middle aged Greek philosopher who was going to the Beanary coffee hangout to discuss world events with friends. He also lived up in the hills on a very narrow dirt road. I had to do a series of 3 point turns to turn around on his driveway in order to get back out. Mr. Papadop* did a lot of back seat driving, which I didn't mind because we were taking some cool byways that shortened the trip by miles.

After that I picked up a Frenchman, Mr. L*reux who was going to dialysis. We almost got hit by a car turning left into Winco Foods on a red light. The driver of the car next to me honked angrily. These dialysis patients usually take reading material and a blanket to pass time during their 3 hour long visits three times a week. Mr. L*reux had been in Corvallis for 5 years and likes it a lot.

The next pickup was at the handicap ramp behind the OSU Memorial Union. As I pulled up an armored car nosed up behind me to deliver cash to the bookstore. Theresa was escorted out by an attendant pushing a wheel chair. Theresa works for custodial services although she is blind. She told me that OSU administration is putting additional work on the custodians (one janitor for 3 buildings) and that professors have to put their waste baskets outside their office door for once a week pickup. She has recently lost the use of one of her legs. Her destination was also dialysis. She told me her 9 year old daughter pays for her own cell phone by doing laundry for 3 neighbors at $2 per load.

My next rider was a recently widowed lady who lives up on Neabeck Hill outside Philomath. Her front lawn had piles of leaves which her church group was taking on as a services project. She had a prowler last night which she scared off by yelling. She has a dog but I think it slept through the whole thing. It does bark at me when I go to ring her doorbell to let her know I've arrived. She was mailing a package and then walking in the rain to Safeway and later BiMart. The Philomath police responded to her 911 call but didn't find anything. We discussed the merits of a shot gun.

I slipped home for 5 minutes to make sure I got to visit Esther who was visiting for a couple of hours before she catches her ride back to BYU. Gideon had legos all over the play room as usual. Erik and Jason C. were playing the first chess game ever played on the classy set Janeil gave me for Christmas. The rest of the Neil and Pam clan were playing Monopoly (the national parks version). It was good to see everyone.

The last pickup was at the Neville building. It was a sweet lady named Jean who had moved to Corvallis a couple of months ago. She had a little trouble finding a doctor because she is on Medicare and alot of medical practices won't take any new Medicare patients. She says she likes the female doctor she found because "she isn't always trying to find things wrong with me." She is still learning her way around town.

I then took the Ford back to the office. It is a former police cruiser with 165,000 miles on it. It will probably be retired as soon as Dial-A-Bus can afford to get a new fuel efficient car. That ended another fun day for me as volunteer.

A walk on a wintry day

It was so cold the cobwebs stayed frosty all day.

The beavers seems to have a building plan.

PEW Forum Interview

Last night a phone interviewer talked to me for over 30 minutes about religious and political issues. Some of the questions were almost like a temple recommend interview. Every time the interviewer asked for my response as a Mormon I would respond, "As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints..........".  She finally started using "LDS" in place of  "Mormon" which she was required to use when reading the question.

After the interview I looked up the results of the previous survey (2007). There were 35,000 people 18 years and older contacted. Of these about 600 said they were "Mormons," This category included Community of Christ and Fundamentalists. The survey also included non-Christians like Atheists, Hindus, Muslims, etc.  Can't wait for the 2011 update since I helped make it.   

The results of the 2007 Survey made me proud. We "Mormons" ranked near the top in adherence to important values and practices. The other groups that had similar responses in many of the questions were Jehovah Witnesses and Born Agains. Many of the questions were about the current political candidates and issues. It was interesting that a large percentage of Muslims and Hindus are immigrants. The Black Christians are a powerful Democratic voting block which does not support Romney.

I then linked over to a recent meeting where leading magazine and newspaper writers interviewed Professor Richard L. Bushman, Columbia University Historian,  about the reasons for prejudice towards Mitt Romney's presidential bid. Bushman's responses were powerfully enlightening from a historical perspective. There is no one else I know about who can defend the LDS faith among intellectuals like he can. I've been a big fan of his ever since I read his 2005 book, "Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling."   If interested go to http://pewforum.org/Politics-and-Elections/Mormonism-and-Politics-Are-They-Compatible.aspx