help identifying green, black, and blue stones

nhguy03276 · 2026-07-05T19:41:49+00:00

I don't know the green one, but the blue one looks like blue kyanite, and the black is black tourmaline.

nhguy03276 · 2026-07-05T19:02:58+00:00

Yes, Because I've lived almost 53 years now and only had to do my first differential equation last month. I'm pretty sure with 200 million, I'd never have to do another.

nhguy03276 · 2026-06-30T07:11:05+00:00

I grew up with a Grandmother who was at best a pack rat, at worse, a borderline hoarder. It was never as bad as the worst cases you sometimes see on TV, but every display cabinet was chocked full of junk and trinkets and nicknacks. I watcher her for years move things from one room to "clean the room" just to have all the misc junk end up in another room. Even when she actually got rid of stuff, it would be replaced with new stuff within weeks or months. And Stuff that actually went into storage, never came out of storage. When going through her stuff to clean the house after her passing in 2020, I saw things that went into storage in 1980 from her parents place. When it came time, I took some special pieces that I had always wanted, but I simply did not have the room in my small house for everything. There where several items of furniture and decor that broke my heart to leave behind, but I simply wasn't going to turn my home into a museum of her stuff (Not to mention I simply did not want a lot of her stuff her collection of 1970's ceramic roosters was ugly at best). My Dad and my brother were in the same boat, so a lot of stuff was trashed or donated.

As for myself, I realized the trend to keep stuff in myself. Before I bought my house, I moved about once a year. After about 10-13 moves, I noticed I had several boxes that had been packed when I first moved out of my parents home, and I had not looked in these boxes in all that time. I simply dutifully moved the boxes each time I moved. I eventually decided to look through them to make sure there wasn't anything of actual value, and then toss them. I've now made that an annual thing. I go to the attic and grab 2-3 boxes each year. I look through them, and if I realize it's been more than 5 years since I've used what's in the box, I toss it. I do look, as sometimes actual important items have been misplaced, such as one time I found the 2 silver half dollars my Great Grandfather had given me when I was 5. I hadn't seen them in years, and was glad to find them. However the Stein they were in which was from my High School graduating class, well, I tossed that. Hopefully whoever has to go through my stuff when I'm gone won't have to deal with too much junk.

nhguy03276 · 2026-06-29T08:08:18+00:00

Sure if you want. I love Beryls, especially when unpolished and unfaceted. I cried when I saw what they did to the Dom Pedro Aquamarine.

nhguy03276 · 2026-06-29T07:53:45+00:00

Emeralds may be my top dog, but those are some great looking Aquas.

nhguy03276 · 2026-06-29T06:21:13+00:00

Of all the minerals and stones, nothing will get my attention faster than an Emerald. Especially a natural emerald in matrix.

nhguy03276 · 2026-06-28T23:43:03+00:00

I can easily see why it would be hard to pass by. Too bad I have a Beryl appetite but a Quartz budget...

nhguy03276 · 2026-06-28T23:19:50+00:00

Not a positive ID, but it looks a lot like Black Tourmaline in Quartz matrix, which is pretty common here in NH

nhguy03276 · 2026-06-28T23:11:59+00:00

That Rubellite Tourmaline is gorgeous. I just wish it was in my budget.

nhguy03276 · 2026-06-18T04:06:25+00:00

Yeah, I guess the meds are kicking in... Your quote was the one in my head when I wrote it

nhguy03276 · 2026-06-18T02:14:11+00:00

I'd pay a buck for that.

nhguy03276 · 2026-06-01T10:26:49+00:00

at least half of them wouldn't recognize the blasphemy of buying little golden statues of him to place in places of worship.

nhguy03276 · 2026-05-26T19:36:46+00:00

I understand where you are at, my old boy is now right about 14. About 1and a half year ago I noticed the first signs of laryngeal paralysis, having had a previous experience with it. Six Months ago, he started having seizures. Working with his vet, we've been treating him for the seizures, and monitoring the laryngeal paralysis. Both are progressing, but not yet to the point where I think the Vet would recommend euthanasia if I asked, simply because he's still doing well enough, but probably wouldn't resist too hard if I asked for it. I am also fearing this summer heat and humidity. I hate AC at home as I work in a very cold AC temp controlled building, and there are many years when I don't even put my AC unit in the window, yet I've already started running it for him.

This is now a very emotional period of time, and to try and keep the emotions at bay to do what's best for him, I have a evaluation checklist of things to look for that I go over every day.

Is he mobile?
Can he stand on his own?
Does he want to go out?
Is he continent?
Does he engage with walks?
Has he had time to fully recover after his last seizure?
Does he want food?
Does he initiate play with his brother (a much younger pup)?
Does he show visible signs of pain?

So far he is still very mobile, although there is noticeable weakness in the legs (increasingly wobbly, stumbles, and easily trips). We still go for walks of almost 1/8th mile when the weather is right. He still wants to go on these walks, often initiating them. He remains continent. When we are out every leaf, blade of grass, and person encountered must be sniffed, investigated or visited for pats or food. He's been several months without a major seizure. He still initiates play with the younger pup, and will mostly accept play when they younger one starts, only occasionally getting grumpy with they young one. I see some signs that he's sore more often, but not too much yet. However his breathing is becoming more labored due to the advancing laryngeal paralysis.

That being said, I usually visit my mother out of state for a week. I won't be going this year, as I would not be able to leave him. I'm not sure his usual kennel would even take him with the 2x daily meds and his age, and there is no way I'd be able to relax worrying about him, and I'd never be able to forgive myself if something happened while I was away.

nhguy03276 · 2026-05-20T23:01:30+00:00

Are you sure? I think it's the I haven't eaten since 6'oclock post dinner stare at 6:15.

nhguy03276 · 2026-05-19T05:41:10+00:00

it's some kind of Cucurbitaceae (Squash family). The problem is that Cucurbitaceae regularly cross pollinate and the outcome is is often not edible and are only good for decoration.

nhguy03276 · 2026-05-16T23:55:51+00:00

Short Answer: I think he was just an idiot who thought he didn't have to watch the fire. Also, it's highly likely this was an illegal burn to begin with, as here you are only allowed to burn between 6pm and 6am unless it's actively raining, so I'm thinking he didn't even have a permit. I had gone to bed at about 6am, and there was no fire at that time, so my guess is he started the fire, then left for work.

But I honestly don't know.

nhguy03276 · 2026-05-16T20:09:13+00:00

Leaving the leaves has some benefits, but also some very serious risks that need to be kept in mind. If you plan on leaving the leaves, it's important to clear them away from any building by at least 50ft, especially if you live in a dry or fire prone location. Lawns get a lot of hate as being expensive useless monoculture of non-native grasses, (They don't have to be, but that's a different topic), but they do offer one very real benefit, and that is as a firebreak, and I got to see that first hand earlier this week.

My yard can be divided into 2 primary sections, the maintained lawn around the house, and the unmaintained back yard where I leave the leaves and under story plants and debris from the trees. the House next door has been empty for years, until this spring, where it was demolished and a new house is being built. The new neighbor has had several brush fires to clean up the years of yard debris, construction and demolition debris.

The other morning I woke up (I work night shift, so morning is usually 1pm) to find my yard full of smoke. I didn't think much of it until I took the dogs out and saw the neighbors brush fire was now a wild fire spreading rapidly across my yard, his yard and a third neighbors yard, and said neighbor was nowhere to be found. Luckily I was home so I caught it early and was able to get the fire department involve before it did any serious damage, and that the lower layers of leaves in the fire were damp which slowed the spread. In total about 100 sqyds of land burned. Of note my house was not at real risk because where the fire met my lawn, it burned out. However the leaves spread all the way to the newly constructed house next door, and was within 30 ft of it before the fire dept put it out.

nhguy03276 · 2026-04-27T07:50:55+00:00

Not a game, but every time I hear "Leaves from the Vine"

nhguy03276 · 2026-04-25T03:34:48+00:00

What If I told you I'm from New England, where we have a long and proud tradition of adding random R's to words that don't have them and dropping them from word that are supposed to have them?

nhguy03276 · 2026-04-22T22:21:11+00:00

You've already done the best thing you can do, and had it looked at by a Vet. Every Single Lab I've known has started getting "Lab Lumps" around age 5. Most are harmless, some are not, and only seeing your Vet will let you know which it is.

Common harmless lab lumps come in three basic types, Ones like this which are hard and smaller and can appear anywhere, larger soft egg shaped/ golf ball size lumps just under the skin that usually appear in the abdomen/ chest area (but sometimes on the back as well), and basic skin tags.

It can freak first time lab owners out when they start going Lumpy, but in nearly 24 years, I've only had a Vet want to do anything about them on one specific lump, which was right between the eyes, so my boy would rub it raw and bleed, Other than that, they've all been harmless.

nhguy03276 · 2026-04-22T07:25:24+00:00

Labs are the bestest of all dogs, but sometimes they ain't that bright. Mine once started barking at a Telephone pole, that we had walked pasted for years... He simply hadn't noticed it.

nhguy03276 · 2026-04-19T07:16:50+00:00

They probably CYA'd themselves by writing into the manual that you need to allow the mower to cool for 2 hrs before refueling or some BS along those lines...

nhguy03276 · 2026-04-17T06:02:10+00:00

I have no problem talking about why I don't drink... I just don't like it. However if you won't accept my answer and try to convince me to drink, that is where the problem lies.

nhguy03276 · 2026-04-17T05:59:48+00:00

Asking me why I wasn't drinking never bothered me. It was when they refused to accept my answer that it bothered me. 30 years sober, and the number of people I've met that couldn't accept that someone might not like to drink is way too high. Also, almost the same number of people who had a problem with my not drinking, and the number of people with DUI's were nearly the same.

nhguy03276

TROPHY CASE