As the daughter of a geologist, every now and then I would like to give y'all a lesson on rocks and minerals.
Today we'll learn about Cummingtonite.
Cummingtonite was named after the town of Cummington, Massachusetts, where it was discovered in 1824. It is a metamorphic amphibole with the chemical composition ₂ ₅Si ₈O ₂₂ ₂, magnesium iron silicate hydroxide. Monoclinic cummingtonite is compositionally similar and polymorphic with orthorhombic anthophyllite, which is a much more common form of magnesium-rich amphibole, the latter being metastable.
Or to use it in a sentence: If something was as hard as a rock, it might be Cummingtonite.
I used to read about geology when I was young. Brought some lava rock back with me to the mainland when I lived in Hawaii. Yeah, there's something about rocks.
One of my most poignant memories of my closest brother's passing is Indian arrowheads, which are essentially, rocks. He had a passion for them, used to spend hours wandering the hills behind his home with his dog looking for them. I happened to pick up a unique looking one, I think at a yard sale one day, and had placed it on a shelf. It was there for years. One day, he came over and spotted that arrowhead. I said, "Yeah, you can have it." I'll never forget how joyfully he clutched that thing. Days after his passing, I was unconsciously drawn to that shelf and noticed a slight outline of dust highlighting where the arrowhead had been. At first I thought, "Where did that disappear to?" Then it registered. The arrowhead is gone and my brother is gone. It was a somber moment.
Thanks for that and yeah, that simple little object made him so happy. That's why it's deeply impressed in my memory. I consider his death the hardest in my family for me to have dealt with. It was during the holidays, he was only 39 and he died on his daughter's 6th birthday. There's another image I'll never get out of my mind, that of his widow and little girl, standing in the foyer of that church after the service, holding hands, staring at me and just bawling their eyes out.
Don't mean to come across as a downer here but your topic triggered the memory of that arrowhead and it's been cathartic for me to express this, so thank you.
It's only the second time I've shared it and I guess with the approaching holidays, it just needed to come out. Sometimes you just never know the impact your words can have on someone. After all, we're talking about rocks here, for Pete's sake. 🙂
So, I’m sat in the hotel bar having a couple of scoops before bed (clocks go back an hour tonight, so I either have an extra hours kip or an extra hour of drinking - guess which one I decided on). Anyway, this reinforces my belief that life is too short to be wasting time on silly arguments.
It's 6:15 PM here and I just poured my first "scoop."😁🍻 Now I need to know, what is "kip"? C'mon Andy, hit me with the British slang. Thanks for the condolence, it's cool. Btw, my brother liked his beer also.
Yeah, I discovered your thread after asking you that.
I'm sure my brother is appreciating your toast from above. He was a really mischievous guy. To give you an idea, once when we were boys, I prepared to go to bed one night, pulled back the blankets and my bed was covered in June bugs. The next thing I became aware of was this snickering behind me. He was hiding behind the bedroom door, just waiting to see my reaction. 😄