Rocks in My Head

We moved to Attica, New York in the summer of 1953.  I had just turned seven and our parsonage was located on the edge of this tiny town, in a Leave it to Beaver neighborhood.  The Tonawanda Creek meandered at the bottom of a huge clay cliff behind our house and the mixture of neighbors was right out of a sitcom:  the rich folks at the end of the street with an extensive orchard of lilac trees, the reclusive former teacher with the stark "modern" house that did not even face the street, the kids, the teenagers, the dogs, the cats, and the mysterious elderly couple next door.  I do not remember their name but I will never forget their home and the priceless gift they gave to me.

This couple had a lovely garden, festooned with beautiful rocks, gazing balls and vessels.  They traveled frequently so I rarely saw them, but I used to sneak peeks at their magical side garden.  One day they invited me inside and gave me a tour. I remember being in awe of the museum-like interior.  They collected vases from all over the world (from dollhouse scale to taller than I was!) and they collected rocks and minerals.  My eyes must have been like saucers.  Then they presented me with this precious gift that still inspires me to this day.  They gave me a massive chunk of white quartz with shiny black crystals here and there.  It was so huge I could barely hold it in my two little hands.  Oddly enough, though, this rock seems to have shrunk over the years because now it fits easily in one hand.

My first rock - 1953

This rock has moved with me almost a dozen times and my love for it sparked a love for rocks and minerals of all kinds ever since.  I believe it also helped to inspire my dad to collect rocks, and lug them back for me from many trips.  Since his death I have inherited his favorites (also survivors of many moves).

Last week I joined a rock group (I have always wanted to say that!) - actually a Facebook group of rock hounds and collectors.  This has prompted me to photograph some of my small but much-loved collection and dig up some memories.  As time goes by I have become increasingly tired of dusting and re-dusting my collections and I have been trying to protect everything in display cases, or in the case of small rocks and crystals - I have been framing them.  Hey, I am a framer and a collector - it is a perfect matching of my interests.

Geologea was my first attempt at framing part of my collection.  In my hoard of materials was a wooden box, fashioned with a rounded spine to resemble a large book.  I cut down an worn old gold-leafed frame to fit inside this book, fitted it with glass and suede walls, and placed my little loves inside.  I can add new ones and rearrange them any time.

Geologea, 2004

The smooth pale green speckled stone has delighted me since my grandma and I both spotted it at the same time on the shore at Lowbanks, Ontario and I snatched it up first.    I have always loved it because it reminds me of the color and pattern of the fabric in one of her dresses.  My best friend in junior high school gave me some of these crystals.  The slab of lace agate was a gift from a high school friend (her dad was just getting into rock cutting).  Some I purchased from a rock hound friend when he was broke  and in need of money.  Some of the fossils I found in the creek bed.  I love them all!

Specimen card, circa 1955

I framed the specimen card  after I realized that the thin cardstock that I had been holding and oogling for so many decades was finally starting to disintegrate.  I used to recite the names like a mantra:  Rose Quartz, Pyrites, Chalcedony.  Magical, mysterious, beautiful and ancient.  

Rock collecting has snuck into my dollhouse scale roomboxes.  Madam Tabitha is a rock collector and she displays them on the shelf in her parlor.  She has recently added a few new specimens.  She loves to rearrange her large bowl of rocks, crystals and shells, and she is also very proud of her malachite pyramid.

Madam Tabitha's Parlor

Madam Tabitha's shelf

Madam Tabitha's collection

Alas, my legs no longer allow me to clamber around in slippery shale creek beds, or wander for miles down rocky beaches, struggling back with pockets laden with great finds.  But rocks still seem to find me. Terrapin Station in Buffalo is a sweet source to buy small specimens and I have found a few pretties at Lily Dale.  A few years back a friend gave me a generous gift certificate good for anything in the Galleria Mall.  Now, I hate malls and avoid them at all costs - but hey, a gift certificate is a gift certificate.  I searched through many stores: clothing - ack,  jewelry - ack.  Then I found The Nature Store.  It was like a museum with price tags.  I was in Heaven!  Of course my friend looked at me like I had lost my tiny mind when I told him I had bought a rock with his gift certificate.  (I think he was hoping I'd buy lingerie.)

Current and perennial favorites

In the photo above the striped specimen in the top left was one of my dad's favorites.  He found it in the Southwest.  The round black half sphere has always been a mystery since my late partner Kim saw it at Terrapin Station and said, "Wow - Mar would love that!" and Barry gave it to her to give to me.  I have already told the story of the white quartz, and the petrified wood in the center has been with me almost as long.  The sphere is a recent find at Terrapin Station.  The starburst crystal is part of my inheritance from my dear friend Barbara, and the ammonite never ceases to transport me to another time and place.  Even if I had a room full of ammonites, this would be the most loved.

I guess I will always have rocks in my head.  I still have dreams of finding piles and mounds of pretties or stores full of them.  But until money falls from the sky I will be happy to play with the pretties in my collection that have been in my life for decades.  Rose Quartz, Pyrites, Chalcedony - nice mantra, eh?

Transient Global Amnesia

Tuesday began as a normal winter day.  There had been a heavy snowfall on top of the two feet of snow already on the ground.  I was not sure if I could make it out my driveway but I gave it the old college try and got stuck halfway down.  I did try digging out, and placing cardboard under the tires for traction, but I eventually gave up, went into my house, called my regular plow guy and posted the following on my shop's Facebook page.

11:10am  Alrighty then. The plow never came so I tried to make it out and now my car is stuck half way down my driveway. So I may or may not make it in to the shop today - but don't worry, I always leave Mama Lucy with a week's worth of food!

11:48am  Snow plow guy just tried to plow/push me out - he barely got out with his truck intact. So I needs to find someone with a backhoe or a dozer. Crap. 

11:59am (Posted on my personal status) Plow guy came and almost got stuck himself - he suggested a backhoe guy - and miraculously he answered his phone (I have been trying to get in touch with him since last fall about my danged driveway) - so he'll be by after lunch. Bye bye $$$$$ *sigh*

12:05pm  Found guy with backhoe. He'll be by after lunch (how lovely - he gets lunch!). *grump*

1:18pm   Still waiting...

I kinda  remember writing those posts but the next 7 or 8 hours are missing.  Gone.  Vanished.  Around 8pm I wandered out to the garage and found my car inside.  My driveway and parking area were fully plowed and ringed with mountains of snow.

I looked on Facebook and read my shop posts.  I went through my purse and found $250 cash and a receipt for $400 from the bank machine.  It was timestamped 14:14 (which means 2:14pm).  I had zero recollection of going to the bank. I presume the missing $150 went to pay one or both plow guys - but I have no memory of either one of them.  I know that there were two different plow guys because my neighbor told me he saw both of them.  He also told me I called him and talked about roadside assistance.  

4:41pm - Donnie messaged me to ask if I was alright.

8:53pm - I noticed his message and responded "Is it really Tuesday?"  Seems I was under the impression that it was Monday.  My first clue was NCIS was on TV instead of Murdoch Mysteries.  Then I remembered I had watched Murdoch.  Last night.

10:30pm - I posted this to my cat group (language cleaned up for blog): 

 
OK - this is going to sound really weird - so here goes.
I have my shop open Tuesday through Saturday. I worked on Saturday. But, after getting stuck in my garage and unable to make it out the 500 foot driveway due to huge snowfall, I am at the mercy of the plow guy.
Somehow or other, I made it down the driveway on Saturday after work, then it snowed all day Sunday and I was hoping to have the plow guy do his thing on Monday. He did not make it until today. Late - so I missed not only being at my shop today but a whole day somewhere. And, somehow or other, I managed to make it to the bank machine a half mile away to take $400 out of my Visa account. I now have $250 left. WTF? I am a day behind! I don't drink or smoke. What the hell - how did I lose a whole day? This is freaking me out big time.  (I admit in re-reading this it is a tad garbled.)

My cyber kitty friends from around the world leapt to my aid - asking cogent questions and making rational suggestions.  One person came up with Transient Global Amnesia, (description from Mayo Clinic website):

"Transient global amnesia is a sudden, temporary episode of memory loss that can't be attributed to a more common neurological condition, such as epilepsy or stroke.

During an episode of transient global amnesia, your recall of recent events simply vanishes, so you can't remember where you are or how you got there. In addition, you may not remember anything about what's happening in the here and now. 

Fortunately, transient global amnesia is rare, seemingly harmless and unlikely to happen again. Episodes are usually short-lived, and afterward your memory is fine."

I made it into the shop around noon on Wednesday. An interesting aside is that I noticed that my car headlights had been switched off, which means I had not put it into the garage.  Only men (mechanics and the like) completely switch off headlights that turn themselves off. I also found small scrapes of red paint on my front bumper (from the plow trying to free my car). 

Mama Lucy was delighted to see me and meowed, "Where have you been?"  My kitty group had managed to convince me that my situation was potentially quite serious so on Wednesday afternoon I gave in and called my doctor's office and made an appointment for Thursday afternoon.  A few minutes later they phoned back and told me to get to the ER.  I decided to stop after work (am slammed with Valentine's jobs!)  By the time I arrived at the Fort Erie hospital's Urgent Care facility it was 7pm.  They put me through triage, signed me in, gave me a bed and hooked me up to the ECG machine.  They also took blood samples and urine.  Then I sat and waited and waited and waited for three hours.  It was after 10pm that the ambulance returned to transport me to Welland hospital (next town over) for a CAT scan. 

Gave ambulance attendant complete history and story of events as I understood them (that was about the fourth time I had to do that).  And, of course - nobody responds or tells me anything. Upon arriving in Welland I was tucked in with warm cozy blankets and waited some more.  Busy night for CAT scans!  Finally it was my turn for this test which took less time altogether than the trip up and down the labyrinthine halls.  Then wait some more until finally the adorable young doctor came by, introduced himself and told me the scan looked normal as were the labs.  They still want a neurologist to speak with me but they said that office would call and make an appointment at the Niagara Falls hospital.  He did, however, allow that transient global amnesia sounded like a reasonable diagnosis.

Aside from not eating much all day (one energy bar and two rice cakes) I was still not very hungry but boy, was I tired by the time the taxi (health system paid for it!) brought me back to my hospital where my car was parked.  It was 2:30am by the time I made it into my house to confront a clowder of hangry kitties.  I fed  them, updated Facebook and curled into bed.

Woke up this morning feeling totally normal.  Got a lot accomplished at the shop between all the phone calls responding to my Facebook status: This is apparently what happened to me on Tuesday between posting about getting stuck in my driveway and waking up on Facebook later that evening. Just got checked out from stem to stern and doc says everything looks fine - NOT a stroke.  I included the Mayo Clinic link about transient global amnesia.

Talk about a long strange trip (or a short strange trip?).  I spent all day Wednesday playing detective to track down what I had done all afternoon Tuesday.  Without Facebook I would have been totally in the dark - with only a bank receipt and some unremembered cash (and believe me when I say that poor people are always ultra-aware of their financial situation!).

I am still waiting to hear from the neurologist's office, but at least I am confident that this was a one off event and I can safely go to sleep without waking up dead.  I have also been startled into doing some thinking about stuff like what would happen to my cats and how would anyone know what had happened to me?  I believe I need a digital executor as well as a set of house keys for my best friend.

Signing off with enormous gratitude.

Two wristbands, and a  whole lot of sticky patches.  Yikes!