Beginnings, Middles and Ends!!!

And yes  there is a point to the title!

Lisa is leaving at 3:30 AM tomorrow morning for a conference in Florida. I'm not going... I been there, there aren't a whole lot of cool rocks there, and her air fair is paid for, mine isn't...

The product of this conference is a book chapter. So, congratulations to Lisa on a book chapter publication!

Meanwhile back up here in the North West, I'm working on both fiction and non fiction projects that are going to benefit from four days of total or near total control of my schedule!

So there is a beginning a couple of middles and an end...

Another key middle. I solved a rock polishing mystery. The finish quality of some of the stones I was polishing took a nose dive recently, and I was having trouble figuring out why. Even a return to the good 600 silicon carbide didn't help :(    . It turns out that the problem was I had way too many pieces of slabs in some of the recent mix (an artifact of the stuff that didn't go into the reunion mix (most of that mix will work better as there are fewer slabs)). The problem was in the middle (literally!). The problem is if you have too many flat slabs they stack up on each other and mess with the polishing action. This was undetected in the coarse and medium because the flat sides were already smoothed to that level. But it was a problem in the fine and polish. Solution, less slabs more funny shapes (which isn't a real problem, I have another use for slabs...). I mention this one because its a problem that I really haven't found talked about anywhere, so I felt it might be worth passing on the information.

And now one big middle and two ends!

I finished my chain mail belt on Saturday!

 

It's big enough for me to wear (see I told you it was a big middle!!!) and on the heavy side. It is European six in one chain (six in ends up using twice as many rings and weighs twice as much as normal four in one). There are roughly 2200 5/16 inch steel rings in there plus a few smaller ones and a buckle. I've already found my first modification for next time... I'm adding a couple bronze rings near the non buckle end to help find where the holes for the buckle are. So, fashion accessory, marketing tool, gym equipment, all in one!

Once I thought a snake skin belt would be cool, but the chain mail has a similar pattern and is much easier to care for (it is stainless steel). It also has the virtue of never being to big or to small. When I loose weight I make it shorter, if I gain (trying not to!) I add some (which makes it heavier and helps me loose weight!)

This one is just three little items, but I have to be up in the morning to help Lisa get to that plane...

Good luck, 

take care, 

and if she isn't carried off by a mosquito... 

Lisa will be back next week.

Update: <Tuesday morning>  Lisa is safely on her way. I have discovered that we have a 24 hour McDonalds in town (don't know how that figures into future adventures but...) and since I don't recall a joke in this post... if I put that new belt around my 'spare tire' does that make it a steel belted radial?