Home

Crystals

Details

Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Found

Published: 13 July 2023

Hits: 411

After coffee this morning (never enough coffee, after this I must find some more...) a trip down to the lake to wash up my crystal finds & see what I have...

A beautiful morning on Kootenay Lake.

Crystal plate on the top has promise, but it'll need a toothbrush.

Picking through them and choosing a few favorites before I offer them up for grabs; but the lens on my phone needed replacing, so a quick trip to the mall and my phone/camera is as good as new. 

So these:

I like the pattern left by the crystal that grew next to it, a little indented crystal...

The dirt will scrub off - this was a preliminary rinse. 

Now, a couple of my favorite favorites:

 I feel that I now have more than enough to upend current geological theories about crystal formation. 

"When two crystal love each other very much...."

 Well, probably safe to say I won't be touring any elementary school geology classes....

 

 

Indiana Jones & The Dial of Destiny

Details

Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Film

Published: 13 July 2023

Hits: 653

OK, I went into this with really low expectations. Really, really low. 

This was a movie seen more to escape the evening heat & humidity, and to postpone seeing "Asteroid City", which I am rather looking forward to.

Anyways, it conforms to every other film in the franchise - formulaic in the extreme, it gives the audience everything it wants. A smoking Nazi Villain (What's worse nowadays, smoking or being a Nazi?, Hell, let's give 'em both), an archeological treasure that has some hidden "magical" properties, a child with unrealized talents, a god-daughter with unrealized sentiment, bugs, snake-ish creatures, skeletons, etc, etc.

The opening scene, fantastic, a marvelously de-aged Harrison Ford, and in the stunt scenes I have to imagine a marvelously reconstructed Harrison Ford onto the stunt double.

This is impressive, this is the future. It's already here.

It recalls a few years ago when they introduced a de-aged Luke Skywalker into the Mandalorian - badly done, as it were, and computer-savvy fans were quick to redo a much better version of it - now, the CGI is indistinguishable. When Harrison Ford is long dead they'll be making Indiana Jones movies...

...back to the film. I left during the tuk-tuk chase scene in Tangiers, returned after some debating and a cigarette, the chase scene was still going on, I missed nothing. 

And so I stuck it through to the end. 

It was fine, the same schlock that I swallowed hook-line-and sinker when I was a kid, quite possibly better even, only - well, I've seen it all before, and while the quest is different the template, the characters, the film was the same. 

I need something a little more challenging - even for my "dumb-ass-movie" time. 

That said, a lot of the audience were guffawing at the jokes, and making all the right noises at the right times, it hit it's mark with it's target audience - I don't think many were disappointed. Predictable, yes, but that's what they all wanted. Predictable familiarity.

So, in the end, all in all, if you weren't familiar with Indiana Jones this probably wouldn't disappoint. The fault, I suspect, is less with the film than myself. 

Crystal Mtn Last Trip

Details

Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 13 July 2023

Hits: 460

 Monday after work which didn't start, slow, JR felt he could handle it on his own, rainy outside, rain, in July, how often does that happen? Not very.

And I was chomping at the bit, had my granola, water, was ready to get up Crystal Mtn and clean it out. About time. 

A long drive with nothing to talk about, beautiful, piss pouring rain, 2 hours to the logging road that turns up and up and I'm off, the first 6 KM, rocky, bad, but I can manage. This was the site of my last breakdown. This is the cause of some slight anxiety, as this place, this mountain, it's been the graveyard of a few of my automobiles, and the three cylinders of fury, gallon of oil, well, I'm not cancelling any adventures because of it...

The next 6 KM up, they're nail biting. The road, always bad, is plenty the worse for the lack of wear, from this point onward I'm unrecoverable, car breaks, nobody is coming up this last stretch to get me, peel your VIN, grab your shit and get the hell out of dodge...

And herein lies the rub, that this car, it's full, packed full of rubbish, more than I can carry in 2, 3, 4 trips even, and so a breakdown - well, it's inconceivable. Intolerable. 

Up and up, the switchbacked cobbled roads climbing at 45 degrees and then pitching cliffwards another 45 degrees, less a road than a boulder-jammed rut with 6 inches of navigational wiggling, every year the road slips a little more in line with the slope of the mountain, away from the level, and already I'm thinking this was a very, very bad idea.

The roads up to 6KM are bad, past 6KM, well, ....

I arrive, breathe a sigh of relief, my fingertips are numb from clenching the wheel. I pour a goodly libation to the gods that got me here and if so inclined will see me safely down.

And begin work. The day is grey, rainy, overcast, you can barely see the mountaintops across...

The work, well, first the surface collecting, picking up the easy finds off the top of the dirt. Small, nothing too worthwhile.

By this time it's dark. The rest will wait for morning.

The next day, rainy, grey again, I'm filthy in a matter of hours. Dig down to bedrock, search for new pockets. Nada. I do a good job of baring a few meters, but - nothing. And so I go through the dirt I've dug, go back to a few vugs, clean them out again. 

And for all this there's precious little return. A couple of one hour breaks to prospect other possibilities, above, below, but it seems this is the spot, the only spot, really, where the crystals got a chance to form.

Back to the digging.

***

I get, in the end, maybe 10lbs of crystals, most small, a few as big as my thumb, a couple of beauties. But this I would have gathered in a few hours a few years ago, and so - and so - this area is tapped out, no need to return unless I can somehow come up with some dynamite or explosives. 

Which I may.

The mosquitos now are insane, and I've no Vodka left for another farewell salute, but it's time now to head down the mountain, now, the smell of brakes as I ride them the entire trip, and safely to the road aim the car southward, I need a shower, covered in filth from the pit, sweat, deep-woods-off, but I've done it, done for the season, done and I have my treasure and now to find a shower, find some food, find a town...