Yesterday was Husband and my 25th anniversary, and to celebrate...
We went gold panning. Oddball, but Husband knew it was something I'd wanted to try for some time.
See my little green gold pan? It looks TINY compared to a standard one! But it worked fine. And the little blue thing is a foldable stool that I sat on. Crouching doesn't work when you have one knee... The big container is Husband's stool, which doubled as a tub for carrying all the assorted tools.
After a hike down the hill, where I once again found out I am out of shape. (Unless you count round...) We arrived at a little bend in the river, which is open to panning. Set up our respective seats, and Husband pulled out a shovel for digging up... A big blob of rocky mud.
Huh.
Then he put it through a large strainer looking pan, and got it down to... less rocky mud. He then showed me how to 'float' the stuff I didn't want out, (I did 'cheat' and remove larger rocks with my fingers), until it did actually end up black sand, which is an indicator of potential gold.
Note: I said potential... We panned for about 2 or 3 hours, but had no gold. I wasn't disappointed, though, as I learned now what to do, and what to look for. I also was out in the woods with Husband, we were chatting, and he showed me a few good fishing grubs in the water, I pointed out some tiny fry swimming around. (I also made a terrible joke, that if we were in France, they would be French Fries... Yes, he groaned, but he knows that sort of nonsense is de rigueur for me...)
We had a good time, and it was not too warm. Well, okay, it was warmer than I would like, but I found if I had my feet in the water, I was quite comfortable... Even though I was wearing a felt hat, and long sleeves, to keep from burning.
I still wonder if I am part vampire sometimes, except that I don't like the taste of blood. Hmm. That would create a problem, yes?
Anywho, this is the spot where we panned, between the front big rock and the shrub.
We then went home and changed shoes, as we both had soaked feet. Then we had dinner and a movie, (well, pizza and a DVD, but hey, it's what we wanted), and just had a very nice, relaxed day.
And you've probably noticed that I haven't been blogging again? A little of it is just that I have been on the go. However we have also made some changes...
I have officially, really, made a BIG technology jump. Husband decided after our continuing problems with Green Asterisk internet, that we are going to have Smart Phones.
(whimper...)
And, so we went to the first place to get it. The darling sales clerk was so charming... "Oh, here's what you want, and we'll give you 12 GB of data, and-and-and-and..."
"Um, no, you see, we only really want call and maybe text, and RARELY we might use the computer portion, easy on the apps..."
After an expression that could have curdled milk into cheese in a nano second, "Excuse me, I have another customer here." This went on for about 10 minutes or so, until we
We then went to the main office of the company Husband wanted to use, (the other was a satellite of the same company), and it could not have been more different. The gent that helped us listened to what I used the computer and phone for, and Husband, to the tune of more than an hour or so of explanation on our end. He suggested a much more reasonable phone/GB combo that was much more to our liking... And gee, it wasn't the top end of everything, surprise surprise... Thank you, Robert person at Verizon!
Ahem, you remember the scene where the monolith lands in Space Odyssey? I think I am the third monkey on the right...
I have been on a learning curve with the new rig, some things haven't been too bad (texting makes sense, and is an advantage to send a quick note to someone, a lot like an email or post-it note), but some things are terrible. I have been fighting apps. I have fat thumbed an app on my computer, (Kindle). This is fine, ON MY TABLET. However, I don't want it on my phone.
But not only was it on my phone, the website said, Oh, why don't we put the smart phone as the default setting? She won't mind... I told the phone, don't do that, stop. Turns out "stop" only means, "stop this session", and will start up again the next session. Which made my budget for GB go up much faster than I wanted. Snarl. So, with a little help from Husband, we "disabled" that app, and I "disabled" the phone on the website, too. Now, if I have worked it out correctly, unless I start it again, it is now somewhat invisible to the website, unless I turn it on again.
Otherwise, I will have to see Robert person, and beg for mercy...
