January 15th

Colors of Garnet (Click picture for larger view)

By her who in this month is born,
No gems save Garnets should be worn;
They will insure her constancy,
True friendship and fidelity.
~ Unattributed Author, January,
in "Notes and Queries", May 11, 1889

Garnets are found in every color of the spectrum except blue. In this ring the deep reddish-brown color of the traditional garnet is surrounded by yellow "Hessonite" garnets and intense green "Tsavorite" garnets. I have more garnet than any other stone, after all, it is my birthstone.

I should have known there would be no way to just let the birthday slip silently by and have it be "just another day". I share my day with Martin Luther King and now my birthday is a national holiday. I was born exactly one month before my father's 25th birthday and really had it made on that side of the family as it was five years before the next grandchild came along. My brother is nine years and nine days younger than me. He is however a full 12 inches taller than I am. (I got the short Gould gene, sorry Nyssa)

Birthdays become harder to celebrate and easier to forget as time goes by. My folks would never forget, even if I asked them to. On my 50th or as I like to say, the 20th anniversary of my 30th birthday, a florist showed up at my lab. They (it took two of them) carried a huge clear vase filled with 50 long stemmed red roses. That's four dozen plus two!!! The roses were mixed with fern and baby's breath and the arrangement had to be over three feet tall and three feet wide. It had to stay there in my office; it was not only too big to fit in the front seat of my van but it was too heavy. It was extravagant and beautiful. I'd never seen that many roses before except at a funeral or the "Rose Parade".

Hopefully, this birthday will be quiet. We will do church and then dinner here at home. It has already been different, even though we are only two hours in as yet. Early Saturday morning (4AM) we had severe thunderstorms, and tornado warnings in the area with a temperature at that time of 65 degrees. Throughout the day it has been raining on and off and the winds continued to pick up speed as the temperatures fell. The prediction was for a few snow flurries and no accumulation. We watched the news and saw a few flurries outside at 11:30pm. At 12:45 AM Nyssa ran into my room and asked "Have you seen outside?" We went out on the front porch(at least she had the good sense to put on shoes) and it is snowing; blowing snow, high winds, and about a half an inch on the ground and cars. The temperature was still falling and is now down to 32 degrees by my computer. Within the span of one 24 hour period we have had "shorts & t-shirt weather, tornadoes with lightning and thunder, and now wind and blowing snow. Hopefully it will still be on the ground when first light comes. The wind is howling through the trees and as I look down the street I can see a large flagpole swaying wildly with the flags whipping in the 40 mph gusts.

This is a good night to be snuggled in bed and that is where I should head right now.

(end of post)