Treasure Hunting

RELICS: Today we took a field trip to Second Use, just south of the stadiums in the Sodo (South of Downtown) part of Seattle.

We were looking for flooring for the office of Rick's place. We found what we needed (at a great price!) but we also had fun perusing the store's eclectic selection of non-building material relics. For instance, they had a Sanborn Viso-Cardiette 1940s electrocardiograph. Housed in wooden box, it has dials and a window through which you view the cardiograph tape. Cool!!!

Nearby was a centrifuge, complete with original glass test tubes! Obviously, that's something you'd expect to find at a recycled building materials store!

A sign on it said it apparently used to be used to swirl bear blood. Neat-o!

We also ogled this century-plus old drill press. 

And I had fun giving the kids clues regarding what the machine pictured below is. ... 

They didn't guess it was a movie (projecting) camera. 

Speaking of cameras, I had lots of fun explaining this relic to the kids.

I LOVED it, as it conjured up fond memories of hours and hours I spent in the darkroom in decades gone by. I explained to the kids how once upon a time you had to take your film, develop it, take these things called negatives from that, and use an enlarger (like above) to project light through the negatives onto light sensitive paper for the exact right amount of time. Then, you'd take that special paper and put it into a chemical developer bath, followed by a wash and a fixer. A little different than the digital photos they knew exclusively in their lives. 

We did finally make our way to the building materials. As we walked down an aisle of doors doors doors, I laughed out loud when I saw this graffiti on one ...

I'll bet Grumpy Cat wouldn't agree with that sentiment. 

TIDE IS TURNING: We took some time out this morning to watch a 5-minute presser with Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway. Probably not something that would typically be in our curriculum, but he was announcing his decision not to defend Kentucky's ban on marriage equality in court. 

His words were oh-so-carefully chosen as he explained, "As attorney general of Kentucky, I must draw the line when it comes to discrimination." He said the issue is "larger than any single person," and his decision was about "placing people over politics." In conclusion, he said he hoped "we all find ways to work together to build a more perfect union."  Amen to that.  And in that same vein, the Dalai Lama announced his support of gay marriage today. The tide has turned, I'd say. 

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SUN: Learned today that my favorite Seattle weatherman of days gone by has moved on to permanently sunny skies, zero chance of rain. Harry Wapler was the weatherman during the Mariners' great runs in the late 1990s. Ironically, baseball was being played under a dome in those days, but still, he was part of the KIRO Seattle newscasts during that golden era, and I'll remember him fondly for that roever. Love this old clip of him and Seattle icon JP Patches.

MUSICAL: We're still working through our Beatles class, and this evening, I thought I'd introduce one of George Harrison's post-Beatles projects to the kids. The Traveling Willburys, featuring Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne and Harrison was remarkable. It's both fun and frustrating to think about how much more great music they would have produced had not Orbison died. Their first album was recorded over a 10-day period in May of 1988.