Huge tech upgrade

Tech support was here today and by golly, did we ever need her.

First she put together the annual nativity scene.

It is quite a bit more geology themed than in most recent years, lots of my favorite rocks made it into the scene.  Those pesky aliens are out and about again this year, R2D2 on the quartz from the Cuyuna, Einstein on the Rose Beach big round granite bit, and over there on the right, just in front of the BIG rose quartz are four of my really, really favorites sheltering evidence of the tech upgrade.

Lots of people will know that we keep the tree on a Clapper.  Who knew that those things have a shelf life?  Apparently they can wear out. The one we have been using since our original cross over to the Clapper side was starting to be a hassle.  It was at the point where you could hardly move around in the tree area without shutting down the lights.  Everyone loves the clap-clap to turn things back on of course but if you have to do it three or four times each minute it can get a bit tiresome.

Tech support was trying to rally the old one by moving from the two clap setting to the three clap setting.  I mean, why wouldn't that work?  She had gone so far as to crawl under the tree to reach the clapper at the plug in.  The tree is pretty close to the floor, it was a tough crawl of about five feet under an overhang less than 18 inches off the floor.  But she had reached the appliance and had moved the plug to the three clap setting.  She was under the tree clapping, we were standing around in front of the tree clapping but alas, the darn thing still didn't work.  I knew that we had some sort of fall back in the basement still in the tree box.  I knew that at some time or another in the past we had acquired a replacement Clapper.  We never needed it until now so it was still in the tree box.  I asked tech support not to move and went and fetched the upgrade from storage.

Indeed.

Not just Clapper.  Clapper Plus.

With Remote Control.

Artist's note:  Everyone please note the capitalization.

And here it is over in the rocks of the nativity scene, the Clapper Plus with Remote Control remote control.

There is a button for the two clap plug in and a button for the three clap plug in.  You don't even have to clap, you press the button and the tree turns off.

Well!!!!!  Who wouldn't see that as an upgrade?

Further there has been an upgrade to the basic technology that allows you to dial down the sensitivity if the Clapper is responding to room noise at too high a level.

Zowie, this new Clapper Plus is a huge tech upgrade.

And those are pretty much five super fave rocks of all of my rocks.

Top, Rose Quartz from the rock drainage area around the foundation of my sister's house where she had discarded it because, well, ask her.  I took one look and said, WHOA, way, WAY too nice a rock to be sitting around outside.  She said if you like it that much you can have it.

She didn't have to say THAT twice.

Counter-clockwise from there, a rose quartz, quartz and granite outcrop rock from near Carlton, the place where a major quartz outcrop occurs underneath the highway bridge.  This rock is not actually from under the bridge but I did pick it up within about two miles of that spot.  It is a visually striking rock which includes at least three different rock types, a pretty rare beast.

Below that, a chert (aka flint) and mostly white chalk mixture from the beach and representing the surrounding cliffs of Veulettes sur mer, France.  This is the middle of a sequence of rocks representing the changing geology along La Manche, the northern coast of France.  I note for reference purposes that la Côte d'Albâtre est située sur la Manche.

To the right, a very similar rock but from Dieppe, further to the east along the coast.  The background rock there has a much higher iron content and the stone while very similar in rock type is brown from the iron oxide.

And above the last of the grouping, much further along down the coast where the chalk has nearly disappeared and the basic bedrock stone is dominated by cherty granite with only veins of the chalk.

So you go from heavily iron content mixed with chalk, down the coast to the same sort of mixture but without the iron in the hard rock, finally to a place where the chalk while present is no longer the dominant part of the rock.

That last rock I picked up on Omaha Beach.

My favorites of favorite rocks with the Clapper Plus with Remote Control remote control on a day highlighted by a huge tech upgrade.