Round360

@round360.bsky.social

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Almost all the photos I post are of things I own. They were taken with a Minolta ProShot MN67Z camera that I also own.

Top view of a small, mostly yellow plastic plunger (also known as a plumber's helper or a drain declogger). About 4.5 inches in diameter and 7 inches high. The black plastic (rubber?) ring provides a good seal. I've used it several times and it's always done a good job. Someday I hope to use it on my plumbing.
A floppy disk with its cover removed. Just a bit under 3.5" in diameter. I've had this particular disk since 1997 but never thought about disassembling it until today when I realized I'd probably find something deliciously round inside - and I did! Not sure why I still had something labeled "Windows Start-up Disk" from almost 30 years ago - but then I'm not sure of much of anything anymore. The case tells me it was made by Fuji and was IBM formatted. "HD" too - for High Density. Which means it could hold as much as 1.44 megabytes of data. HA! (I.e., HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!) Of course I have lots of these relics - and no way to access them. I really should pronounce them dead and bury them or something, but . . . part of me thinks that somehow, someday they might prove to be valuable again. That's why I still have a few deely bobbers, too. I can't find them, but I know they must be here somewhere. RANDOM FUN FACT: The floppy disk you see contains cobalt-doped iron oxide. That's the very best kind of iron oxide, you know. Accept no substitutions!
Clipped green burr after two days in water. It now has a pink-purple bloom in the center - and perhaps a song in its heart.
Milk chocolate disk wrapped in gold foil so that it appears to be a gold coin. "DAVID GARRICK" is embossed at the top of the foil. A vague image of David appears in the center. Since only the smartest people visit this site you might already know that he lived from 1716 until 1779 and was a very influential English actor and theater manager who ended up being buried in Westminster Abbey (after his death). I was given this "coin" by a friend who acquired it during a trip to London. Or maybe Broadway. It was a long time ago. I have somehow managed to resist tearing open the foil and eating the chocolate for some 25 years. Will tonight be the night I finally succumb to temptation??
A green burr. I was working in the far back end of my yard today when this little guy latched onto my shirt and refused to let go. He was the clingiest botanical thing that I think I've ever encountered. What could I do but bring him into the house with me and take his photo once I noticed his round nature? About 1 inch in diameter. Some of his family members that I left behind had purple blossoms emerging from their... um, "insides" I guess is the term I'm looking for. I've now dropped him in a glass of water in hopes that he'll eventually do the same. We'll see!
Classic beige/white rubber sink drain stopper/plug. Measures about 2.5 inches in diameter. Fits drains up to 1 and 3/8ths in diameter. I had great hopes for this plug when I first bought it last year for my wash tub drain but I can't recall having used it even once. I think it was the round silver pull loop that sealed the deal. One just never knows when the irresistible urge to yank on one of those loops may hit so the wise will always have one on hand and at the ready. You just might be rewarded with a tornado-like spiral of water rushing down the drain like a spiral of intergalactic dust rushing into a black hole!
Yellow plastic thimble. About three-quarters of an inch in diameter - which is a bit too small to protect my fingers from sharp needles and pins. Fortunately it's just about the right size to stick in my ear when I want to protect my mind from sharp comments. (Do they make whole brain thimbles? There are days when I could really use one of those!) NOTE: Wikipedia tells me that the word "thimble" can be traced back to the Old English words "pymel" and "puma" - "puma" being the ancestor of "thumb". How odd to discover that my thumb has a different ancestor than I do!
LED flashlight with four round LED bulbs arranged in a square within a circle. A black rubber rim offers protection against bumps and drops. I'm told it floats but I haven't tested that. About 2.25 inches in diameter. Made by Dorcy. Cost: About $10. Powered by three AAA batteries. VERY bright. Do I love it? Well, not enough to marry it, but we've been living together for a year or more now without any major arguments, so who knows what the future may hold.
The orange plastic cap off of a clear plastic bottle of Tropicana orange juice. I find the juice to be about as good (or bad) as Minute Maid or Simply Orange. The Minute Maid doesn't need to be refrigerated until after it's open, so I guess that gives it the edge. Except it has a boring black cap. I was in the mood for something orange today and this was handy. By my count, it's the 14th orange thing I've posted a photo of here since I started posting about 18 months ago. That works out to less than one orange thing a month. This cap is perhaps the most mundane of them all. In an attempt to make it more of a stand-out thing perhaps I'll someday cover an entire wall of my kitchen with several thousand of them. Let's see, the cap is 1.5 inches in diameter, so 100 in a line would cover 150 inches or 12.5 feet. Hmmmm, looks like I might need 100 x 72 to cover a whole wall, or 7200. If I drink one 11 oz. bottle a day and save the cap I'll have just about all I need in just under 20 years. Hmmm, maybe I'll try to speed things up by moving to a place with smaller walls....
Front side of a coin or token commemorating the Bellevue, Ohio Cherry Festival that was established in 1974. There's a cluster of cherries in the center surrounded by an outline of the state of Ohio with a star indicating the location of Bellevue. The coin/token is made of aluminum and measures 1.5 inches in diameter. It has no known practical use but serves as a souvenir or a memento of the festival. Souvenirs and mementos, of course, remind us of where we've been and what we've seen and done. Or perhaps they're just one more way that fools and their money are separated. Experts disagree.
A faux antique wall clock. There's a patchwork bird just below the center point. Blue/green background. Black Roman numbers. A rather wide rusty rim that protrudes out past the plane of the bird. "QUARTZ" appears rather boldly at the bottom of the bird - which does a nice job of destroying the illusion that this clock is many decades old. Powered by a standard AA battery that fits in a mechanism identical to those in most modern wall clocks. About 12.5 inches in diameter. As is so often the case, I have no idea where or when I got this timepiece. At some point it just seems to have attached itself to my life like a piece of wayward lint and now here we are, old friends without much to say to each other. Maybe someday I'll drop an egg on the floor directly under the bird and proclaim it a miracle just to see if anyone is gullible enough to believe me.
Overhead view of a freshly opened jar of Nescafe Taster's Choice "House Blend" decaffeinated instant coffee. This coffee is the gift I give myself every morning. The caffeinated version is the gift I give myself every afternoon. For some reason it works out better this way for me than the reverse does. Still, I keep hoping that someday the gift I give myself will be rubies and emeralds worth a million dollars even though they probably won't all fit into a coffee mug. (Self, are you listening? Or are you on the computer again?? HELLO???)
Top view of a yellow plastic container of UNDERSTICKUM. As blue print on the lid explains, UNDERSTICKUM is excellent for securing all types of miniatures. For example, let's say you have a tiny faux bottle of Maalox and you want to display it on the tiny faux sink in the tiny faux bathroom of a dollhouse without having to worry about it falling off when a big truck in the real world rumbles by. You'd take a dab of UNDERSTICKUM (a clingy type of translucent white/yellow wax) and put it under the bottle to make it stick to the sink. It also works on tiny faux boxes of Tums or Pepto-Bismol tablets (my dolls used to have a lot of digestive issues) or any other tiny item. This particular container weighs 1.4 ounces, measures 1.5 inches in diameter, and holds about 99.8% of the UNDERSTICKUM I acquired several decades ago for $1.30. The bottom of the container gives me the patent number 2852054 but it turns out that's for the container itself and NOT what it contains. Apparently that patent was granted back in 1956 - which naturally raises the question, "What did cave people keep their UNDERSTICKUM in?" I'll be sure to let you know if I find out.
"SAY YES" pin-back button. The words are yellow on a green background. There's a white check mark with a black shadow under the yellow words. I believe the button was meant to promote some long-ago small town school levy. If memory serves correctly, that town's high school colors were yellow and green. Online sources tell me that those aren't very popular school colors - but I like them. (I think my own school's colors were black and blacker. We were known as the Fightin' Existentialists. Of course we were too busy hotly debating the nature of being to ever actually show up for any of our games.) FUN FACT: Wikipedia tells me that the UK's Cambridge University was the first school to embrace a school color (blue) in 1836. Westminster School embraced pink a year later. Has any US school ever embraced pink? *Making a note to attend the next local school board meeting to suggest pink and lavender football uniforms for the upcoming fall season* BTW - this pin-back is 2.25 inches in diameter. If that's what you guessed you have my permission to feel VERY good about yourself.
Round playing card. Specifically, it's a round Queen of Clubs. It's the only round playing card I have. I bought it on eBay about a year ago for $2.24 because I had to have it the moment I saw it. Sure, I wish it had been the Queen of Hearts because of Lewis Carroll and "The Manchurian Candidate" and all but that card wasn't for sale. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that according to ancient Greek mythology the Queen of Clubs was a symbol of Katharine Hepburn while the Queen of Diamonds was a symbol of Louise Brooks. In any case, the card I have measures 3 inches in diameter. I suppose the others in the deck measure the same - but wouldn't it be funny if they didn't? Let each card express itself in its own size and way, I say! And honestly - someone's really missed the boat by not marketing a special No Kings deck by now.
Neon green tennis ball. About 2.75 inches in diameter. It's been many years since I've tried to play tennis but I still have one ball in the house in case the urge to play ever returns. There's really not much more I can say about this item except for this: the dog slobber that's on it has really lost its flavor over time. Oh, wait - there is one other thing. Five years ago this month my best friend discovered she had a tumor the size of a tennis ball inside her head. Fortunately she had great doctors, the necessary surgery went well, the tumor was non-malignant, and she made a relatively rapid recovery. She's doing fine today but the tennis ball serves as a reminder of what was and what might have been and how I myself might have huge things inside me that I'm completely unaware of. It might even be something good - like an unsuspected talent for basket weaving, or Gregorian chant, or burping baby penguins. One just never knows. It's THAT kind of universe . . . . *Suddenly wondering if dog slobber tastes better with a dash of salt*
Exterior white metal clothes dryer vent cover with bulbous front hood and recessed flap compartment. A replacement for the original old, square dryer vent cover that had a cheap plastic frame that disintegrated with time. The new cover is held on with just one screw because of the extremely hard brick-and-cement wall I had to work with and/or because of my innate laziness. About 5.5 inches in diameter. It cost me about 18 dollars - a small price to pay to keep the chipmunks from working their way into the dryer and stealing my clothes.
Overhead view of an empty 12-ounce can of cherry-flavored Bubly sparkling water. It has a standard silver-colored aluminum top. A bit of the larger, mostly red lower can may be seen around the edge. About 2.5 inches in diameter. Sharp-eyed viewers may be able to see the words "CONTAINS 0% JUICE" in white lettering along the far left edge. There's a code number stamped just right of center that's apparently the same for every can in a box of 8. The opening at the left is of course where the inner fluid may be coaxed out with the help of gravity or by sucking on a straw that's properly inserted. I'm told that these Stay-On-Tab sorts of pop-tops became common starting in 1976. Before that, simple pull tabs broke entirely free of the can and were frequently swallowed (mostly by accident) or left to litter the landscape (and cut bare feet) by the millions. Before THAT one needed a so-called "church key" can opener to pierce the solid top. It's a fascinating history freelance writer Leo DeLuca detailed in an article in Smithsonian Magazine about 3 years ago. Here's a link to that article - enjoy! https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-popping-open-a-can-became-the-sound-of-summer-180982527/
Metal tag with a hole towards the top. Stamped into the tag below the hole is "FB0489" while below that in raised text is "RECORD & DETACH" and then below that what appears to me to be a capital H. Not sure if that "0" in the first part is supposed to be the letter O or a zero. (We really need to decide which one should have a dot in the center and then go with it to eliminate this confusion.) The tag is only three-quarters of an inch in diameter. It is yet one more item I own that I know virtually nothing about. Its age, origins, and purpose is a mystery to me. I can't recall where or when I got it. It's been living in the back of a desk drawer for many years. Soon it will return there and perhaps remain undisturbed until whatever species replaces us comes along and discovers it. "You're welcome," Replacement Species. "I hope you enjoy it at least as much as I have."
Top view of the plastic lid to a 6.5 oz. container of Ortega Original Taco Seasoning Mix. The lid is a rich blue color with two flip-up covers. The upper cover with the spoon emblem opens to reveal a large, spoon-worthy opening while the lower cover with the shaker emblem opens to reveal three holes ideal for liberating the internal seasoning with a shake or two (or 46 if you really, really like this seasoning). All in all, I find this cover to be easy on the eyes, pleasingly marked, admirably functional, and exactly 2.25 inches in diameter. The seasoning is also quite good even though it is not self-dispensing and requires my hand to do all the work. I was surprised to learn from the label that it's mostly made from yellow corn flour. (For some reason I thought it was made of ground up tacos.) It also contains something called "Spices" (which I think I've heard of before). And sugar! AND green tea extract! A bit of a curve ball, that. It may contain other things as well but I stopped reading at that point. Thus far I have not regretted my decision.
Top view of the lid to a small stone jar that I own. Well, it looks like stone, anyway. It might be some modern epoxy resin plastic polyphenol concoction made to look like stone. Long before AI made it hard to separate the fake from the real online there were real world items manufactured to deceive. Wax fruit. Window shutters that don't close. Toupees. Anyway, unlike all those things, my stone jar is only 1.5 inches in diameter. I wish I knew where I got it and/or how long I've had it, but . . . I don't. It's weird - like being married to someone you don't recall ever marrying. *Suddenly wondering if my stone jar and I have any kids*
Top view of the shiny metal lid to a restaurant-style sugar jar. The little metal flap on the left opens up and lets the sugar out when the jar is tilted in its direction. That flap can also leave a nasty little cut on one's hand if one isn't careful when trying to unscrew the lid from the jar in one's haste to get to more sugar faster. *Sigh* I don't quite understand my desire for sugar. It can't sing, it can't dance or tell jokes, and I can't get it to cut the grass for me no matter what I promise it. It's a pretty lame color (white), and it has a tendency to draw ants to it. All the experts say it's bad for me, my dentist has repeatedly proven that it's bad for me, and still I meet up with it every morning just to shove it in my mouth. I'm so glad my father isn't alive to see what I've become. He really, REALLY wanted me to carry on the family tradition of being an angst-ridden alcoholic. Settling for being a mere sugar addict is a character defect I don't suppose I'll ever overcome....
An unused stick of yellow face and body paint. It looks just like a tube of lipstick. About three-quarters of an inch in diameter. Made by MLSMILE on July 25, 2024; expires on July 24, 2027. (I've put a reminder note on my calendar to get up early on the latter date so I can watch it expire.) Turns out MLSMILE is owned by Yiwu Xusheng Biotechnology - a company based in Zhejiang Province, China, so you know it's safe to smear all over yourself without a second thought. The list of ingredients includes caprylic/capric triglyceride, ozokerite, ethylhexyl palmitate, isononyl isononanoate, polybutane, phenoxyethanol, and beeswax. "Keep out of reach of children" the box it came in tells me. That's very good advice since one never knows ahead of time which children are allergic to beeswax.
The dial of a Master padlock. Blue background with white numbers and markings. About 1.5 inches in diameter. Made of hardened metal - which might be why it weighs 4.7 ounces (more than a quarter of a pound!). I bought it about a year ago for 6 dollars after I realized I had somehow lost the one I used in high school. My life felt incomplete without one in the house. (You just never know when you might get the sudden urge to lock something up.) Like many students, I suppose, I used to have nightmares about forgetting the combination and ending up forever separated from my books and pencils and drug stash. (Haha - I'm kidding. I only used pens.) Well, before the nightmares start up again, I want to make a note right here and now that the combination to THIS lock is 38-08-34. And - just in case that isn't enough - I intend to put up a few posters around the neighborhood to remind me. Professionally printed, of course, so they're legible from 10 feet away on all but the darkest of nights. If I STILL have nightmares after that, I guess I'll have to go back to an old-fashioned key lock and get a hundred extra keys made. (Hmmmm.... Maybe it would be easier to just get rid of everything I have of any value and see if that brings me some peace of mind.)
Top view of a Sylvania 8-watt LED light bulb (SX 0913). About 2.5 inches in diameter. I acquired it a long time ago. I assume it's a relic from a time when they hadn't quite figured out how to make an LED bulb. At some point between then and now this model was discontinued. I don't believe I've ever seen anything quite like it before or since. It still gives off a decent light, but the light comes out of small side portals rather than uniformly. This makes it seem futuristic to me even though it's an old failure. Funny how the actual future never quite seems to be what it should be once it gets here.... For a side view (and a bit more information), go here: https://tinyurl.com/2r8c4s54
Overhead view of a special Mason jar lid that has a wire mesh top. The mesh provides support for flowers after water is put into the glass base, turning the jar into a vase. Clever, isn't it? About 3 inches in diameter. *Making a note to use it the next time I cut a few zinnias or coneflowers* *Making another note NOT to use it when I'm trying to preserve green beans or tomatoes for the winter*
Top view of a glass tennis ball paperweight. About 2.75 inches in diameter. Weighs about a pound - which is more than enough to keep any paper I've ever owned from blowing away. It's another one of those things I've owned for decades and now have no idea where I got it or why I still have it. It's not like the papers on my desk are facing gale-force winds on a regular basis - or ever, for that matter. I hope I didn't pay a lot for it. Or was it a gift? I wonder if it's too late to exchange it for something a bit more useful....
Souvenir keychain medallion from the 1999 US Open golf tournament that was played June 17-20 at the Pinehurst #2 golf course in Pinehurst, North Carolina. The metal (brass?) medallion is about 1.5 inches in diameter and weighs about 1 ounce (including a short chain and keyring not shown). In the center is a cartoonish red-shirted golfer with his bag of golf clubs. Or maybe it's a golfer's caddy. Or maybe it's a cowboy who has wandered onto the course and has mistaken the golf bag of an actual golfer for his lost steer. I guess it was purchased back in 1999 by a relative who actually went to the tournament. Life being what it is, this item somehow ended up in my desk drawer, where it's been resting comfortably for perhaps the last 20 years. I myself don't play golf. I've never been to a tournament. I don't watch golf on TV. You can still buy one of these keychains on eBay for about $25 but, honestly, if I was in the market for a keychain I'd probably buy at least 1000 others before I would even consider buying this one. And yet I'm obviously not inclined to get rid of it or I would have done so long ago. It's like I'm in a lifeboat after the Titanic has gone down and random artifacts have found their way into the lifeboat with me or I've fished them out of the sea and, well, you never know what might eventually come in handy before the rescuers arrive. Except they're not coming, are they? And it's hard to imagine any possible use for this thing. Perhaps I should put it on a line and dangle it over the side and see if I can catch a golf fan? But what if I catch one and end up trapped in a lifeboat with them having to listen to their golf talk for days or weeks?? Ugh! Time to put this thing back into the drawer and forget it for another 20 years!
Unused yellow Crayola crayon from a box of 48 that first left the store about 56 years ago. Measures approximately three-eighths of an inch in diameter (and 3.75 inches in length). Only about 5 of the crayons seem to have gotten much use - green, gold, magenta, lemon yellow, and white. (That must have been quite the picture!) All the crayons still smell like crayons. All seem quite content to be left alone - which is a good thing because the last thing I need when I come home is to be besieged by a bunch of short waxy cylinders demanding my attention. NEWS FLASH: The box actually now contains only 45 crayons! Which ones are missing?? Where did they go??? Were they stolen???? EATEN????? Does my homeowners insurance policy cover this??????? (Please excuse me while I go breathe into a brown paper bag in an attempt to control my hyperventilation.)
A reel of 8mm film containing home movies made by a relative about 60 years ago. The reel is gray plastic and about 3 inches in diameter. The film (which can be seen through 6 cut-out spaces in the reel) is dark brown verging on black. The words "MADE IN U.S.A." and "KODACHROME FILM" appear in raised letters near the edge of the reel. The movies the film contains have long ago been transferred to digital media but I continue to keep and treasure this physical artifact of another time and place. It's real in a way digitalized information can never be. And it seems to me more likely to still be here 60 years from now. Will the projectors necessary to actually run this film still be around as well? I don't know. Make a (preferably physical) note to check back with me in 60 years and I'll let you know!
Top view of the lid of an opaque plastic container holding 4 ounces of white feta cheese. Green and black print on the lid tells me that it's a Market District product (my grocery store's in-house brand), that the feta is crumbled, and gluten free, and made in Wisconsin. It also tells me that the feta inside can be sprinkled on salads, stirred into mashed potatoes, and added to flatbread. It does NOT say it can be spooned into my scrambled eggs while they're being scrambled, but that's what I do, the laws of God and man alike be damned. Well, that's what I *did*, anyway, until this particular batch turned out to be moldy. Yessirree, nothing says it's summer quite like mold on food. Nonetheless, I'll probably have more tomorrow - although from a new container, of course. Why? Because feta is the only thing I ever put in my mouth that comes from a sheep or a goat (well, that I know of, anyway) and I still find that oddly thrilling. So daring! So exotic! In fact, eating feta is the most fun I've had with food since I kissed a sardine when I was 5. What food gives YOU the most pleasure? Tell me - just not now. I'm too busy pondering tomorrow's scrambled eggs to listen. (NOTE: The lid is about 4.75 inches in diameter - just in case you're taking the time to graph these things.)
Top view of the lid to a metal container holding a white vanilla candle. It has a stylized depiction of the sun in a circle in the center. That circle is surrounded by stylized razzmatazz. A gold/green, black, and beige color scheme. About 4 inches in diameter. It was made and sold by Hallmark many years ago. The Solstice brought it back to mind - and now here it is, in all its glory. Printing on the bottom reveals that it sold for $5.98 in the US and $7.98 in Canada - which seems a bit much for a candle to me, but not nearly enough for this art on the lid. Perhaps I'll send a few more bucks to Hallmark tomorrow as partial payment for all the pleasure this piece has given me . . . .
The head of a bolt that's helping to hold together the wooden bridge over a small creek at a local park. "6 SD" appears on the head, which apparently means that the bolt is a 6-inch long Simpson Strong-Drive Strong-Tie type of fastener meant for wood-to-wood connections. The head is about half an inch in diameter. Turns out that it's fairly easy to find round things at this park as long as I'm looking at things made by people. Mother Nature seems rather less obsessed with perfect circles - but given the vast number of species she has to feed every day, I guess that's understandable. My own mother doesn't seem to have ever found time for perfect circles and she only had two kids to feed. I suppose the ends of the cigarettes she chain-smoked might be considered perfect circles but, alas, she burned all the evidence. Hmmmm, a bit suspicious, that, now that I think about it. She sometimes burned circular cakes and pizzas, too. My goodness - is it possible that my own mother was a secret circle hater?? OMG! Looks like I might need to schedule yet another 6 months of counseling sessions to get over this!
Green and white pin-back button for the 1980 presidential campaign in which incumbent Jimmy Carter and his vice president Walter Mondale faced off against former actor Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush (father of Jeb Bush, among others). Carter and Mondale lost, possibly because I didn't wear this button often enough at the time. Sadly, both passed away before I could apologize to them for this terrible behavior on my part. At the same time it must be said that the button was only 1.25 inches in diameter - pretty small as campaign buttons go - and I had NOTHING to do with that. Writing on the side of the button tells me that Collier Graphic Services is responsible for this particular button, but I suppose they'll try to say "We were only following orders!" in their defense. In any event, if the Supreme Court ever rules that dead people can be president (and I wouldn't bet against it at this point), I'll try to make things up to Carter by voting for him again. Because that's just the kind of person I am.
One of the cups in my 12-cup non-stick muffin pan. The cup measures 3.25 inches in diameter (which surprised me for some reason). I can't recall the last time I actually baked a muffin in it. It was probably a blueberry muffin, but... no specific memory remains. I also can't recall buying this tray. Still, it's good to know I have it in the house in case the urge to bake a muffin hits me in the middle of the night and baking a cookie just won't do. Seems silly to have to heat up the whole pan just to bake one muffin though. Perhaps I should use a hacksaw to cut the pan into 12 individual cups. Or perhaps I should move in the hope of ending up next to a neighbor who bakes muffins all the time and is willing to share. If only Zillow allowed one to search for houses next to such people!
Last Year At Marienbad movie poster (1961)
A drawing I made with the special metal Spirograph set I posted about 5 days ago. I used a blue pen (included with the set) and a sheet of Office Depot's 20 pound, 92 brightness white print paper (not included). It's the first such drawing I've made in decades. Not quite as easy as I thought it would be. And the result obviously has its flaws. Perhaps the best thing for me is that the longer I look at it on my screen now, the more it seems to strobe (especially around the lines halfway between the outer edge and the center). Only about 2 inches in diameter. Will it grow bigger overnight if I water it? Let's find out! NOTE: Turns out there are a variety of online Spirograph sites that allow you to create images like this without getting a cramp in your hand. One of them can be found here - https://tinyurl.com/cd5pr8a2
Round US Forever first-class postage stamp issued on June 14, 2017. It depicts a baseball - one of a set of eight designs featuring various sports balls. The set as a whole was called (perhaps a bit too obviously) "Have a Ball!" Designed by Romanian-born artist Daniel Nyari. About 1.25 inches in diameter (the stamp - not the artist). A first-class postage stamp like this cost 49 cents in 2017. Today first-class postage stamps cost 78 cents. Like most (all?) US stamps today, this one has a self-adhesive backing. Wikipedia tells me such stamps were first issued by Tongo in July 1963 and Sierra Leone in Feb 1964 because humid conditions in those countries tended to make water-activated lickable stamps stick to themselves. The US's first self-adhesive stamp was issued in 1974 but it quickly discolored because of problems with the adhesive. The US tried again in 1989 with mixed results. Nonetheless, almost all US stamps were self-adhesive by 2002. Which is too bad because I miss the aftertaste of the old licked stamps. Someone once told me you could actually live off the paste they used back then because it was potato-based - but perhaps they lied. All I know for sure is that fried potatoes taste MUCH better than fried stamps.
Round rubber sign with a stylized black steering wheel in the center and the words "STUDENT DRIVER PLEASE BE PATIENT" in black print just inside the outer edge. Yellow background. A magnetic backing allows it to be attached to the rear or side of your vehicle. It's been many years since I was officially considered to be a student driver but I still plop this on the back of my car whenever I'm in the mood to drive a bit sloppily and get away with it. Technically, I'm always trying to learn more and that's the definition of "student" - right? Today I learned that this sign is 5 inches in diameter. Maybe tomorrow I'll learn exactly how many of these signs it takes to completely cover an old VW Bug. Or a parked police car. Or maybe I'll see if anybody at all laughs if I slip one onto the back of a hearse. Or a few Army tanks! YES! Tomorrow looks to be a busy day - guess I better go to bed NOW so I can get up in the morning before those odd creatures known as "witnesses" are awake.
Overhead view of a green glass Heineken bottle. Empty. That's all I know.
The black metal head of a wood screw I found at a local park. It was one of many hard at work holding together the sides of a boardwalk through the woods. A bit of research revealed this "F4-5 HL" fastener to be a FastenMaster HeadLOK screw with a special 8-point star head for quick and firm insertion by a power tool - no pilot hole necessary! Probably 6 inches long. Cost: Approximately a dollar per screw. A bit much for me, but apparently my local park could afford it. Or maybe its work crew is just really good at shoplifting 50-count boxes of these things. (The next time I see a park ranger I'll be sure to ask.)
A drawing ring and a drawing wheel from the special Spirograph die-cast collector's set that I recently acquired. The ring has 14 round holes and measures 3.5 inches in diameter. The wheel has 33 round holes and measures 2 inches in diameter. Both ring and wheel are made of a gold-colored metal - a step up from the original clear plastic pieces I once owned. The set includes 8 other wheels of various sizes, all also made of the same metal and all also sporting various numbers of charming round holes. I have yet to try drawing with any of them. I just don't feel worthy. Maybe I need to acquire a used wooden Tinker Toy set and work my way up to this . . . .
Overhead view of a small jar (usually corked) in which I keep sand, stones, shells, sea glass, and a few other treasures that I took from a beach I visited 10 years ago this week. The jar is about 2.75 inches in diameter. The beach was considerably bigger. I suppose I would have put the whole thing in a jar and brought it home if I could have. The whole day itself, too. It would be nice to think that I could preserve a single day forever, or a single beach, but instead I must settle for this - a few reminders of a time and place that have since been superseded by many others. I've heard it said that the journey is the destination - but that's scant consolation to one prone to motion sickness. Thank goodness the items in photographs give the illusion of stasis and permanence. If they didn't I might be in bed right now with a cold rag across my forehead, too dizzy to type this . . . .
The blue plastic lid to a bubblegum machine prize. Since the machine dispensed only prizes I guess I can't really call it a "bubblegum" machine, but I'm betting you know the type. This particular machine was part of a bank of about 8 machines located in the airlock/foyer of my grocery store. As I walked by I noticed all the capsules inside were round so I decided on an impulse to dump in three quarters (75 cents) and see what I got for my money. Turns out you get a blue plastic lid that measures about 2 inches across. And the semi-clear plastic bubble it's attached to that contains AN ACTUAL PRIZE! Whatever would I be lucky enough to get??
The white paper bottom wrapper for an organic chocolate peanut butter cup made by Justin's. About 2.5 inches in diameter. I had intended to photograph the peanut butter cup itself so everyone could compare it to the Reese's peanut butter cup I posted back on April 3, but . . . it seems to have disappeared before I could find my camera. It's as if the Bermuda Triangle has set up a branch office in my house! Now I need to go out tomorrow and buy more. If I'm lucky, a full bowl of Coco Puffs with chocolate milk will give me the strength to do so.
Vintage July 1929 pin-back button for the Toledo, Ohio Division 697 of the A.A. of S. & E.R.E. of A. That's short for the Amalgamated Association of Street & Electric Railway Employees of America. In 1964 the name was mercifully shortened to the ATU - Amalgamated Transit Union. It's the union trolley car workers belonged to in 1929 (and as far back as 1892, when the union was founded). The button has three background colors - orange, yellow, and green - with the printed letters and words appearing in black, yellow, and green. There's also a nice illustration of a trolley car and its operator in the bottom third. The button measures just three-quarters of an inch across. I purchased it back on March 21, 2012 for about 5 dollars. I hope to wear it the very next time I ride a trolley.
The lens for my webcam. The words "HD LENS 1080P WEBCAM EMEET INC." are visible in light gray in a ring around the edge. About 1 inch in diameter. My records tell me that I bought it back in 2020 for $85.99. It's now available for $63.99. Guess I should have waited, huh? Or were the three Zoom meetings I've had in the last 6 years worth the extra 22 bucks? Hmmmm . . . .
Overhead view of a friend's salad bowl. The bowl is mostly white and has a red rim. It was made by Corelle and measures 7.25 inches in diameter. Inside is a salad made of mixed greens, shredded mozzarella cheese, a few blueberries, and a few shrimp topped with a creamy Ranch dressing. I took this photo not only because I found it to be an interesting round thing but because I wanted to obtain photographic proof for future generations that the people of today actually added sea bugs to their salads and ate them.
Overhead view of my vintage stone/cement birdbath. About 18 inches in diameter. The basin (which sits atop a 24 inch pedestal) has a black plastic saucer in it that measures about 13 inches in diameter. The birdbath is centered under a white vinyl arbor that's reflected in the water. The birds, chipmunks, and squirrels seem to approve of the arrangement. The raccoons seem to have gotten bored with tipping it all over. I've gotten bored with doing that, too, but still do it on July 4 because it's something of a holiday tradition. The neighbors prefer to set off noisy fireworks. I feel superior to them because I can quickly restore my birdbath to its original position but they can never restore their fireworks. Does it make me a bad person if I gloat about this? *Making a note to possibly edit this out of my autobiography*
The main (and only) knob on my new clothes dryer. Stark white plastic base with the raised handle/pointer also stark white. About 3 inches in diameter. Like my old dryer, this one is an Amana, model number... umm... um... zzzzzzzz . . . . OH! Sorry. Nodded off there for a bit. That happens to me sometimes whenever I think about the most boring knob I've ever encountered in my life. It doesn't help that the settings the pointer points to are all in plain black print. Have high tariffs made colored ink too expensive to use anymore? Does 90% of the world's colored ink pass through the now-blocked Strait of Hormuz? At least the dryer does an excellent job of drying my clothes, otherwise I'd be typing this while wearing moist socks (among other things). Then again, if I *were* wearing moist socks (among other things), perhaps what I type would make more sense. Hmmmm.... *Making a note to run some tests first thing in the morning*
My old clothes dryer knob. Beige/white with a center raised part topped by a silver-gray accent. About 2.5 inches in diameter. Made of a tough, heavy grade plastic material. It served me well for several decades, but when the dryer's motor started thumping and overheating, I knew it was time to get a new one with a new knob. I got the same make and model since the old one had served me so well for so long. And it works fine so far, but . . . the new knob compares poorly to the old. It's bigger in an ungainly way and its monolithic whiteness lacks style and it seems to be made of rubber rather than plastic. It seems cheap and unlikely to last as many years as the old. Which fits a pattern. My latest furnace thermostat seems more like an easily broken child's toy than a serious piece of equipment I'm depending on to keep me from freezing to death in the winter. Why do manufacturers do this? If it were me, I'd skimp on the invisible parts and make the visible ones look better than ever. Instead, it's as if they take perverse pleasure in flaunting the crappy nature of their product and their lack of respect for their customers. Next time, I guess I'll try to make a clothes dryer from scratch myself and see how it goes . . . .
Close-up view of the letter O as it appears on the Land O Lakes butter containers. It's just about the only perfectly round letter O I've found in my house apart from those I make myself by hand. The O's I see are almost all ovals rather than the perfect circles I picture in my mind. I never really thought about this discrepancy between reality and my mind until I started keeping an eye out for real world O circles about 18 months ago. Now it kind of makes me itch uncontrollably whenever I think about it. Do YOU know of any other perfectly round O's in our culture besides the Land O Lakes example I've posted? If so, please share! It just might reduce the money I'm spending on Cortaid and other anti-itch creams.
Close-up view of the round head a daisy-like wildflower that has white outer florets and lots of small round yellow florets in a center round disk. It's actually known as Philadelphia fleabane (or Erigeron philadelphicus, if you want to go all scientific). Common in my area. I found this one today growing right next to my patio slab. The head is about three-quarters of an inch across and was atop a stem exactly one foot tall. A member of the aster family (none of whose members ever seem to have shared a classroom with me). Sadly, I'm told it's on shaky ground (so to speak) in Montana and North Carolina, imperiled in Nova Scotia, Wyoming, and Yukon, and critically imperiled in Colorado. If you ever have the opportunity to lend them a hand, please do so! Bees, butterflies, and moths love them almost as much as I do.
Weathered metal plate cover at my local park. A lighter colored rectangular metal plate in the center says "ELECTRIC" in barely visible gray letters. This plate is attached to the main plate beneath it with rivets near its right and left edges. The main plate measures about 8 inches in diameter. Oddly, it's located along the inner edge of a brick walkway. It's a main walkway and the plate is a couple inches above it. Because its outer edge overhangs whatever it's covering, it appears to be floating. It also appears to be a good place to get your toes caught if you're not watching where you're going. I've never gotten my toes caught but I imagine instant electrocution awaits anyone unlucky enough to do so. Is this my city's way of thinning the herd, so to speak? Of ridding itself of the clumsy, the inattentive, and those lacking electric-proof boots? *Making a note to write the mayor and ask*
End view of a roll of aluminum foil removed from its home box. Store brand. The foil totals 200 square feet. It is wrapped around a central cardboard tube. Tube and foil together measures 2 inches in diameter. I used some today to bake fish on. The baking process took about 30 minutes. The now disposed-of foil might endure for centuries in a landfill. That seems like a rather insane "useful life" to afterlife ratio. I can only hope I have it all wrong and that the foil I used today will be reincarnated as a slug or something else as meaningful.
Top view of a blue ceramic table lamp. The shade, harp, and light bulb have been removed so that the lovely shape of the round, ginger jar-style base may be more easily appreciated. The base measures about 6" wide at its widest. That is a bit smaller than I would have guessed if I had had to guess, but I didn't have to guess, so I didn't. That left more time for me to return the shade, harp, and light bulb to their proper positions, which is a good thing because I needed every single minute of the 3 hours I spent on that project.
Rapid disconnect garden hose connection. The outer green plastic sleeve fits over the inner black plastic connector that accepts the protruding black plastic connection on the other hose and snaps it into place. Sliding the spring-loaded outer plastic sleeve releases the inner piece and quickly and easily breaks the connection between the two hoses. I'm not sure but I think this invention inspired my state's no-fault divorce law.
Overhead view of the white plastic cap for a 66 oz. bottle of Downy soft, free, and gentle fabric softener. The cap measures 2.25 inches in diameter and is a fine example of how a little imagination or an old Spirograph can turn a boring flat cap into an uplifting artistic creation. It's why I always buy two bottles of Downy when I go shopping - one to use and recycle, and one to leave to future generations so they too might know the excitement and thrill of fine 21st century packaging.
One of the knobs on my kitchen cabinets. Looks like it might be bronze, but probably isn't. Looks like it might have been hand hammered, but almost certainly wasn't. About 1.25 inches in diameter. One of 15 apparently identical knobs in my kitchen. But are they really identical? Of course not. This knob is on the cabinet door I use most often, so it's almost certainly wearing down the fastest. I probably should rotate my knobs like I rotate my tires so they wear evenly - if only I had the time! Instead, I'll wake up one day and find this knob has been completely worn away and rendered unusable and then have to settle for a replacement that looks nothing like it. That'll be the day I'll know it's time to move.