Operculators with Glass

For those of you who have read my blog posts, you know I like operculum. I just think they are so pretty, original, useful and gosh darn it, I wish I could still collect them! But Hanauma Bay, where I usually swim nowadays, doesn't allow collecting of sea shells, and I consider operculum a part of that.

So I sat down today with my camera and put some operculum in shotglasses to see what transpired. Enjoy!

 When we moved back to Oahu, I got rid of some shotglasses. I'm not really collecting them anymore, but some I just won't get rid of: Hello Kitty is helping me showcase some of them. The ones above I like because they are a cool shape, but also twins.

 A momento of my visit to my family in Albuquerque for the Balloon festival.

 A reminder of my roots: both my parents, grandparents, and aunt and uncle and cousins were/are Canadian. My parents moved to the USA before we were born. But my cousin still lives in Canada, so I have tight roots! I also have good memories of meeting my grandpa at the train station, as he was an Immigration officer. What a different job that is today.

 I always liked the blue dot shotglass. Blue being my favorite color, it also seems very well thought out and sturdy, too. Even though it's made of glass.

Bluebird of happiness atop the Boston shotglass. Cheers, Ballou and Becky!

A Japanese shotglass from my husband...I think the officer who gave it to him was visiting Kauai at the time.

 Some shotglasses I like because of the shape. Some, such as the one below, remind me of my visit to see my Aunt in Windsor before she passed away. She was a great lady and had a big impact on me.

 Speaking of great impact, my friend in California sent me this Celine Dion shotglass when she and her mother went to the show. Since I probably will never pay that much to see Celine, I appreciate this glass even more. (My frugal self says: I can buy many more of her cds with that show money!)

 Dolphins/Sea Life Park shotglass, with HK twins looking on.

 Since I like octopuses, I have several glass ones.

A friend's daughter is an artist. She painted  this ceramic octopus for me. And the glass is a momento of my trip to the Acores in Portugal, when the family was stationed there. (What does the USAF do in Portugal? They pass gas!)

 Schlitterbahn. A way to cool off in Texas.

More octo-glass. And a nicely shaped shotglass.

 This Hershey's shotglass is very cute with a cow leaning over. Sadly, the paint is weeping, so now I'm keeping it out in the air. 

Hello Kitty in a grass skirt.

 From our visit to London, this is from Windsor Castle.

 Far too much JD has passed my lips. Happy to say I don't like the taste anymore. Progress, I guess.

 Never had a bar, but did buy the shotglass.

 Kauai Coffee shotglass. It's a nice tour, if you are ever on island.

London Eye shotglass

 Looks like a bowl of mints, doesn't it?

 We toured the Battleship Missouri when it was in Pearl Harbor. I think it still is, as it was decommissioned.

 One of my fave shotglasses. It says: Sometimes I wish I was an octopus so I can slap several people at once. I'm trying not to feel that way as often anymore, but I have the glass to remind me to be kind.

 Gold is featured prominently on some of the shotglasses.

 Painted octopus taking a rest on a sea of operculators.

In these tough times, it's definitely time to pray without ceasing! 

 A little octopus in another of my fave-shaped shotglasses.

 Another good shape.

 I put the HKs for color. 

My brother retired from the USAF; we visited and I picked up this shotglass.

 Wisconsin cow and operculum.

Not a shotglass, but I love the cross my sis-in-law sent me.

 And last but not least, an octo-chorus line.

Enjoy your friends. Visit your memories. And pray without ceasing, for the world and an end to this virus!

In case you are wondering....

I have some faithful readers, so to get rid of the suspense (c'mon, you know you are wondering!), I had a fall recently.

Missed that last step down, loaded down with groceries. So I plowed into the sidewalk. It wasn't pretty. And no, I won't be showing you pictures. That would be one of those to which you would remark: I'll never get that photo out of my mind! I won't do that to you.

So I haven't been swimming. No octopus photos today. I am told I have a "depression fracture" in my nose, so I've been told to not swim. Unfortunately, the E/N/T person hasn't called me back and I've heard there is a 111 day wait for appointments! eek. That is a long time not to swim. So I'm trying to discover more about this injury, which I've been told isn't very serious and I probably won't need surgery. EEK again. Hope not!

Anyway, I decided to get back into the post habit, so I have some operculum pix for you. Try to contain your enthusiasm.

 I poured them out on the table in the living room. There were 1866 of them. (And that's the total of the small bottle of 'em.) The amazing thing for me is that in one afternoon on the North Shore, I picked up 366!!! Just waiting on the beach for me. I probably spent maybe 2 hours looking, so who knows how many I could have found had I really applied myself.

I call the photo on the left Asteroid. I can't imagine the force required to bash holes into these operculum. They are very solid and weighty, so it had to be something really strong.

 Here they are poured out. The ones on the red fan are the shiny ones. The ones on the black thing were the bigger ones, that for some reason are NOT shiny.

 You can see in the I AM photo above the Cat's Eye one, with the blue. This is apparently a business some people have. They collect the operculum they find and then sell them. Mostly for jewelry making, I think.

 I like the lines and spots on them.

The twirly part on the bottom.

 Some of the shiny ones.

 More whirly lines.

And just in case you missed them in the original post, some shell pix with operculum in them:

 The Hairy Triton shell's operculum is different: it's more brown and I think bendable. What I love about this photo is that the brown and white below the brown operculum is part of the animal.

 Operculum still doing its job: closing the hole of the shell against predators.

 You can see more the animal below the operculum.

 I'm not sure why this one was halfway open.

Cool aren't they?