Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

An outdoor turtle tea light holder. It's never held a tea light...it just hangs around.

Satan's Sixes Sunday

As I said in my first Satanic post, some of the 666 stuff I've collected is receipts.

The oldest receipt in my collection is from October, 1989. I bought some contact lens disinfecting solution. There's "6666" on it that indicates something like which cashier rang it up, what transaction this was, which register was used, which store I bought it from or something. Too bad the price wasn't six cents more, the total was $6.60.

Oldest receipt. October 26, 1989

I don't know why this is my oldest receipt. I thought this hobby went back much further. I'm guessing I was saving them for a while but didn't think to put them in a folder and the earlier ones just got tossed. This is the earliest of my collection with a date on it.

Here's a semi-fun receipt from Trader Joe's. Not only is the total $6.66 but the time was half bad.

Bad total. Half-bad time.

I have many receipts with totals of $6.66. Some whose items' SKUs contain 666. Transaction numbers ending with 666. Gasoline purchases ending with .666 gallons. Sometimes I paid Satan himself.

Sold by Satan

Here's a sample of receipts illustrating some of the styles of 666 I have collected.

Evil receipts

We have your:

• Movie tickets and fast food orders whose serial numbers end with 666.
• Fast food orders whose totals are $6.66. The Togo's receipt is mine. Jerry donated his receipts from Schlotzsky's Deli and The Barbecue Pit. Judy donated the Ups 'n Downs receipt. I have no idea who Judy is. Everybody helped me in my effort to show that we all are the Antichrist.
• Gasoline ending with .666 gallons. (There's even a bonus 6 in there!)
• A SKU (pronounced "skew"...I went through a long period of hearing that word from cashiers as if I should know what they were talking about. I didn't know how to spell it so I didn't know how to find out about it. I'm glad Google finally came to my rescue.) ending with 666.

The devil is lurking everywhere.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

We picked up a Rick Satava Petroglyph Rock on our recent visit to Palm Desert. It's glass. It has two turtles on it.

Mr. Satava's web site's title is "Home of the Jellyfish." We have a glass jellyfish. It turns out we are now collectors. Our jellyfish is also one of his creations. Here it is on its light base:

Jerry wondered if our petroglyph rock would look good on a light base. The home of the jellyfish says "they look absolutely stunning when on top of a lighted base." They're not kidding.

Satan's Sixes Sunday

I'm going to hell.

Well, since you're reading this, you are going to hell.

We missed out on the Rapture.

We're doomed.

I've been preparing for these Apocalyptic times for quite a few years. In my day-to-day transactions I noticed that the number "666" would show up with eerie frequency. I was marked. With the sign of the devil.

A Chick Publications tract I've collected. Read the whole thing here (if you dare!)

Here's a more realistic rendering of what we're facing:

A Sunday Liō strip, hanging on my wall

The sequence "666" didn't really occur with any more frequency than any other three digit number but I started noticing it. Other sets of numbers weren't interesting so my brain didn't count up the times that the numbers weren't "666" and tell me that it occurred only with the expected frequency. Since I paid attention to the 666s, they must be happening to me unnaturally often. As my brain got accustomed to seeing 666, it would alert me to it even if I saw it with only peripheral vision. Sometimes I will know that the numbers are somewhere around me and I have to search for them. They'll always be there.

I started collecting the evidence that I was a minion of the Antichrist. Or at least that "666" shows up in my life. Yours, too, if you pay attention.

I kept receipts that contain those sixes. I kept money with sixes in their serial numbers. Newspaper articles. Claim tickets.

Family and friends learned of my hobby and they've contributed stuff. The Devil is everywhere!

I'm going to show you some of my collection. We have five months before God plinks the universe out of existence so I need to work fast. (Family Radio's web site wasn't working when I was writing this so I couldn't link to their post-Rapture timetable.) I'll try to show you a few items from the collection each Sunday and tell you interesting stories about them.

A card Peggy included in one of her contributions to my collection
Postmarked 7 May 1992

Just one item this week (well, three since you've seen two others already).

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A Manufactured 666

Radio Shack used to try to get your name and address each time you bought something. I found that to be annoying. I usually just declined their request for the information. I then took up giving them fake names. One day I decided to let them know that I found it really annoying.

Cashier: "What's your name and address?"

Me: "John Q. Public..."

Cashier (typing, cluelessly): P-U-B-L-I-C

Cashier: "Address?" 

Me: "Six-six-six Elm Street," I started. 

Cashier (throwing up his hands in despair): "I'm not typing that!"

He shoved the keyboard to me and had me enter it.

Here's my receipt.

Radio Shack receipt, August 5, 1990

I'm going to hell.

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Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

The calendar on my fabric-covered box above my desk.

These are Madagascar Radiated Tortoise hatchlings.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A ceramic lithophane nightlight.

(Another in a glowing family of nightlights.)

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Poss asked for a picture of it turned off. Here's a not very good picture of it. I hope it gives you an idea of what it looks like unlit.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A hook holding a scarf.

Grandma (Gram)

Here come nearly two years of our lives. But no Christmases!

Reasons for not having a massive Christmas orgy in 1973:

• Mom and Dad got divorced.
• Dad got remarried. Christmas orgy with Ewwww-deena? I don't think so.
• Karen was the only one of us still living at home. The rest of us were in college or beyond. We're getting a little old for that kind of stuff.

No Christmas orgy in 1974:

• See above.

What we do see are:

• More branding at Mabel's
• Beth graduates from Highlands University. Pictures of a graduation! A first!
• 1974 passes without a single picture (in this collection...some time ago I shared with the family some pictures of a trip Jack and Eudena took through the Grand Canyon and Salt Lake City. I wonder where those pictures are.)
• Karen and Dad took a trip to Emporia in January 1975.
• Dad and Peggy took a trip to Emporia for Gradma's (Gram's) funeral.
• Mom and Karen took a trip to Washington, DC, and Gettysburg. Whoever took the pictures didn't know how to properly set the exposure. Most are underexposed. Lots are almost black. Sorry, there's not much I could do to bring out detail. I left them all in for some reason.
• You don't see a single picture with me in it. Bobbie is absent, too.

Everyone seems to call Grandma "Gram." I don't remember calling her that.

Here is June 1973 through April 1975.

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