u/Nearby_Rip_3735

https://preview.redd.it/to27zcon9fwg1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eac67d0beffda8abba78d108b288229ab2ff452f

I FINALLY have this in hand! Obtaining such a brooch has been a vendetta for months, beginning when I saw one available for purchase, put it "in my cart", and clicked "buy", only to find that someone else had purchased it in the SPLIT SECOND that elapsed after I put it "in my cart" and before I clicked "buy".

Even better: This one is slightly bigger than the one I missed out on, and that other brooch had two fewer opals and lacked the safety chain with pin present here.

No need to point out that a scorpion's pincers do not count as two of its eight legs, as I am a big enough fan of creepy crawly jewelry to be well aware of that shortfall. It seems, however, that jewelers were not familiar with the minutia of arachnid anatomy at the time brooches such as this were made.

I have done extensive searches and simply cannot find a machine that can test for gold and silver content and is priced at about $1k or less.

A Thermo Scientific Niton XL3t Analyzer would be super, but it is way out of that price range. I love that it breaks the alloys down into such detail, but I don't really need that function. Ability to make a rough determination of gold and silver content is all I really need.

I found a few viable machines that are at OK price points, but they test only for gold and platinum. Platinum testing is a nice-to-have, but silver testing is a must.

I don't want to do scratch or acid tests, as those damage the pieces, albeit only slightly in some cases. I understand the logistics of the specific gravity testing, but realistically I am not going to have time to do that. Even if I tried, a kid or cat would be sure to knock everything over in my testing area after I put in the effort, but before I am able to note the results.

I am OK with buying a refurbished machine.

It seems like a machine that meets my specs should exist, but I really cannot find it. I have tried and failed. Perhaps the members of this sub can give me some pointers.

Cross-posting this experience, which I previously typed up and posted in a different sub. I received a message (via Reddit, not spirits) indicating that this sub might be a better fit.

I have previously posted and/or commented about ancestors being present at a baby’s crib. I’m currently more exhausted than I hope you will ever be. So please excuse syntax and structure.

Anyway, yes, ancestors will visit their offspring.

Latest evidence is that my youngest, who had interacted with persons unknown to me cribside, just like the others, this morning while I was too exhausted to move, well he called to me repeatedly to get him up, but I was sleeping too deeply. I heard him, but no. Then he called to his father. Of course no response. BUT THEN he called to his GRANDFATHER. Child has never lived concurrently with a grandfather.

Child speaks with his grandmother daily, and aunt and uncle nearly as often. But none of them have ever visited him in his crib.

The only ones to get him out of his crib are mother and father.

But then who else has picked him up from his crib? When I have seen him so picked up. Now we know it is grandfather. I’m happy that they have met.