You saw this Elgin starburst clock in my old office. Now, as of today (er, technically, yesterday), the new office is finally painted (except for some touch-up work and also a hallway out back), so it’s time to put the clock up (again–it was up before the wall was painted) in its new home.

Didn’t do a yellow background for it, as was the someday plan when I posted about it four years ago in “Retro Week: Elgin Starburst Clock.” The green is the office color and it looks nice.

I have had the green paint planned for a while though: “Same Clock, Different Color.”

I like the clock and the paint scheme. It has the retro look I was going for.

You may remember this Elgin Starburst Clock from three years ago.

Same photo, same clock, but I wondered what it would look like with a different wall color.

I think it looks pretty good. The color on-screen isn’t the exact color the walls may end up being, as I am working from memory, but it should be reasonably close, or at least close enough to gain some idea how it might look.

I think I can live with it.

So, most of the day is over and I’ve had no idea for a blog post. Thus, I went to see what photos I had taken so far this month. Upon discovering that I hadn’t yet uploaded any images from my camera to the computer this year and not feeling like doing so, I opted instead to see if I had taken any pictures last year, ideally January 10th of last year.

Lo and behold, I took a single photo that day, that of my grandmother’s waffle maker, which is a curious coincidence since, just yesterday, I mentioned waffles. On top of that, JD was hungry for waffles and putting up something vintage will annoy Michelle, so it’s a win-win all the way around.

Plus, I decided to make the photo into a work of art á la Speedy’s post today. I had decided that prior to hunting down a photo, so I had to continue with the plan upon selecting the photo.

At any rate, you see here my grandmother’s vintage waffle maker. Now, this is something I also blogged about last year during Retro Week, in my Waffle Iron post, so no need to elaborate here.

Oh, why the price tag? Well, my grandmother lives out of state and there was a sale before the house was sold. The sale ran before we got there, so my aunt had priced the waffle maker at 50¢. Fortunately, no one bought it and we got to bring it home. Though plenty of other people got some really good deals…

I just wish I had gotten the old blender… And a certain pair of lamps, and the Pick Up Sticks game…

Let’s hope you don’t suffer from Triskaidekaphobia!

While cleaning out the aforementioned cabinet, I also came across these “Rainbow Glasses.”

I believe that this were from some point in the mid to late 1980s. I don’t remember where I got them.

They are just heavy paper with thin film called Holex Kaleidaglas. This film essentially lets you see a rainbow of colors when you look at things. In daylight, you can see rainbows just about everywhere. At night, you’ll only see them around lights and brightly lit objects.

Here’s an example which I did by holding up the glasses to the camera lens:

In daylight, that’s what pretty much everything looks like, with varying degrees of intensity depending upon the amount of light reflecting from or produced by the objects being viewed.

I think this is a form of diffraction grating. Regardless, it’s pretty cool stuff. I think I had a lens for my video camera that produced similar effects. Too bad my video camera lens don’t fit my digital camera. (I haven’t found an adapter for them either.)

You see, kids, sometimes science is fun.

In cleaning out that old cabinet, I also found this radio.

This is the first portable radio that I remember having. Ran on a 9V battery, so you know it’s old since it seems like most later electronics always seemed to require two AA batteries.

I can remember sitting in the back of the van when I was a kid, one night on our way back home from somewhere, and listening to “Funkytown” by Lipps, Inc. That’s my longest lasting memory (and perhaps earliest?) of this radio.