But you gotta have friends.....

"I get by with a little help from my friends..."
~Joe Cocker

"Friends are God's way of apologizing for our families."
~Unknown

I've always been grateful for the friends of high quality I have picked up over the years. My best friend, who I somehow get to see about twice a year, knows everything there is to know about me and she still loves me.
My friends of the Flock are the newest addition to my stable of blessings. From right up the road to all over the country, I can count on help when I need it, and they know that they can get the same from me.
As I said in this post, I am effectively camera-less. When Mary heard of this, she made the hugely generous gesture of offering her spare camera for me to borrow until I could get a replacement.

I was floored. We nature lovers/birders know how much our cameras mean to us, so this was a big deal.

It arrived today, and since it arrived in the afternoon, I didn't have a lot of time to going birding or anything. So I took random photos of random things, you know...just to kick the tires so to speak:

Hazard light button (macro from about a centimeter away):


A dumpster at the United Dairy Farmers from really far away..the zoom on this thing is FABULOUS, and when it comes to nature photography (and dumpster photography for that matter) zoom is very important:


Magnolia bud that somehow avoided freezing last night (macro):



Hooper (from about 25 feet away):




And also at the UDF, Kathi striking a pose:


There are lots and lots of little functions to learn...and I can't wait to master them all.
Tomorrow I'm taking it to RAPTOR to see how it makes my birds look!
THANK YOU MARY !!!!!!

Blame it on the daffodils

Those of you who are longtime readers of this blog will remember the "Camera Fiasco". (Click here for the big ol' stinking rant)
The camera I received for all that drama turned out to be a pretty good one. Insane zoom for a mid-priced camera, and it had plenty of bells and whistles for me to figure out and exploit.
It took all the abuse of Cape May 2008, New River 2009, and I was hoping it would come along for New River 2010.Last night, we decided to go to a local pizzeria (very cool...it was built in the old water works building in Loveland and makes fab fire-baked pizza) and while we waited for a table (we weren't the only people who thought The Works was a good idea for dinner) I wanted to walk down to the tracks that come along the back of the building to see some fresh blooming daffodils.


We were milling about, kicking gumballs and enjoying the daffodils growing under the trees. Lorelei wanted to learn how to take macro shots, so I pushed the appropriate buttons on my camera and showed her how to focus. A few minutes later, she slipped on some gumballs and went down.
I snatched her up and checked for fountaining blood or foreign objects. When none were found, I brushed off her knees and gave her a kiss.

Geoff said, "That was impressive."
Me: "What was?"
Geoff: "Well, you are more concerned about Lorelei than your camera."
Me (I'm a little slow sometimes): "What ABOUT my camera?"
Geoff: "It hit the ground when Lorelei fell."

I wasn't worried too much...I've dropped it a few times. But not when the lens barrel was extended. I pressed the power button, and it powered off. But the barrel didn't retract.

SHIT.
After several tries, I knew the lens barrel was off track or the motor shattered or some other horrible internal tragedy had occurred.

We were seated inside a few minutes later, and the remainder of the dinner was spent with me in barely controlled tears, and Lorelei was quiet. Isabelle, in a show of immense sweetness, offered to let me borrow hers until I could get a new one. (Hers is a small, pocket camera, but I was moved by the gesture)
We do have a spare that only needed a charger and cable, and though it has a pitifully short zoom, it will have to tide me over for a few weeks until payday.

I'm pretty sure that Lorelei doesn't understand how much money it will cost to replace my camera (and though I took it in for a quote, since it will cost upwards of $200 to fix, we aren't going to bother) she also didn't apologize.

I don't blame her, not one bit. She fell, it was an accident. But a "I'm sorry, Mommy" would have made me feel a little better.

So I blame the daffodils.

Hell hath no fury...like Susan without her camera

Okay, let me say all this first...
To answer questions from the comments:
My camera is a Canon Powershot 3IS.
Yes, the image stablization is on.
No, it doesn't have anything on the lens that allows for manual twiddling.
~~~
I know that policies are what they are. They have to be put in place so that everyone is protected, both the store and the customer. I'm sure that policies satisfy 99.9% of customers.

But.

How much is a customer supposed to take?

I took my camera back tonight. But instead of them acknowledging that yes, the camera is still not fixed, and just handing over a replacement, they have to SEND IT BACK TO THE SERVICE CENTER AGAIN, to "validate" that it is not fixed. Are you kidding me? What makes them think that they can pull their heads out of their a**es long enough to figure out that they DIDN'T FIX IT? AGAIN?
So I have to wait 7 to 10 days for this stupid service center to look at it and say, "yep, that zoom is broken" and authorize a replacement.
I added up all the time that I have been without my camera because of these morons, and with this newest send-off, it is almost 2 months. That is just ridiculous.
Why not just give me my money back and let me go get a camera from a store that KNOWS HOW TO FIX ONE? That would not work at all, would it? That would mean a happier customer.
I demanded a manager. That didn't help. He was a very nice guy who didn't deserve the blasting I gave him (I apologized...and he said that he would be just as frustrated as me).

I left the store in tears. Now, I am NOT a crier. I tend to just get pissed off. But I hate to feel impotent and it just was too much to stand.

I had a full day of no snow, no kids....to go birding.
Did I get pictures? Well, sort of:

See that tiny brown bit in the middle? That's a singing eastern meadowlark. About 50 feet away. That camera should have been more than able to focus on an unobstructed bird, in full light. But to get a clearer shot, I DIDN'T zoom.
Hear that, Anonymous?

This is what happened when I pushed the zoom in closer...that slight yellow blob is the front of the meadowlark.
Yet again....I am without my camera. Did I actually pay for this service plan?
If I had it to do over again.....