NOW – LET’S SEE – WHERE WAS I?

A convention, a birthday party, a "quick" road trip, a graduation, a wedding, short visits with three of our children – it doesn't even make a good movie title. I feel as though I have been away from this journal for a very long time. I knew it would be that way. The past ten days have been so busy for me (us). But, you know, a chronology of the past just isn't very interesting. So – let's move on.

I was shopping for groceries at Albertson's on Bridge Street in Clarkston yesterday when the "big storm" hit. Lights flickered, went out, came on, went out again and stayed out. You know how stores are – any natural light comes only through windows at the front. Without the lights, the store is dark. The emergency back-up system gave the store an eerie feel. Initially store personnel made no announcements, but I caught a glimpse of wind and rain as I stood in line at the check-out. After about ten minutes, I gave up the wait, shelved my potential purchases, and left the store. Notice I said – "shelved my potential purchases." That's because Hallie had a brief career in retail and told me how they hate folks who just walk away from their carts or put stuff down and walk out. Before I was finished an announcement was made that electricity might not be restored for several hours but that they "would do their best to get us out." Thanks but no thanks, I said to myself. Turned out the trouble was caused by a brief but unpredicted storm that blew a tree down onto a power line. The electricity was off at that location for more than an hour.

So, here we are at the farm, doing without those extra groceries. We'll be fine – we're staying only a couple of days. It's cool here (63) and wet.

Our Nikon CoolPix camera developed some sluggishness about the automatic lens cover that could no longer be ignored, so we shipped it for repair. Naturally, that didn't go easily. Even though we had registered the warranty when the camera was new, Nikon would not repair under warranty unless we provided the receipt. Keeping receipts seems problematic for us – we just don't get it. So, we had to make more phone calls to get the necessary paperwork in order to save $107 – half the original price of the camera. All paperwork is now in place and we hope to have the camera back soon. Meanwhile, I'm using a $20.00 interim camera we bought at Wal-Mart. The sales associate didn't even want to sell it to us. "Does that thing work?" asked a brother-in-law. For the kinds of pictures we like to take, we should think of upgrading rather than downgrading, I suppose. Thing is – I tend to get excited about the potential of things but frustrated in the reading of manuals and learning to use.

[The photos were taken at the farm with the "cheapy" camera. Photo 1: poppies before the backdrop of Grandma's spirea bush. Photo 2: iris transplanted from an old homestead being demolished. Photo 3: strawberry plants nibbled by the deer -- or the rodents. Photo 4: Grandma's lilac bush making a comeback.] KW