It Was a Sad Day

School is over and two of my children are very sad. Right now I'm very sad, but not because school is out for the summer. That makes me happy. The two children are sad because they miss their friends already. One of the children cried and cried at school. This is what I get for home schooling them for nine years. They can't just be sick of school by May and ecstatic to have summer stretching ahead of them. Poor children.


This picture. I'm breaking my rules, but I'm giving you no names. These are Little Guy's two best friends in the world. He spent this entire week being sad that he won't see them again till next fall. One is moving to another state to live with his dad, so he may never see him again. It breaks my heart sometimes, being a mom. It really is like walking around with your heart on the outside.

Aren't they handsome boys? Little Guy favors this picture because the boy on the right is smiling a little. They're both great boys. I wish I could keep them.

Why am I sad though? I almost hesitate to tell you all, but someone's liable to ask eventually. I did a tremendous amount of research about the problem yesterday and it looks as though I'm without real recourse, shy of spending way too much money. If any of you can tell me otherwise, please, please do. It's killing me.

I took over 600 pictures yesterday. Four hundred were keepers. That's a stinkin' lot of pictures. I've really enjoyed my Canon Rebel 300D the last three years, taking it everywhere. It's been an extension of my right arm. Yesterday I was taking pictures at the fourth grade tug of war (what a hoot THAT was!) and the viewfinder went black. Just black. I'd press the button and the poor little thing would struggle to focus, but it just couldn't. I could almost hear it panting with the effort. Then I switched it to a different setting, one with auto flash, and the flash would pop up. Still it would strain, trying to focus, to no avail. Still black. So I switched lenses. Then I switched out the battery. Finally I switched out the CF card. Still black. Poor little camera. Maybe it overheated, right?

Coming home, after a full day at school (I'll show you in a second), I jumped on the computer to see how to fix it. This problem was a toughie, difficult to find an answer. I finally called Canon, who simply said, "You'll have to send it in." Well, I wanted to know what that would cost. I got an very rough estimate of one to 300 hundred dollars plus. Sounds like, though, the shutter mechanism is broken. The little mirrors aren't moving the way they should. I took the lens off and snapped a couple of pictures without it and they snapped VERY SLOWLY. With the lens back on, I can now see though the eyepiece, but the pictures come out 4/5 black. I haven't taken it out of its case all day today. I'm very sad.

One of the things I read, which disturbed me, is that this camera is known to only have a photo life of 10,000 to 12,000 pictures before the shutter breaks. And I've read that that mechanism is plastic. My husband calls it planned obsolescence and it makes me angry. If I'm going to pay a buttload of money for a piece of electronic equipment, I expect it to last a little longer.

Let me show you, in memoriam, some of the Canon's last shots.


Pull! Pull! Pull!


Mrs. Clark giving last minute instructions.



And this is what I spent the morning doing, manning the bug tank. I was the mom who repeatedly buried the plastic bugs in with the dirt and live crickets for two hours. The child would dig for the fake bugs while I counted to thirty, then they'd count their fake bugs and I'd say, "Great job!" What surprised me was the ratio of girls to boys who were digging through the live crickets. Mostly girls. My kind of girls.

But can you see it? The Canon was taking really crappy shots all day and I couldn't figure out why. It was dying and I didn't even know it. I'd think about getting it fixed, but as I read up on the problem and on the camera itself, I think I'd like something a little better in a camera. The Rebel was a great starter camera and I've learned a lot. And it's going to be a long time before I can afford what I want. Oh well.

So cry with me, will you? My heart is breaking. And this blog will be photoless for a bit.

Until I write again ...

Flea