thewayne | It's been a heck of a week.

Russet broke her car last Thursday, and the fun began! It was towed to a body shop, and when it was found to be a broken transmission mount, it had to be towed again. She was working at the time and staying in the dormitories at the observatory and wasn't really reachable during daylight hours. Everything was complicated because the tow truck of where it was going was down for service.

Eventually we got things straightened out, the car was towed to the mechanics on Thursday, and it was fixed Friday. We went out for dinner and saw Serenity, definitely recommended.

Apparently Tuesday I caught a cold at school, it began manifesting Wednesday and I was thoroughly miserable Thursday and Friday. I've found that an over-the-counter decongestant that I bought did better for me than a prescription my new doctor gave me.

Tuesday was a double-whammy day, in this case, literally. I spent close to three hours in the darkroom between algebra and my photo class and ran out to get some food before class started at 7pm. I left my bag of photo supplies in the darkroom (paper, cleaning supplies, all sorts of crap) and headed downhill to my car, stopping in the science building to check in at work (they have a wireless lan). After packing my stuff, I decided to carry my camera, in this case, my digital with the 28-300 zoom. Normally it rides in my backpack.

As I was walking across the room to leave, the strap undid itself and the camera fell. My heart pretty much stopped.

The camera hangs lens-down and obviously falls that way. It torqued the lens cap, but that's ok as it's plastic and resumed its shape as soon as I popped it off. Less good was the fact that I can't get the UV filter off the lens, so obviously something got bent. The camera turned on and seemed OK, but there's a lot that can go wrong and it still look ok.

It's actually probably a good thing that I had the less expensive digital camera with the plastic body. The plastic will absorb the shock without deforming as badly (depending on height of fall and surface landed on) whereas a metal body would probably sustain damage. I was also benefited since the camera only fell about three feet, and the strap sliding across my body would slow it a bit.

I did some shooting Wednesday and it is now apparent that the auto-focus aspect of the lens is dead. It seems to manually focus just fine, and all other operations of the lens seems OK. I need to test my known-good lens on the digital body and confirm that it's the auto-focus mechanism in the lens, not the body.

So as of now, it looks like I got off lightly. This is the first time in a lot of years of photography that I've had a strap do this. I'll definitely have to keep an eye to avoid this in the future.

Russet's mother, Clare, was operated on Thursday to clear a carotid blockage. Due to previous problems stenting her femoral artery, they operated directly on the carotid artery. This was to be attempted in early/mid August, but various problems prevented it from being done.

It's now been a month and the operation was carried off apparently without a hitch. Clare spent the night in intensive care after the operation, and the next day, SHE WAS RELEASED. She's home, recovering, and two of her daughters are keeping an eye on her. She hurts, but that's nothing unexpected.

So we are VERY happy!

I still have a job! My contract was up at the end of September, but it's been renewed "for a few weeks". I don't know how long that is for, but something is better than nothing. My boss is out of the office next week, I expect to find out when he returns.