Karma Payback Day
2006-11-20, 16:21

Tragedy has been transformed into joy this weekend.

On Saturday, we tentatively accepted the loss of our digital camera, which has been AWOL since the weekend before Halloween. We fear that it may have been pilfered from our diaper bag by none other than our own baby, who may have either left it in one of the stores we were at that weekend or, more possibly, thrown it out in the trash. Oh, how she does love to throw things away - though ninety-nine percent of the time it's actual trash that she's pitching. We have no way of confirming this, of course, but those are our most credible suspicions. Then again, it might turn up in a crevice of the house we didn't think to look in, in which case The Girl will have a new camera for her own use. This weekend, spurred by a visit there with her Cub Scout den, H noted that we might contact the county waste processing center to see if it might, by some long shot, turn up in a reclamation bin there. They tend to keep the good stuff, following the 'after 30 days it's ours' law. We have little hope of hearing from them this week, and thus we have pretty much resigned ourselves to the loss.

One of us, apparently, resigned herself a little earlier, because we (meaning I, mostly) got an early Christmas present on Saturday night. Opening the wrapping revealed a brand spankin' new Canon Rebel XTi, along with a memory card and a nice carrying bag, as well as a future appointment with a certified Canon specialist at the store of purchase (sometime in January - I'm sure I'll have covered everything they're going to talk about on my own by the time that comes around, but maybe I can squeeze out some more advanced stuff from the instructor there). H decided that we weren't going to go without a camera for the holidays - I was more of the opinion, mainly for sensibility's sake, that we'd have to wait until tax time to replace it, using the second half of our adoption credit return. Not that I'm complaining in any way, shape or form; I'd suggested at one point that maybe we should consider buying one now on credit and paying it off with the return, but H was one step ahead of me (as is often the case).

So now, after waiting so long, we have a Real Camera, with which I can now take Real Pictures - along with the required (and happily taken) family shots and such. I've already taken a few for experimenting, and holycrapisitafastcamera. Mind you, this is an 'entry level' SLR, but to me it's like something handed down by Zeus in Clash of the Titans, in that it holds a lot of power that I can't yet begin to fathom, a gift from the heavens that I surely don't deserve but will try to use to the best of my ability. When I was opening the box, I was even making the classic Glowey Item of Power, 'ahhhh!' sound that divine implements emit. I considered standing up, holding the thing aloft and making a Quest Statement (you know, when the Hero of the story brandishes his/her newly acquired item and states to the world that he/she will not slay the beast or save the town or whatnot), but I thought that might be a little over-the-top.

In yet even more electronics news, I finally managed to spend a gift certificate I got for my birthday, to be spent at a site called Musician's Friend on a recording setup. After much clicking an hemming and scrolling and hawing, I got myself a new digital 8-track recorder - which included a pair of decent condenser mics, one for voice and one for instruments - a pair of pop guards, some cordage, a couple of mic stands, a good vocal effects box and some decent studio headphones. It's kind of a home recording starter kit, and I look forward to putting it to use. Eventually, when we get a new household computer, I'll move the current one downstairs and turn it into a component of the recording system. I'm sure you're thinking that I should be using a Mac for such things, but hey, I'll use what I have. And thank you again, certificate giver; I hope to not same myself too much by underusing such a fine gift.

And the giving has continued into today. This morning I was desperate to find a gas station that didn't charge fifty damn cents to use their air pump, as one of the rims on the minivan is very slightly bent (a typical problem with aluminum rims, I'm told) and needs periodic fill-ups until I can get a replacement. After buzzing through about eight stations on my way to work (all 50 cents, and the Sunoco in Medina wanted 75 cents! Preposterous!), I resigned myself to shelling out two quarters at the Speedway in Fairlawn. I went in to make a quarter out of smaller change because I only had two left and needed one for a shopping cart at Aldi later, and when I asked the cashier, she said, "You need it for air? Here, I'll just turn it on for you." And just like that, free air (like that should in any way be a novelty; what is this, Spaceballs?).

I didn't have the wherewithal this morning to get together a lunch - mainly because I wanted to get out the door early to hunt down a free air machine - so I had to go out. After filling my gas tank, I went to the closest place nearby - BK. It was a little after noon, and naturally the drive-thru was filled to the brim, so I became Savvy Customer and went inside to get a to-go order. A guy from the production department that I see all the time for my job walked in at the exact same time from the opposite side of the joint, and he got it in his head that he was going to pay for my lunch, and no amount of humble refutation would dissuade him. So be it. I dunno what I did recently to deserve this line of benefits that have come my way these past few days, and I'm not going to question it. I just need to make sure and put some of that good fortune back into the system before it bites me. Karma's funny like that.

-- End Transmission --