Loose Ends
Low tech
Susan Nienow

Some have a CD collection - we have a trunk full of photos and negatives, one completed baby book, one blank baby book with photos and memorabilia stuck in the front, and four completed albums. That means four albums with photos in each slot. It doesn't mean four scrapbooks with captions, borders, a few feathers and folded decorative paper.

Scrapbooks are a sore point with me. I love them. They are creative and interesting. I have all of the specialty scissors that cut zigs or zags, scallops and fancy corners. And I have saved all of the kids' programs when they sang in the third-grade chorus. But if I can't do them right, with all of the extras, then I don't do them at all. So we have 30 some years of pictures still in the envelopes with the negatives.

Now, one of us takes most of the pictures with the digital camera. It made it through four days of a five-day reunion with two college friends I hadn't seen in over 30 years. One of them has a cottage on a river. Then the camera went "pfitttt" and quit. Actually, it just quit - no "pfitttt." I had been busy taking pictures as we were celebrating three birthdays of monumental import and one anniversary. (All anniversaries are of monumental import.)

When my other half got his hands on the little memory card, he took it away and got three copies of each picture. That is over 300 pictures. I took pictures of people. He took pictures of old boats - most of them in an old boat museum. He is sure the guys will want all those boat pictures.

We used to look at all of the pictures at the store and decide which ones to print. But now the pictures are too small.

It is painfully obvious as we look at the prints that some of the faces are a bit fuzzy. The camera is self-focus, my other half says. That means I look through the viewfinder, push the button part way down until I see the green light - or maybe it's until I don't see the green light - and then push it down the rest of the way.

I think if it says "self-focus," it should do it all by itself and not need my help.

The big question is what to do about the camera. In the old days, the camera broke when you dropped it. Now, it just quits. Will it be cheaper to get it fixed or buy a new camera? The last time I had my computer fixed, the guru said computers were designed to last about three years. What is the life of a camera?

The camera is hooked up with the computer so we can send photos or print them out. I used to know how to do that, but we have a new computer. I haven't a clue where to look for the pictures. If you see them, let me know.