—1— My camera view finder glass broke 
It’s got several cracks in it but none of the glass has fallen out yet. Thing is, I have no idea how it happened, one minute I was taking pictures and then I turned it off and saw it. At first I thought it was a spider web or something similar had gotten on it, but then I saw and felt the cracks. I didn’t drop it or bang it up against anything that I’m aware of. 
I’ve been very careful with this camera, the old one’s would fall on the floor from time to time etc, but that never happened with this one. My only guess would be that it was something in my purse, except I’m sure I would have noticed it when I started taking pictures that afternoon, I took them in 3 places and it was only after I finished in the last that I noticed it was broken.
Since the glass isn’t coming out and getting in my eye, I am going to wait a bit to see about replacing it. It should be under 1 yr warranty, and I got it in July. At the very least I will wait till after baby’s 1st birthday and party, I do not want to be without it for more than 1 day (I drop it off in the morning and get it back in the evening!) I am not open to shipping it somewhere else in Canada, I don’t think I’d survive without it that long!
—2— And then things got worse… Wednesday evening I told DH he could go biking with baby, so I could get a few photos off my camera. I plugged it in as usual, and I think the drive window came up, but when I went to access it 5 min or so later, it was gone. And I couldn’t get it back. And then the screen where you push enter to access storage after plugging in the camera (s opposed to printing the photos for example) stayed black, and if I pressed enter it took a photo. The pre-focus stopped working properly in at least my favorite shooting mode, which is the mode I need to capture an active little baby without blurring. I tried one of the other pre-set shooting modes, the active children setting (instead of blur reduction) and when I took a picture the camera decided it was possessed and would not stop clicking away until I turned it off. It really isn’t very usable this way, at best it will take me about 3 pictures to focus a shot, by then baby may have moved on to other things.
This is very serious because I do not want to be unable to capture up-close those special moments of baby’s first birthday. And my point and shoot digital (the old camera) just won’t cut it for speed, and often blurs shots too (because it doesn’t have a fast enough shutter speed). I made a plan to go to the camera place asap, I really needed to know what my options were (if there were any).
—3— So, first thing Thursday, I took the camera in to the place, knowing that they probably couldn’t fix it without sending it away, but hoping for some sort of back up, like you get when you send away a cell phone for repair. However, I was not too surprised (but very disappointed) when they told me that ‘no, they didn’t have rental cameras.’ I just wonder if this situation ever comes up, or if I’m the only one to have my camera break at one of the worst possible times. I also wonder what the professionals do, the one’s that can’t necessarily afford a new one, or buy 2 to start with.
—4— Anyway, I was not about to give up on an alternate, even though the camera had started to cooperate again (at least it seemed). So, especially after trying the camera again to see if it was still fixed and it wasn’t, I pulled out a phone book and started calling around. It seemed no one rented cameras, video cameras sure but not photo cameras. I could always hire a photographer, but that really wouldn’t be the same as if I took the photos myself. However, one of my best hopes was to call the repair shop downtown, where I had bought the camera before this one. They told me they did do rentals, but didn’t have anything suitable available, BUT they said there were places that rented them around here, and they gave me a name, Aperture Studios.
Apparently these guys specialize in renting photography equipment, probably mainly for students in the field, for those who can’t afford to buy what they need. For $60 or $75 I can rent a proper high end camera, as good as the one I had, for 24 hours. It might seem a bit extravagant, but that camera has been the best thing I ever bought, and unlike most things that you want at first and then the novelty wears off, I have used it almost daily since I bought it.
I guess this camera thing too is still an exercise in detachment (even though I don’t think I’m exactly cooperating), because at some point I will have to be without the camera for a week or more while it gets shipped back to the manufacturer, but that will wait until after the baby’s first actual birthday, so sometime next week I guess I’ll have to ship it off. Maybe without it I’ll have time to post those beach photos haha.
—5— To help out someone who lost their home in the Purcell’s Cove Fire about a month ago a concert is being held to raise money. The interesting thing is that the concert is being held out here in Timberlea (and not all that near Purcell’s cove rd) and it will be in the nearby cul-de-sac, about 2 houses down from where we live. As a result, we’re going to have a free concert, I don’t feel like paying $20 for a hot dog and a pop, but I hope they get lots of people.
—6— As a result of 4 on Thursday afternoon one of the bands was rehearsing on their deck. We could hear them loud and clear in the back yard and it was just really awesome. It wasn’t like it was metal or anything, it was the kind of music I like and it was so nice to just sit outside in the sunny back yard listening to free live music. My mom would not have appreciated the noise of course, but she’s not me.
Thursday had God written all over it: first I was able to find a rental place and thus find hope in a seemingly hopeless situation, then there was the wonderful afternoon free concert in the back yard, and finally a glorious sunset, one for the most dramatic I think I’ve ever seen, right as I turned onto the bay road after scrapbooking class.
—7— The apartment is still not rented and will probably not be rented until at least July, but it has been whitewashed–err painted. Hopefully now that I have let go of the colors as God wanted me to I’m sure, we will have some luck with renters, but as of yet we don’t have any. We have another showing monday.
