To paraphrase Robert Oppenheimer, who was himself quoting the Bhagavad Ghiti: “I am become death, destroyer of consumer electronics.” An exaggeration perhaps, but not my much.
As Melanie points out, I am tough on my gadgets. In the time that she has known me, I have left in my wake one broken videocamera, two still cameras, two iPods, a TiVo, along with keyboards and mice and other lesser products that I haven’t bothered to enumerate. The latest casualty was the Canon point-and-shoot camera that my in-laws kindly gave us for Christmas 2006 after I broke the display on our previous point-and-shoot. New cameras of comparable quality are not expensive—about $150 on Amazon.com—but with an impending move and my recent purchase of an iPod touch (to replace the dying iPod mini I gave to Melanie for her birthday 3 years ago and co-opted for my commute when my iPod starting dying last summer) we couldn’t justify even that.
Incidentally, the videocamera died during our wedding ceremony, reception, and honeymoon, rendering the footage unwatchable. And the TiVo, which was admittedly six years old, started rebooting on its own, messing up the recording schedules.
So on Wednesday I was taking a cute video of Isabella playing with bubbles in the kitchen sink when I turned away and lost control of it, dropping it onto the kitchen floor and breaking it so the lens would no longer move in and out. And with Sophia’s baptism this weekend, the timing couldn’t be worse.
Fortunately, my friend George, a professional photographer with more than 25 years experience, lent me a spare camera for the weekend. It’s such a nice camera, a Canon digital SLR, and I was able to take some great shots of Melanie, Isabella and Sophia this afternoon. Oh I wish I had one of these. But through the generosity of a friend, I do for the weekend. I promise him I will be extra careful.
But eventually I will have to select my next victim, er, camera. I’m buying the service plan next time.
