February ups & downs

It's been a short strange trip of a month:

A week after getting my computer back, it began to misbehave in an even bigger way than before & so the pesky thing had to go back for more rehab.

It had been awhile since I'd trekked down to the lakeshore for photos, so I took advantage of the pc-less time & went, just a day before one of the season's few blasts of arctic below-zero temps arrived. Little did I realize that it was waaay cold enough already — a windy, quite windchill-ish day in the 20s. Managed several photos before numbing fingers & running nose curtailed the session. (Later realized the camera's viewfinder had been damaged by the arctic conditions, leaving it looking as if all that outside ice had moved inside, permanently.)

Meanwhile, back at QRP Computers, my pc trouble was diagnosed as a bad driver, most likely from the software of the spiffy new external harddrive I bought in the fall to protect me from unfortunate electronic malfunctions. How's that for digital irony?! Yeah, I know...old story.

Anyway, next thing I knew it was Feb. 22 & 2006 U.S. Synchronized Team Skating Championships week. What the? Synchronized skating? Huh?? Never heard of it??? Well, it's a competitive sport (really) that mixes & matches aspects of figure skating, ice-dancing & synchronized Busby Berkeley-style formations. On ice. In 18-20 person teams. Synchronized. Cool. Really.

Why did I care? Well, my cousin Larry's daughters participate in the sport. And he & his wife Ellen are parental supporters. Big time.

Why now? 'Cause this year's competition was being held all of 45 mins. away from here in Grand Rapids, MI. Really. How cool is that, to have my Boston relations so close, way out here in the middle of the Michigan winter?

I got to have a "relative" & event-ful week. Spend a fair amount of quality time with my cousins & their friends, see the competitions, and give Larry a mini-tour of my house & town. And let them turn me into a fan. Really. And then go home & watch the Olympic figure skating coverage on tv. So I'm pretty much all skated out now. Despite the fact that now they all expect me to become a synchronized skating groupie....

It was a fun few days, especially since the girls did so well in the competitions: Maggie's Intermediate team came in fourth and Adrienne's Junior team came in second. Pretty cool stuff. And I got to see the top skating team of all, the one from Adrienne's soon-to-be-alma-mater, Miami U. of Ohio.

Perhaps the best, most lasting thing of all was that the experience prompted me to buy not only a new camera but a better one. 'Cause my existing camera had gotten all weathered out & was no longer fully trustworthy. And I had to be able to take pictures of it all, right? And since I'd been thinking of upgrading my photography for some time, having gotten frustrated by the limitations of the existing camera, what better time was there than now, right now? So I did it, bought a digital single-lens-reflex (Canon Digital Rebel XT), and although the price made me sweat, the results are proving priceless. Well, at least they will once I learn how to use it, that is. Its rather steep learning curve is a bit daunting but I'll get there, no matter what.......