Follow up to the Camera Story

So, I tried in vain to find my camera and instead found someone else's.  The camera I found was from the Indianapolis airport, thanks to the woman who tried to return the camera to the rightful owner.  It wasn't mine, but fate instead gave me an opportunity to reach out to the horse community and ask for help finding the owner. The surprise is that I found some new folks willing to help, some folks who just told me I was mis-directed and some folks who said I needed to give it up.

All of them lauded my effort to return the camera.  So, to whomever has my camera, enjoy.  The 16gig sd cards will carry you forward for a long while.  The camera is wonderful with a lumix lense.  I am sure that the trainers, Wolfgang, Eugene and Richard will love having a new audience.  The movies that I did not  download that are one the SD's  are my bad and your good fortune.  My daughter is an awesome rider and the videos shall not be reproduced.  Love that they are all in Florida.

I am happy to have a camera, but I have to say that I am sad it is not mine.  It feels like it is not mine.  And the new photos that it has taken of my three kids on the sofa wrestling like ten year olds, are nice but not the same.  It's just not really mine yet.  But I am glad to have a camera.  Glad to have reasons to take pictures, and glad to have a horse world to reach out to when I need advice.

Take care my friends.

Update, found a new website on my facebook page.  http://www.ifoundyourcamera.net

How about that!

and eventing is really fun Mom!

joy of a great ride

ready to ride

Rising to the Occasion of Finding the Horses?

So, last blog, I told you about the graduation and the whirlwind trip to Indiana after my son graduated, rushing to watch my niece graduate.  Somewhere between graduations ( I think), I lost my camera.  Now its not a fancy camera, just a Panasonic Lumix TZ4.  Here is an ebay link to one so you can see what it looks like. http://www.ebay.com/ctg/100135083?_imid=140572129651#

The horse photo is just to get your attention. Keep reading the blog for more information.

I have had it for a long time and it had several SD cards with photos of my daughter riding, horses, family gatherings, videos, etc.  Most of it, probably not so valuable to anyone but me.

I called everywhere.  When I called the civic center http://www.tlccc.org/,  I got a recording and left messages.  No return calls from them.  I called Tallahassee Airport, thinking that perhaps I left it in the screening area and some kind soul turned it in. I have to say that getting someone to help you look for something requires a lot of skill.  Most of those folks have other things to do and did not sound too terribly interested in my plight.  They told me they turn everything over to the Tallahassee Police Department.  More on that later.  Finally, I spoke to one very nice officer who said, yes he does have a Panasonic camera in a black case.  I drive all the way to the airport, stand in security, watch the line of travelers proceed to the pat and chat area.  Soon,  the ever helpful TSA comes to show me the camera.  He lifted it out of the bag and then I saw that it was not mine.  Drat!

While I was there, I stopped to see the lonely Delta Airline baggage claim lady, who genuinely looked happy to see me.
think the Maytag repairman of Delta Airlines.  Surrounded by nondescript black bags (don't those people know the ribbon trick?), she jumped to the file cabinet to search through her 18 inch wide lost and found drawer.  Books, combs, brushes, make up bags, wires that go to whatever, no camera.  On with the search.

Next, I called Tallahassee Police Department and asked speak to the officer in charge of the PROPERTY ROOM.
The PROPERTY ROOM is clearly identified on the TPD website as the place to call.  I have never seen this place, but it must be like a morgue of lost things because the officer sounded as if her first career was in a funeral parlor. Her voice was a little echoy and she said with no hint of emotion whatsoever, there isn't a camera like that here.  And that ended it, there was no more to say. She made that clear. Click and another dead end (no pun intended).

Next is the Enterprise rental car company who refers me to the Airport Security of Indianapolis airport to check.  I get through to the lost and found in the Indianapolis airport and talk to a woman who is as sweet and concerned as the day is long.  She assures me that when she has a relief person on the switchboard, she will go look for my camera.  When I call her back hours later, she says in the softedt, but most professional manner, "Yes, we have Panasonic camera that was turned in on June 4, 2011 AND has horses on it."  The case was gone, but it sounds so close to the description. I asked her to open the little doors and describe the SD Card, but she didn't want to risk damage.  But hallelujah, I have a camera!  It had to be!

I had it shipped second day, laying out the $20 with confidence.  It came in a flat envelope, remarkably undamaged.  I opened it and carefully unwrapped the Indianapolis map that it was folded into, and of course, it isn't mine.  But now is the question. Perhaps an ethical one, perhaps one of fate.

No one claimed this camera.  No one called the Indy airport.  I paid for the shipping.  And I have the camera.  And should I keep it? Maybe, but not without trying to find the owners.

Now here is the CLINCHER!  They ate at a BJ's restaurant http://www.bjsbrewhouse.com/locations and had a party and the restaurants are here in Florida!  Some one in the horse community of Florida can help fine the owners.  This little camera must have flown to Florida and returned to Indy, while mine was flying to Indy maybe.

So, all of you out there, I need your help to identify the horses and the scenery.  Maybe if I can figure this out, fate will send me my camera back!  I want to be careful.  I want to be thourough, but mostly, I don't want those folks to have the same feeling as me.  So pass this to all your horse friends and lets get this back to the owners! Thank you to other sites like

Horses for Sale - - HorseShowCentral provides many FREE ads for sale horses, all breeds. http://www.horseshowcentral.com

http://www.ifoundyourcamera.net

Rising to the Occasion of graduation.....

Wow, what a weekend starting June 3.  Worked till 11:00 a.m. on Friday and had a crowd by 3:30 p.m. gathering to celebrate the youngest son's graduation from high school.  Everyone a flitter and a flutter trying to get ready, see everyone, hug and get in the right photo.  So excited was the youngest of the family to finish, that he almost forgot to go to the stadium for pre-ceremony assembly!

He rushed from the house in white sports socks and black shoes, a polo shirt (school colors), but at least he had the Cap and Gown.  Whew!  Then, trying to get everone out the door in time for the ceremony was a struggle.  Much more fun to stand around and eat and talk in the air condition when you know that it is a 102 degrees outside with humidity to match.  But upward and onward we drove to the  civic center for the last high school graduation of our little nuclear family.  The last assembly, commencement speech, class president memory tour, and the rocking Florida High School orchestra that I will hear for a very long time.  It is fabulous to see the teachers, the enthusiam, the dedication, year after year.  It has to be a profession of love, for who else could go to high school graduation every single year!?!

We arrive at the stadium with five senior citizens all over 70, who do not like climbing bleachers.  There is the hearing problem as in too loud and deafening at the same time.  There is the height problem, the too far to walk problem and the too far away problem.  I assure them all, that the critical thing is their presence.  The fact that they are there, standing to applaud the newest graduate is all that is expected. And it is wonderful.  They struggle though the inconveniences of places planned for young noisy crowds, to celebrate the members of the young noisy crowd.  And though they cannot wait to leave the stadium, they stay till the end, and applaud with enthusiasm.  They truly rise to the occasion of the event.

My son, young and eager to be finished, is celebrating the change of the tassel from right to left.  He is running around with the other now non-students, the soon to be soldiers and the one that got into med school early.  He is ecstatic about his future, going to the community college (this one doesn't want to leave home) and then to FSU.  He is my quiet one and probably the most reliable.

Soon after, my father and daughter and I left the house to jump on a plane to Indiana.  My sister's oldest graduated Sunday.  We flew and drove all day Saturday; the small town of Benton is not near an airport. They do have incredible wind farms. The vast fields of corn and soy were beautiful and reminded me I have no idea how to plow so well, such straight and perfect looking lines.  Indiana, where basketball is a way of life like farming.  Where boys in jeans with boots really work on a farm and drive tractors and trucks before they get licenses.  Where swimming pools are in-doors and buildings have sharp pitched roofs to deflect the snow.

We arrived in time to go to Lowes and buy the gifts every girl needs: a drill, a hammer, tape measure, picture hanging stuff, and of course a bunch of screwdrivers.  We loaded the tools into a trashcan and wrapped it with a new welcome mat.  It was quite different than the prettily wrapped packages of cooking wares and bed spreads.

The event was at the high school gym and the air condition was on full bore, freezing us in the nose bleed section.  The people were excited and anxious about their child approaching the stage, as each set of photographers rushed to the front to snap the action shot of their loved one.

Our beautiful neice, grandaughter and cousin was all smiles as she debuted a graduate, an independent a young woman ready for the experiment of life.  She was as lovely as she could be, all smiles and hope.  She is the promise of the future, and I look at her and my son and think they will rule the show one day soon.  My generation will gracefully or not so gracefully,  choose to move over and let the young cell phone, laptop, android, ipad, 4g generation have the reins.  And I wish them the best, and know that they will do fine and lead the next set of graduates to the platforms that mark our lives.

And I already am planning for my trips up the bleachers, to attend the ceremonies that I can't hear, can't really see, but will joyously celebrate, as others have theirs.  Good luck class of 2011.