Right now, tops on my list of P&S cameras to get is the Canon SD870 IS. I was debating whether to go with this or to cheap out a lil’ and get a camera more like The Girl’s. What to do, what to do….

I got it! I’ll get that camera, then she can get it too. Here, let me explain.

I got her the camera I got her because it was going to be her first digital camera. It’s a really great camera, but for me, coming from what I am coming from, I really would like to have as much control/featureset as possible, to make the transition easy and enjoyable. I think I’m really going to enjoy (yeah, that’s right, enjoy) the move to a P&S camera, but I don’t want to go too far down the spectrum and just be frustrated, either.

Now here’s the hairy part. If I have a camera that’s similar to hers only better, then of course she’s going to be upset with me. She says she won’t, but let’s be frank here: it’ll look like I shafted her on her gift, but felt perfectly OK splurging on me. And it’s not like that, I swear. Which is why I’m totally prepared to get her a matching one as well. But to make sure it’s a good fit, I’ll be the first to have it, this way we can compare & contrast, then make informed decisions.

Plus, you’re totally welcome to buy it for me.



About AAA….
Yesterday I mentioned how great AAA can be, but threw in a last-minute curveball about my experience. Something that ended like “more on that another day.” Today’s another day, so how’s this?

OK so what happened was as we left, I got stuck about 4ft off the side of the paved road. Looks flat, looks fun, but in reality it was a trap. Well crap now that I was stuck it was time to get started figuring a way out of this mess I’d gotten myself and my two dogs into.

So of course you reach for your wallet, right? Grab that AAA card? Yes of course! Well, except if you make the conscious decision to leave your wallet at home so as to lessen the chance of having it a) lost somewhere in the wilderness, or b) stolen from your vehicle as you’re too far away to keep tabs on it. This wasn’t a one-day decision, I never take my wallet with me when I take the dogs out.

And for reasons unbeknownst to me, I left my AAA info in my wallet, not in my car. So I grabbed the cell phone – which luckily I didn’t forget to bring – and called…. 411. Because I also didn’t have the # to AAA’s roadside assistance hotline that’s printed on the back of the AAA card. Getting their local office yields me a recording of their hours, but luckily (as I had counted on) they had a link to the roadside assistance hotline. I pressed 5. I waited on hold. Eventually I got ahold of someone and explained that I was a member, however I did not have my ID or anything on me, etc, was there any way they could otherwise look me up?

Now thus far all of this has been my fault, and I haven’t even spoken to anyone that doesn’t bark in the night. So let’s end that streak. First thing I hear is a hesitation, followed by “I’ll have to see what my supervisor says,” followed by “Can I have your membership #?” Yeah see, about that…. You may recall about 5 seconds ago I mentioned I don’t have my wallet, ID, card, checks, cash, or shirt & shoes with me. Great. Well I’m on hold again, and eventually they come back and they try to look me up by name. If you don’t know my last name, let’s just say it’s complicated, and if you do, you’re probably laughing already. So I spell it for this older lady, and she gets it wrong. I say “no no, it’s a T, as in Tom,” and she says “P, OK got it,” to which I reply “No No No, it’s a T, as in Tom” to which she replies that she’s got it now.

Time goes by. They can’t find me. They look me up in Southern and Northern Systems, no luck. So I politely inquire if she’s got the name spelled right. Of course she does, of course she does, I hear. But hey, just for kicks, how about you spell it to me?

WHAT THE LIVING F*CK ARE YOU DOING WITH A P IN THERE INSTEAD OF A T?

No I didn’t say that but boy did the thought cross my tonsils before I bit my lip. Well after finally getting the name correct, we find me in the system – in So Cal, not Nor Cal, where it should be – and they decide they’ll help me get towed a whole 4 feet to dry, solid pavement. Now it’s just a matter of getting my location…

Where am I? At the end of a dead-end road that has no name, about a mile off the freeway off an exit that I don’t know the name (I only follow the brown Park signs), in the middle of nowhere. Oh yeah, this is a great exercise. Well she’s got the internet (I hear it’s a wonderful thing), and she says she’s been trying to use google maps all day without success. She says it has been quitting on her all day, must be the weather (no, it’s your computer, c’mon!). She keeps telling me she can’t look it up, is there any way I can remember the name of the street that doesn’t have a sign, meanwhile I’m hearing the tick-tock of minutes fly by on my pay-as-you-go mobile phone that’s running low on minutes as it is, begging her to just open up the damn map program and type in the name of the wildlife reserve.

Finally she tries again and wouldn’t you know it works. She finds my location and the street names (Pound street? Really?), and I think in another minute or two that I’ll be rescued, right? Oh no, she’s not done with this fancy internet thing yet. She wants to see if she can find the address for the reserve, the one that’s at the end of a dead-end street anyway, and could easily be described as “at the end of the dead-end.” Well this fails miserably as I told her it probably would (“please don’t do that, there’s two different reserves with the same name 15 miles apart”), and she’s no longer looking at the right screen with the street names.

Well time ticks on, and I eventually get her to just call it in as “The end of the dead-end street.” She gives me the reference # – which I don’t think will matter as I’m probably out of minutes now anyway but whatever – and tells me it’ll be 45 minutes. This after almost 40 minutes on the phone with her.

And with that the story’s almost complete. Except that I have to mention that when the tow truck guy got there, he was surprised that I didn’t have any ID, a AAA card, or anything else other than tattoos to identify me. You know, you’d have thunk that with everything considered in this particular case, that might be important info to give to the guy coming to pull me out. Seeing as how they typically need that stuff when they get there, you know? Apparently not.



Odd Timing award of the night
Speaking of how I feared my minutes would run out mid-rescue-conversation, about 2 minutes after I got off the phone with my lovely AAA roadside assistance agent, I get a call from Virgin Mobile that it’s time to “top up” my phone’s minutes.

Guess they watch that stuff like hawks, eh?

Peace.

Tags: earth conditions, hate