Kee-rist! I’m sick over it. I’ve tried to be so damn careful with this camera…first of all because it cost me an arm and two legs about three years ago – and second because I take it almost everywhere with me because I love to record my life experiences and look at them over the years…as they actually were, not as I ‘think’ I remember them. I checked into the Sony website to see how much it would cost to repair this little unit…now I’m waiting to hear back from them…and in the meantime, I’m going camera shopping. I absolutely can’t live without one.

And what happened? The story goes like this…no poker involved, just people and life: I picked up that sweet boy, Riot, and took him to a birthday party. A special friend’s son was having his third birthday – LemLem and Nebi.

Poor Nebi – an only child – and here was Riot screaming through all of Nebi’s toys and ‘play domain’. But Nebi took it pretty well – Riot would behave the same way on his turf – and they managed to share a drink, toys, noise and more without getting into too big of a tiz. Lemlem helped Riot debut with Nebi’s Karaoke machine.

These three managed to sit for a picture just before we were leaving the party, but Riot would have none of it.

Maybe the reason Riot refused to sit with The Group was because he thought he was the photographer – he found their camcorder!

Amazingly, they all ran around, drank from each other’s Capri Sun punch bags, ate each other’s food, pushed and shoved each other out of the way as they fought their way into the toy melee and balloons, and the party really wasn’t starting until after Riot and I left. I had to go to work. The rest of the crowd was arriving and festivities were taking place much later. But it was time to fly. Riot fell asleep in the truck; Mom came out and gathered him up:

This is how the camera took its last picture until the Sony Medical Center can check it out: I took the above picture of Mom and Son, grabbed the car seat and took it inside, and as I bent down to set the car seat on the tile floor, the camera strap slipped off my shoulder. Tile floor, meet Sony DSC – F717. *sob*

But in tribute to the camera and the zillions of great pictures its taken over the years, here are a couple that strike my fancy right now. I found the Yellow Submarine in the last place I ever thought I’d find it…the parking lot of Nevada Palace:

And this is what’s been going on outside my coach for the last two weeks – add men yelling commands at each other, cranes, trucks, walkie talkies. Sheesh! Day shift looks pretty appealing when I’m trying to sleep through this:

The new camera is here, I’m learning how to use it. Life goes on. Sleep is what’s going to go on next.