Panic!

An hour of panic this morning.... I broke down about a month ago and bought myself a way too big Nikon lens. I put the new lens on my old tripod and broke the head of the tripod. Ugh......

So the only way to fix this awful mess was to continue to stimulate the economy and purchase a new tripod and head. While doing that, I decided to go all out and get a little gadget called an 1.4x extender that makes any lens reach 40 percent beyond its limit.

Well.... yesterday no tripod came by UPS, but the extender did. It again is a beautiful piece of engineering by the Nikon Corporation. I thought I would try the little extender on my 70 - 200mm lens just to get the feel of it. I needed to take Yumiko to her ballet class early, so I quickly took off the 70-200mm lens from my camera and then attached the extender to the camera..... But.... oh no.... the extender didn't fit correctly. I tried to make it fit, but it got worse. It was stuck....terribly stuck. All those little pins that are supposed to go together didn't go. I think I put the extender on backwards. This is awful.... It is totally stuck and I can't get it off the camera. And I need to get on the road to ballet class. And I can't tell Ken and Yumiko that I did all this economic stimulation, so I am horrified and panic stricken. I decided to just grab the camera with the stuck extender and take it to one of the camera shops to see if they could help me get the dang thing off my good camera. I got to Yumiko's ballet school without letting her know of my panic, just gave her a hug and said have a good time at ballet. Then I took a deep breath and drove to the camera shop.

I left the camera in the car and went in to talk to the salesman. He was a young guy and didn't look too camera savvy. When I told him I thought I put the extender on backwards and it was stuck, he held up his hands, shook his head and said "Sorry Ma'am, can't help ya there. You may need to search the internet for a repair shop." Oh.... so awful. What to do??.... I knew there was another camera shop on my way home, but everybody there is so snooty and they already think I'm a batty old lady. I didn't want to admit just how batty, but I had no choice. I girded my loins and got to the second camera shop. It was not open, so I parked the car and hung my head. Then I thought, what the heck, why don't I just gently try again to get the extender off the camera. I picked it up, sat back in the driver seat, said a prayer, and slowly pressed the button that releases the extender. And what should happen? It released!! It was fine all along - just a little tight. It was a total reprieve. I felt almost as good as those people in Tahrir Square did yesterday when Mubarak stepped down. Well, maybe not that good. But pretty darn good. Anyway, I put the little extender back on, attached my 70-200mm lens, took a ride out to Valley Forge and this wonderful little bluebird posed for me. Oh how life can turn like that - at the push of a button.