Slide Show Update

Happy holidays, everyone! I am now so behind on my blog that it is hopeless to try and catch up. Every few days I write a post in my mind that does not make it to the computer. Things are complicated by the fact that my mother, with whom I am staying right now, does not have internet. Sigh. (I am at my sister's right now, where there IS internet, but where I have to sit by a freezing open window in order to get enough signal. What IS it with this town, anyway?!)

Anyway, I decided I'd better just dive in and start with what's happening now. And that would be ME RUINING THE SLIDE PROJECTOR. Yes, after all those months of going through all those slides, we had ONE NIGHT of slide show, and then the next night, there was this funny dark blobby shape on the screen. Hmm, could the lens be dirty? Wipe lens. Dark blobs still there. Okay, was it all those old, old slides from Aunt Myrtle, leaving dirt on the inside lenses? Uh oh, now the forward and back buttons don't work! Emergency!

So I manually moved the carousel around to show each slide, kind of dark because of the blobby dark spots, and we did view one more carousel (80 slides). Which by the way, were very interesting, as well as the first round, and inspired many stories by Mom about her growing-up years which we hadn't known.

But anyway, after limping through the second carousel, I managed to open a side compartment (thanks to the instruction manual...yes, my parents preserve EVERYTHING in as close to its ORIGINAL, PRISTINE STATE AS POSSIBLE, so thank goodness of course the instruction manual was right there in the box) and saw this HORRIBLE SIGHT:
The lenses on the right? Clear and beautiful, as they should be. The lens near the bulb? SHATTERED! And the bulb? You can't see it in the picture, but there is a big bulge sticking out toward the shattered lens.

Oh, misery and woe! I ruined the projector! I didn't take me long to realize what had happened: the bulb had gotten too hot and bulged out and touched the lens and shattered it. This was due to the fact that I neglected to run the fan at the end of the slide show the first night, instead just SHUTTING EVERYTHING OFF. And the bulb was probably about the temperature of molten lava after the extended discourse on the first 80 slides, including the aforementioned childhood stories. AARRRGGGHHHH!!!

Oh, to go back in time! The press of a button! I looked at the instruction manual. Too late, I read the part about what to do AFTER the slide show was over (RUN THE FAN, IDIOT!), confirming my diagnosis.

Now at this point, some would say "Heather, do not spend one DIME on that old projector." (That someone would be my sister.) But I am not one to give up so easily, nor consign a lovely old, perfectly functional (mostly) projector to the junk heap because of my dumb mistake. Not to mention missing the rest of the slide shows!

So to make a long story short(er), it turns out there is a little camera repair shop called CamTech here in Bend which is run by a person who does not think people that want to repair old slide projectors are crazy, and even had a replacement lens IN STOCK. And I was lucky enough to find a replacement bulb stored with the projector (which is good, because a replacement bulb, I found out, costs $120. I can't even bring myself to write what the lens cost, but at least it was less than that.)

So I got a new lens and found out that the other problems can be taken care of with some servicing and then the projector will last another 40 years. For now, we will forward by hand and run the fan a lot, and I think after that the projector will go in for the servicing.

Because after wrestling with the cost-effectiveness of servicing the projector, to preserve it WHY exactly, and for WHAT?? in this digital age, I have decided that the smile that comes unbidden to my lips when I turn on the projector, and the joy I feel in clicking through each slide and sharing it with my family is PRICELESS.

Thanksgiving and Other Fun Stuff

So we couldn't have Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving. Mark was on call, and he didn't get home until after 10. I spent the day with Sam, his 22-year-old son, and then Sam and I picked up Mark's mom, Nancy, from the airport that evening. We had a rather un-traditional Thanksgiving meal of a smoothie and a delicious spinach salad.

Mark got off call on Friday night, so we scheduled our big meal for Saturday. Then Saturday around 2 p.m. we realized hey! today was supposed to be our big meal! but by then it was too late to make a big meal. Yes, the problem was the TURKEY, which apparently can't be whipped together at the last minute.

I said hey, no problem, we can just have a vegetarian Thanksgiving! But this did not fly. My vegetarian influence only goes so far...Thanksgiving is a non-negotiable turkey event (for now...mwah ha ha).

At least the turkey did come from a local farm where he had a decent, turkey-appropriate life while he was alive.

So Sunday, we had the big meal. And last night, Mark made turkey soup with the rest of the turkey, so thank GOODNESS I will not be looking at a giant turkey carcass when I open the fridge every day from now on.

I have to say, there was one other member of our household who really liked the turkey, though.




Sam had to go back to Michigan State on Sunday, but Mark's mom was able to stay through Wednesday, so we were able to go to the State Theater one night to see "Happy-Go-Lucky." The State Theater is a local theater in the middle of downtown that was lovingly restored one year ago. Plush red velvet seats, a balcony, stars in the ceiling, gorgeous art-deco decor...the whole nine yards. Michael Moore, who lives just outside TC, was the driving force behind restoring the theater and starting up an annual film festival, which has been enormously popular.

In my spare time, I've been working on a little slide project. My dad took thousands of slides, and they've been residing in my basement since he died in 2001. My aunt also was a slide-taker, and her slides had also found residence with me. NOW IS THE MOMENT! to go through all these slides. It's been fun, and I was amazed to find the slide viewer that my dad used still in good shape, with a working light bulb that survived the move. (It's only made of cardboard and plastic, for goodness sake.)

Actually, I'm just amazed to find anything I'm looking for these days!

The best part is I've thrown away ACRES of slides.

And finally, we got a surprise package in the mail the other day. Mark's collarbone is still healing, slowly, and it's cold and icy outside, but for a few moments we were transported to our road-riding days and dreamed of adventures to come. Thank you, Bob and Noelle!

A Walk Along the Bay

Our internet has been down this week...but it seems our neighbor has wireless! So we are going to take advantage and make a post here.

Though it has started snowing again and doesn't look like it will stop anytime soon, we did have a few days in there without frozen water falling from the sky. On one of those days, we had a nice walk along the bay. Just thought I would share a few pictures from that:I love rocks.