Just got back from vacation.
A couple of things worth mentioning. First off, I had a really hard
time with getting my film hand-checked at SFO. They apparently took it
as a sign that I was a troublemaker and spent a good 15 minutes rifling
through all my stuff and seeing if a metal-detector baton could be used
for a colonoscopy tool on me. They rub each canister of film with a
swab and then put the swab in a sniffer to see if the film has been
exposed to explosives. The guy at SFO claimed that only 800 speed film
or higher would be damaged by the x-rays, so when he was hand-checking
my film he'd say, "Well, THIS roll isn't high-speed" and then swab it
and throw it with considerable force into a grey plastic bin while the
sniffer did its work. Meanwhile I was assuming the position with my
shoes off and my feet in the foot-shaped outlines. The hardware in my
left elbow repeatedly set off the wand and the stormtrooper tapped my
elbow with his index finger at one point and then tilted his head as if
listening for something. I said, "Elbow bomb? How would I *arm* it?"
OK, bad pun. No reaction, either, other than my pal sticking the wand
up between my legs again and then grabbing my dangly bits from behind
as if he were sizing up produce. Finally all my film had been thrown
into the bin and I was allowed to put my shoes back on and repack my
camera case. Fun.
On the trip back we departed from Indianapolis and the people couldn't
have been any more polite about my film. Very kind and very
professional. You've got to love midwesterners.
Finally, there's the story of how I lost April's lens cap from her
Centurion. We were on a suspension bridge over Sugar Creek and it was
swaying a bit, so I told her to give me her camera and I'd take care of
it for her until we were safely across. She handed it to me and I
immediately knocked the cap off into the creek. I watched it fall about
30 feet into the water. There were signs all around warning that you
shouldn't go in the water because of undertow and drownings and that
you'd be prosecuted for violating the signs and all that, but a few
seconds later I was running into the creek trying to find the cap. I
was sure I knew pretty much exactly where it fell, but pretty soon I
was knee-deep in sharp rocks and the current was trying to suck me
under, so I gave up. The hour I spent trying to get the cap back put us
on trail #3 at Turkey Run State Park (the one they sell "I survived
Trail #3!" T-shirts about in the gift shop) a little later than
intended and about halfway through the trail the sun set on us, so we
ended up spending about an hour or so clinging to cliffs and scrambling
through terrain in the dark that's hard to deal with when you have
sunlight. When we finally got back to civilization I promised her I'd
look around for another lens cap for her and that she'd never have to
go night-hiking through hell again. ;-)
Anyone know of a source for 46mm Oly lens caps?
-Rob
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|