Can’t wait to read your blog after you have caught up with him...and it is strange he is coming home a week early.  Maybe it was his choice?  If he does something like this again, perhaps it is worthwhile to have a less expensive digital camera for just such a thing. Or purchase a better one than the one he has for his all the time use and save the one he has now for trips back to NO.  (I bet he goes back!!) Of course, he might be pleasantly surprised with the results of the disposable camera.  You just never know.....

And boy do I feel your pain, I know exactly what you mean about putting a crimp in your schedule.  And, yes, you will work around it and yes, it will be fine, but it most assuredly does..........I went through the same thing a few weeks ago.  A week long business trip was cancelled at the last minute and even though I would have been working most of the week, it absolutely messed up all the plans I had for the week--projects, little things that can be done more efficiently (and better) with no one else around.  Yes, I know exactly!!

Happy sunny. summer Sunday!!

The lad arrived back in Boston last night on schedule. Smelly and all. He’ll stay at his Dad’s house until tomorrow—he and his step bro have some catching up to do and a cigar to smoke tonight. ;)

I talked with him for about an hour this afternoon. He had stories. He has stories. And one of the long timers there gave him a CD full of pictures that she’s taken. Just in case his don’t turn out.

He wants to go back. He’s seriously homesick already. And freezing. It’ll take a while to settle back in. But he may go back in August.

And...a new term I learned today.

FEMAcrackers. Not a complimentary term. Widely (pervasively) used by residents. Doesn’t merely reflect dislike...it’s bone deep hatred. Deeper than bone deep. Kind of funny story behind the coining of the term...in a sick way.

Oh. The reason why he’s back a week early is because the Dad was thinking next week and told the airline ticket person this week when he changed the airline tickets. It was a mistake, but once done, he decided to leave it. He’s glad the lad is home. It was a tough three weeks for him.

Meanwhile, the lad’s possessions sit outside until time to come home. Once here, he’ll unload everything on the deck and do a thorough check for stray passengers of the 8 legged kind before anything is allowed in the house. Brown recluses regularly took up housekeeping in his backpack. Shudderrrrrrr!!

And now back to tidying up the loose ends of a couple of my projects. I have an extra day!

He might be pleasantly surprised by the output from those disposable cameras.  I’ve used them a few times with pretty good luck (before I bought my own digital camera).  The pictures can be digitized onto a CD Picture Disk for an extra five or six bucks per camera, too.

Good for him!!  Sounds like he may decide he wants to transfer to a college in that area after his freshman year!  Absolutely unload on the deck, shake everything twice, then do it all again, if possible, leave it out overnight to be extra cautious.  You just never know.

I love it that the dad had a rough 3 weeks--dads generally are pretty relaxed about most things--at least the one here was and still is - so it is nice once in a while to hear the tables were turned!!

Linkmeister, I’ve had pretty good experiences with disposable cameras, too. Picture quality always seemed to be about on par with the instamatics and such. After getting used to using a digital and instantly seeing what your pictures look like on the digital’s LCD screen, though, it makes film seem so uncertain. But at least the pics can be put on CD so that they can be fixed up a bit with Photoshop if need be.

Cyn, I asked him if he envisoned himself moving there one day. NO, he said. Their creepy crawlies are too HUGE and it’s one thing to put up with them on a temporary basis, but not permanently. He likes the relatively bug-free north. It’s kind of a wonder to me that they weren’t regularly peeling him off the ceiling every time he came in contact with a creepy crawly. The day he saw the black tarantula casually making its way past him while he was unloading some pallets was the day he categorically decided he would not make a good southern transplant. The big hairy thing reared back on its hind legs and lifted its front legs as if saying, “Come on fella, I dare ya.” That clinched it for him.

It’s funny.  I’m no professional photographer, but I find that there are some things I do better with my old Canon A-1 35mm SLR film camera than with my digital Canon.  I find my extremely low-end digicam (Canon SD110) is on a par with my early (1964) Kodak Instamatic for picture quality.  The ability to instantly see the pix and edit them makes the difference, though.