The Land of Dead Electronics

Apparently I have become the Grim Reaper for electronics. I'm not feeling so good about this. They say these things come in sets of three, I'm getting nervous. It started last night....

Causality #1
I hope you enjoyed the photos on the last entry because those are the swansong photos from my digital camera - the little bugger died on me last night. Allow me to rant...

I have/had a Cannon Power Shot SD 500. Its been a fairly pleasant little guy over the past few years. But I've now nick named it the Stupid-Hunk-of-Metal-Designed-to-Torture-Me.

I was in my studio last night taking pictures for the previous post when I set it down on the floor next to me to root around through one of my bins. I heard the lens retracting, which is normal when it goes into sleep mode, but then it started beeping and having the equivalent of an electronic seizure.

The lens would go out, then try to go back, get stuck, try to go out, come back, get stuck. Over and over. I just sat there and stared at it for a minute, kind of fascinated, until I realized that this week's Where I Stand Sunday photo was still on there and I hadn't downloaded it and that I probably shouldn't let it flail around on the (hardwood) floor like that when it was holding photos hostage.

It was also displaying an E18 error, which wasn't in my user guide and I'd not gotten before. So I went online to look up what it is and found its a chronic defect in Cannon cameras. At one time there were so many people peeved off about it they were trying to organize a class action lawsuit. Hmmmmm....this is not boding well.

In short, it will cost hundreds to repair the defect and many people reported it kept right on happening even after getting it "fixed." So then my mind went straight to how much swearing is acceptable in public forums because if I get this thing fixed and it starts acting up when I'm at IQF, there will be unladylike language coming out of my mouth. (They may not invite me back either.) So after discussing the whole thing with my very talented photographer brother, I've decided to suck it up and get a new one. I've whimpered about it off and on all day today but I'm getting over it...



Causality #2
Today was a domestic duty day and that involves laundry. How unfortunate for my washing machine friend that I chose to use it today...

Tossed in the first load, went about other things, went to retrieve first load, noticed strange burnt rubber smell upon entering the laundry room, opened washer and clothes are sopping wet. W E T. And of course I had chosen to do a load of sweaters. Wringing them out in the laundry tub was a joy that I would have been perfectly content to live my entire life without knowing.

It appears the belt has gone buh-bye. And this is pretty much the final nail in the coffin for this thing. Its been having troubles for a while. The biggest being that its one of those lovely front loader machines that moonlights as a mold incubator. We've tried everything from washing the seal and door with straight up bleach, then those "special cleaning solutions" that are supposed to help. I've sworn at it many a time (didn't work, but made me feel better) and even considered hiring someone to come do some voodoo magic on it but nothing has worked. It keeps on growing disgusting mold.

So secretly I'm happy its dead because I have a sneaking suspicion my sinus troubles will clear up once I'm not "cleaning" my clothes in mold hell. But that's another electronic item dead after I used it.

Causality #3
???? Care to wager a bet what it will be? Nothing else has croaked yet today but I got all twitchy after the washer took its leave. After I recovered feeling in my fingers (the clothes were not only sopping wet but also ice cold), I went straight upstairs and got my external hard drive and backed up this here laptop I'm typing on right now.

I'm not taking any chances. I would probably invent a special set of curse words if my laptop was the final victim but I would most likely require a special white coat with extra long sleeves if I lost all the data on it. So the data has been backed up and is safe and I'm still nervous but so far so good. (Although mom says it really started last week when my computer died at work. So according to her, I've met my three dead electronics quota but I'm still not in a trusting mood over the whole thing.)

I think I might knit tonight. Low tech. No chance of dead.