He said, "We'll ship it to you."

A sad thing happened in June.

I went to a wedding in Santa Barbara, California.


That is not the sad thing.

The wedding was really quite unique and happy and a hot affair.

In fact the little ring bearer refused to wear a shirt—because of the triple digit temperature—at least in the sun.

No one seemed to object.

The groom took off his shirt at the reception.

I wanted to object but I did not. I wondered if he knew that his belly was showing.

Perhaps some guests were impressed by the groom's tattoos. I am not an experienced judge of that art—mostly always being too restrained by inhibitions to do close examinations.

A very famous country singer aka CS attended the wedding and I won’t mention her name because I don’t want my blog showing up when strangers google her name. She was very gracious and kind and beautiful and I liked her very much. Though tempted, I was controlled and did not ask for an autograph or a photo with her but I did ask her to write a song about cousins because she and I both love our cousins. I am waiting and watching and hoping for a dedication. This photo shows the groom’s mama and CS hugging but you really cannot really see much of famous CS who is married to a famous fantasy husband CS and it was an accident that this photo got taken—mostly. So her identity is safe with me.

Now to the sad part.

I will just be blunt—I left my camera and my case and an extra battery in the rental car in Santa Barbara. I was not rushed. It was not my hubby’s fault. I did not jump out of the car to help a person in distress and then get so busy helping that I was distracted. I just got out of the car, slowly, never looked around and left it in plain view.

By phone, I located my camera the following day, June 6th. However, I did not receive my loved and lost and greatly mourned and missed camera until July 2nd. There were many many important events during those almost 4 weeks. Some sympathizers graciously offered to loan me a camera. However, they did not throw caution to the wind. Perhaps knowing that I am predisposed to losing things they did not risk their best cameras. Even so, rather than be indebted to them for the rest of my life, I mostly declined their offers.

Later, out of desperation, I did borrow DIL Amy’s camera for five days. I attached it to my hip —trying hard to camouflage the carrier that is not usually allowed in public but no adults that knew me were present. I kept my eyes peeled for the fashion police, prepared to gasp and gingerly toss it in a garbage can if discovered.



On about the fourth day, one of my young trendy grands asked me—“Why do you always wear that?”

On the fifth day, I left the fanny pack at home and dangerously toted a purse all day and proudly announce today that the borrowed camera and my cell phone made it home again safely. Although I will admit that I was exhausted from all that responsibility.

Six weeks and three days Three weeks and six days after I left said item in a rental car and a full eleven days after my grandchildren returned to North Carolina and Colorado, I received my camera in the mail. It went by boat to New York, through the Great Lakes and then by Pony Express to my home. It is dry and working perfectly well again which is much better than the last time my camera took a boat ride.