technical difficulties

well, it was a good, three-year run.

that's how long i had my first digital camera, a hard-working casio ex-z77.

i killed it by putting it into the pocket of my swim trunks as i gathered our belongings from a morning at the beach almost two weeks ago.

i assumed that the minutes i was dripping dry while folding an umbrella and towels and organizing our stuff was long enough to not have much seepage into the camera body.

as i discovered at my sister's birthday dinner that night, i assumed wrong.

the thing wouldn't focus and hasn't since. (note image above, likely the last one it will take.)

i tried putting it into a bag with rice to dry it out, then added a couple of bags of silica desiccate to no avail.

and even if it had dried out to where the lens mechanism would work, i read that the salt would eventually corrode all the metal, so i would have only been buying time.

i used that camera on my honeymoon (it was a wedding present from my siblings), for the minutiae of our first year of marriage, cat photos, family portraits and the birth of our son.

it's a bummer to lose it.

here, i will also mention that the wireless backup to my hard drive is also on the fritz. it hasn't backed up since last month's blackout.

if bad things happen in threes, i don't want to think of the next piece of gear to go bad.