I bought a new camera. Not new, but old. A Mamiya 6, a medium format rangefinder. Then I bought a lens. I sent cashiers checks for each, mailing them from an NYC post office. I dreamed of having them when I got home. The check for the camera did not include the cost of shipping, so I had to send another. The check for the lens never arrived, so I had to have the bank cancel the check and reissue another. Consequently, I waited doubly long to receive them. The camera came first, a real beauty. The lens took another week. Finally, though, I was able to put them together and go make photographs. I got up the next morning and my air conditioner was not working. When it is ninety-five degrees with 100% humidity. . . . I called the repairmen.
Of course, the a.c. quit. I am the product of depression-era parents who never spent money on luxuries, and they have instilled me with a cosmic guiltiness over such things. I can't shake it even now. I still have not told my mother, for instance, that I am renting an art studio while driving the beater Volvo in the rain with one window that won't close completely and a broken air conditioner.
The repairmen came out that day. They told me that my compressor had frozen up. I asked what could cause that. "Owner malfunction," they said. Together. In tandem. "What?" They showed me the filter. "You need to change these," they said.
My mother buys me filters and tells me to change them all the time. Like every week.
On Saturday, I went shooting with the camera. It did not work right. There is something wrong with the film advance. I don't know. All I can think is that I don't live correctly. I don't have the right values.
Other things are going wrong, too. According to Achebe, Things Fall Apart.
If you are having bad times also, tell your story. Better make it humorous, though. You'll find out. People want to laugh.
my life right now is one of sadness/suckyness now, IF/when I find some humor I'll share.
ReplyDeleteOne point though, when you lose your BFF(way way more than that) of 10 years it sucks big ones!!!
(I'm one lost puppy)
hope you get the camera fixed, my ex FIL had a medium format I forgot right now what kind but I liked to use it, I shot one wedding with it and it preformed flawless, better than the shooter:)
snap on
D
Things fall apart...without a doubt. Oh they do...this weekend alone my internet router went down, the gas station sold us an empty gas tank for the grill and wouldn't replace it because we lost the receipt, everything in the basement is covered with mold due to the humidity makng a purchase of a dehumifidier necessary...but nothing beats the chicken story which one day will be humorous enough to write about. But suffice it to say...when that day ended I was curled up in fetal position sobbing uncontrollably and called my friend for some sympathy.All she could do was laugh uncontrollably when I described it all to her. You're right, people want to laugh!
ReplyDeleteOh, Such a day! I empathize with you. A few days like that have visited me. I always blame it on the moon. I am happy to see you recovered and are back at making pictures. Good work.
ReplyDeleteSurely it is good to know it is going around when you have it. We need a strategy--What to do? A sense of humor, I think. It seems the only way out.
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