With apologies to Babe Ruth and Mudville, I should call it Iceville, as there is wet ice all around. Despite yesterday being a completely and utterly awful day with wind and rain, there was a lot to rejoice about in this house.
While doing my daily allotment of housework, I dusted off an electronic photo frame--the kind that displays photos in rotation--and thought that since I hadn't turned it on in quite a while, I should do so. I went upstairs to find the USB memory sticks that had photos on them.
While looking for the plastic box that I kept them in, I picked up this little plastic box:
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| The plastic box where the missing card was. Can you see the tiny black line at left? Next to an open, clear SD case? |
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| This is where I keep the memory cards while I'm working with them. |
Incredibly, there was an SD Card alongside an empty case for an SD card. When I took the card out, I discovered, to my everlasting joy, that it was a memory card from my trip to Botswana. Not just any card, but the very one I've been trying to find since my return.
I've been heartsick about that missing card and have tried everything I could think of to locate it.
I've searched every piece of luggage at least six times, emailed the camp where we stayed in case I left it there, asked my roommate to check her cards, and so on. Even Marg Wood assisted in the search long-distance.
I can only guess at what happened: Once home, I took the cards one at a time and inserted them into a card reader to make sure they were downloaded into a Botswana catalogue on my computer, then put them in the pink box. I must have overlooked THE SD CARD that was hidden by the empty card case.
On it are once-in-a-lifetime photos. I was sick to think they were gone forever. Close-ups of bat-eared foxes! Skittish little critters that run when they see you. These were at their den and allowed us to get close enough for multiple photos with our long lens.
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| Bat-eared foxes. |
Also, and perhaps my most loved photos, were of the rarely-seen African black stork. Not only the stork, but the stork is actively fishing! These, too, are skittish critters that leave immediately when they spot humans. We'd tried earlier in the day, and it disappeared before we could get our 500mm lenses on it.
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| African black stork!!! |
Overjoyed, I should say. Let it rain and melt our snow. Icouldn;e care less. I had the missing SD card. There were more than 2700 photos on this SD card, and I spent the day looking through them and editing a few.
As for the Botswana Journals, finding the card came at a most propitious time because the card contained photos that will be included in the next couple of posts.
Now, if I can just get my notes straightened out--the notes that tell what we saw on what day.
The pages were in chronological order up until Nov. 8, and then they were scattered throughout the notebook when, in a hurry, I turned to the wrong page and started a new day. Now, with the missing photos downloaded, I can get the notes in order for more stories.
