(ornament from Cory when he shopped in a little European village at Christmas time while living in London)
Cindy’s exuberance brings smiles to our faces. Samuel says, “Can we bottle it?” as she crawls around on the floor meowing. Pretending to be a kitty she jumps up next me curling into a little ball like Molly. Such joy we are exposed to daily!
She brought a full bag of Christmas stickers and we work on the little table constructing scenes. I dust off the old camera because the newer one doesn’t do justice to close-ups. My urge this past summer to investigate flowers and gardens sprites all but dissolved. But this old camera makes the kids eyes glow red like children zombies.
I’ve had this cheap-o camera for about 14 years and never learned how to adjust the date, time or anything else except macro mode. Samuel hears my lament about glowing eyes and looks at it.
“Have you ever used the Portrait setting?” he asks after a moment.
“NO!” I exclaim. The camera has 14 settings, but I have used only normal and macro. How do others do these minuscule tasks so calmly? Such fine tuning causes me great anxiety and a feeling of being greatly overwhelmed. Bigger obstacles impede the ability to complete finer complicated tasks. I call it Trauma Brain.
As peace settles and neurons mend I’m able to travel into new worlds of exploration and abilities. It is rewarding, full-filling and exciting. Today I set the date and time. I did it! And found a long lost friend that feels like an extension of myself and my hand.
Patricia J Grace 
Patricia, you’ve shown so many photos that display your many talents! I’m sure they bring joy to many!
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Thank you Mandy!
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I like the phrase “trauma brain.” It certainly describes a lot for me, though I never thought of it that way. I don’t get many of the gadgets either. As soon as I figure out how something works, a new model comes out and I have to figure it all out again! (lol)
I try to keep things as simple as possible…even if all our pictures have people with red eye. Just not worth the trouble. I’d rather be at peace.
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I hope that someday in the not-too-distant future, I’ll have a granddaughter like Cindy. My sons are a bit too young, but I’m still looking forward to it. Every time I see photos of her, I melt a little bit. She’s lucky to have you for her grandmother.
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so glad you did it patricia! Enjoy taking pictures now that you’ve figured out some of the settings! xoxo
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My ‘long lost friend’ that I thought was an extension of my hand started to annoy me greatly. It is about 15 years old, I kid you not. After a flash I had to wait for it to charge up again. I took the plunge and had Santa deliver a camera from this century. I couldn’t get past setting up the time and date because it wouldn’t turn on. Had to call a real person. She asked immediately, “Did you take off the lens cap?”
“Um, no..” After that things went smoothly and it isamazing! Did I mention it’s red?
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That’s almost as bad as my dad, he got a new phone but he won’t throw the old one away, it’s about 10 years old and you can barely hear him when you are talking to him but he still won’t toys away. He wants to use his old phone he doesn’t want to start using the new one. Happy Christmas I hope you have a great day XXXX
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I won’t throw it away, but I will put it away, far away! Funny. It is hard to give up favorites.
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I hope your day is special too. Peace to you.
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