"When faced with a problem you do not understand,
do any part of it you do understand; then look at it again."
~(Robert A. Heinlein - "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress")

About to comment here for the very first time?
Check Where'd my Comment go?!!! to avoid losing it.
-

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Airshow

%)#-#!&^##  &(%^#$-$&#**^%  @(^-($-!-%*%#^!!!

Just got back from the Wings Over Houston Airshow at Ellington Field, just south of Houston.

On May 30, I had posted Ready to hear God laugh?, in which I mentioned health problems and announced a regimen of walking to help with them. I set as a goal, catching this airshow, getting a lot of good shots and having something really good to write about in a post.

Well, here's the post. But it sure ain't what I intended.

Since that post, I did a pretty good job of keeping up the walking, although missing a few days, here and there over the last few weeks. An additional problem was addressed in Help! - Carpal Tunnel Syndrome???.

I made the airshow today, and the walking I had done before definitely helped; walking miles over Ellington proved no problem.

What killed the whole thing was the carpal tunnel syndrome; I couldn't even operate the controls of my camera to get the shots I wanted. Without feelings in my finger and thumb tips, I was constantly having to take my eye from the viewfinder to make sure my fingertip was even on the shutter button.  Not ONE of the shots was usable.

Feeling sick at my stomach, I just left, way early, almost (and maybe more than almost) screaming with rage and frustration most of the way home.

(Oddly enough, with the old Ricoh Singlex 35mm I used a few decades ago, it probably wouldn't have been a problem; the controls were courser and simpler. They had become second nature.)

Am not sure I could even tell you what the point of this post is, other than my command of English being woefully inadequate to express my feelings over this turn of events.

Maybe, I just need to scream it out of my system.
-

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am glad you were able to go and walk without problems;; that was your goal, right? Sorry that you couldn't take any good pictures, but you were able to enjoy seeing the event with your eyes, and that was a true gift in itself!

Paul Gordon said...

I am glad you were able to go and walk without problems;; that was your goal, right?

You nailed that part. Once I had my cry, I started to put things in perspective.

I'd gotten so caught up in a lot of things, I hadn't really tried to do anything with that camera since I wrote that beginning post at the end of May. So I let myself get ambushed by events.

Looks like there's two approaches to this problem.

1 - Seriously seek out things I can do (exercises?) to reduce the effects of carpal tunnel syndrome.

2 - Check out cameras that can do what I want, and have controls that are easier to use with almost dead fingers.

I'll figure something out; that post was a bit of a primal scream.

I really, really needed to vent.

"I'm feeling much better now, Dave." ~HAL 9000 :-)
-

Followers

Stat Counter