New Adventures

There is probably nothing better in life than to have new experiences whether it is a new relationship, a new car, a new home, or a new computer.  There is a high you get from the newness of it all that you just don’t seem to get any other way.  You can notice it most when we find a new love in life.

It is amazing to watch people of any age act like they are teens again when they start a new relationship.  It is also amazing how you feel when you are going through it.    

You’ve probably met people that have driven you crazy about a new relationship or the birth of child or grandchild.  Sooner or later the feel of the newness wears off and living with them on a daily basis comes into play. Fortunately, when it comes to kids and grand kids, they offer many new experiences that you get to enjoy with them.

You can also get a great newness feeling when you buy a new car or other things that you enjoy. I wish the feeling you have when it is new would stay forever, but they say you probably cannot live with the high it brings any longer than you do.

Recently my wife bought a new digital camera.  This is her third camera.  Her first one was a hand-me-down to her when I bought a new one.  It is now about ten years old, but operates pretty well.  The problem is that the clarity of the new digital cameras is so much better than the older ones.  This comes into play when we use her pictures in the paper or other publications we produce. 

About six months ago I saw a camera on sale and decided to buy it for her as a surprise, bad decision.  When I gave it to her, she didn’t like the LCD viewing screen.  It didn’t have many adjustments and seemed to be too light in daylight to the point that she couldn’t see what she wanted to in order to take a picture.  Plus it chewed up batteries, regular or rechargeable, faster than any camera I have owned.  Her hand-me-down was still working and she learned how to deal with it so she didn’t switch to the new one.

It was not long after that her camera started to give her trouble.  We decided to look at new ones in hopes of finding something she would like. She is much like I am; the simpler the camera is to take a basic photo the better she likes it.  These days cameras are like everything in the electronic age, they do far more than we want to learn, so the basics are important. 

She found one she liked so we bought it.  This was probably the greatest single purchase for her we have made in years. I didn’t know it when we bought it, but it has turned out that way. She fell in love with the camera and was like a little kid taking pictures of everything for the first time.  This really surprised me because generally she does not like taking pictures but will do it willingly if I ask her.  It has taken years to get her to this point. 

One day I was sitting at my computer working on something and out of the blue I hear are very anxious voice yell, “Maurice, come in here.”  She seldom calls me from one end of the house to another so this was a slight shock.

I got up as quick as I do, which is never record setting, and headed to the kitchen.  There she stood looking out in the back yard at four deer and taking pictures of them.  Those pictures did not turn out too good, but she had the bug – the photo bug - and she now had a new camera.   

The first couple of times she did this I thought something was wrong each time.  Then I learned that this was a new way for me to share the experience with her.  Now it is at least once a week that she calls me to see something. I go willingly if there is not a football game on I want to see. 

Deer in our back yard are as common as the moon.  Each and every time she sees them it is like a new experience to her and she makes you feel it is all new again.  She has the same excitement as she did for the first deer pictures and now keeps the camera handy.

It is also common to see her looking out the front window at the same birds the cats stare at.

Some days it is funny to watch the three of them looking at the birds and if I am in the living room she gives me a play by play.  She had the most fun watching a bird trying to get a small twig into the smallest hole a bird house has and getting pictures of it.

We now have a nice collection of pictures of deer in the yard; the main difference between the pictures is how many deer showed up that day.  We also have a close up of a rabbit that thought it owned the front yard so was not distracted by her trying to take a picture.

There is also a collection of the various birds that have stopped by either the front or back window.  She hasn’t reached the level my sister has when it comes to taking pictures – about 100,000 over her lifetime.  At the rate she is going she may pass that figure in three or four months.  Her camera is much like an American Express credit card she never leaves home without it. 

The important thing my wife has learned is that you can still have the excitement of a kid even as a senior citizen when you try something new.  The enthusiasm she has just spreads through the house.