Near Panic in Golden

Yes this pic along with over 500 others was nearly sacrificed to the digital gods.

You would think that as a teacher who regularly preaches that we need to be careful with our memory cards I would not fall foul of silly mistakes, especially ones that could ensure a total devastating data loss.  I have news, despite all my best efforts sometimes I stuff up, I do this just to make my students feel better! 

I will give you the inside story on what could have been a complete disaster of digital proportions. ( I know how nice it is to get a laugh at someone endless expense, it's OK I give you permission to snigger just a little).

Here’s the scenario, my wife and I visited the "Meadows in the Sky" which is an utterly amazing place on top of a mountain just outside Revelstoke in Canada.  Knowing that I was running low on memory space in the camera and aware that there were going to be some stunning opportunities ahead I grabbed a fresh Sandisk Extreme card from the camera case, popped it into the change pocket of my now dirty from 3 days hiking jeans.

As expected we were met with stunning scenery and photo opportunities galore, indeed we were very lucky and had jagged both the best time of the year for the Meadows and an utterly perfect day into the bargain. The only bummer was the mozzies and flies which compared to our Aussie ones appear to have been genetically altered to grow larger and more annoying than seems reasonable. I mean what are those Canadians feeding them, spent fuel rods, moose steroids?

So there I was standing on a ledge, press the shutter, nothing!  Ah of course, full card.  I pulled the fresh card from my change pocket and pushed the old full one back into the pocket holding a cargo of digits for around 560 images from the last 6 days.  I recall saying to myself "now remember to place that back in the camera case when you get back to the car".......I didn't of course!

Over the previous few days the lovely Miss Wendy had been saying "we must do some washing", in fact I thought she was becoming a little obsessed about it, maybe she thought my jeans smelled?  Anyways, we arrived in Golden late in the afternoon and I am told by the love of my life that we cannot have dinner until after the washing is done and dried at the laundromat.  Basically I think she had run out of knickers, I suggested she buy some new ones and forget about the washing but as you might expect I lost.

Now the next bit I imagine you can guess at.  Yes that's right, I was commanded to remove those smelly jeans and check the pockets as they were about to get some Westinghouse time!  

Did you check your pockets and clean out the tissues?  

Yes dear.
  

Are you sure? 

Of course I'm sure....... 

Except I never ever put anything in that itty bitty change pocket so naturally I didn't check that.

So then off to the washing and then drying in a huge hot commercial dryer with warning signs plastered on the front "don't put any plastics in dryer".  Once done, we went out for a lovely but rather late dinner.

Bed time comes around and I decide to load some pics onto the iPad for rough editing, so where did that card go?  !!!!*xxx****/.. and other words not fit for young or delicate auditory reception.

It was in my jeans!

Quick check those jeans!

Gone! Gone! Gone!

Is the laundromat still open?

No!

Oh sh!!!!!

What time does it open.

7.00am.

Let's face it, the card is likely gone or stuffed!

Let's sleep on it.  No more words, silence and no sleep.

We beat the alarm by 20 mins, get dressed and find our way to the door of the Westinghouse emporium by 6.55.  Can we check the machines please? Sure says the nice lady at the counter.

Peering into the washing machine, nada, nothing!

I was about to willfully disassemble the agitator when the lovely Miss Wendy peering into the monster dryer shouts, here it is, it was caught under the lip of the tub of the dryer

Indeed it was, a lovely perfectly clean example of the Sandisk extreme breed, not a mark, but was it OK?

We almost ran to the motel, whipped out the Nex 5n and inserted the card.  Now the moment of truth, will this super clean but well baked card "read" or will I cry....lots?

Yes, oh praise the god digitalis and bless the pixels, it reads perfectly!

Conversation between the lovely Miss Wendy and I now resumes and breakfast is eaten.

So here is the little lesson.  Those extreme cards do live up to their name, even against the power of the mighty Westinghouse and his friend "Fryer the Commercial Dryer".

And two, heed everything I have ever told you about your memory cards, don't put all eggs on one basket, keep them in the case, and most importantly check your change pockets!

And three, if your wife says “did you check the pockets?”, make sure you do!