Every so often you read a questionaire that asks who in your life has changed yours
I've always been at a loss to come up with an answer until NOW! Without a doubt, it is my son, Brian.
While I'm not professional and the pictures I take are pretty average but snapping photos has been an activity that had put me in front of the one hour photo counter at Costco ,a weekly routine. Hundreds of pctures fill my photo albums, large envelopes and boxes! Needless to say between buying film and having them developed, it has cost me a considerable amount of money. You can imagine my delight at being introduced to a digital camera! Who introduced me, none other than Brian! First there was CASIO camera but when better cameras were featured in the stores and friends bragged about their cameras with more pixels, we invested in the OLYMPUS. It was a good sized camera, took gret pictures but newer and smaller models were introduced making it easier to fit into the hand and slip into your pocket with ease.
Digital cameras have opened up our world of capturing all of the important and silly things in our lives via pictures. It's made it easy for us to pop a card into the computer and instantly share pictures with friends and family as I write them the latest news while trying to prove a picture is worth a thousand words! I am a firm believer. Jack and I thank Brian for opening up the world of digital cameras to us.
Before digital cameras came into my life, I had an opportunity to work for Bob, who was in the machinery business. In the beginning I had two boxes of filing cards, one for buyers and the second for sellers. It proved to be disturbing to me as I pulled a card out to match up with either a buyer or a seller. Now I had a problem that was not only maniacal but easily solved with a computer!
Enter, into my life a computer. Enter, too, Brian, who has led me through the maze of programs and necessary information on how to use one. I never learned Dos and the critical things that a true computer person uses, but I've struggled to use it for an endless list of fun and interesting activities. As for the machinery business, I sailed through that with Brian's expertise. He's added software to bring my buyers and sellers to my finger tips. Out with the file card boxes and in with praise from Bob at the efficiency of my work! With a computer, my world has opened up. Now snail mail had been replaced with e-mail, I enjoy programs to design greeting cards and our Christmas cards. I hardly ever send a personal letter without a picture (taken with our digital camera) to brighten up my stationary. It's no secret, Brian has changed my life. But wait..........
The digital camera and computer has not ended Brian's changes in my life. A new phase blossomed on Christmas Eve, 2003 when sharing Christmas Eve dinner with Brian, as he explained the fun he' was having in the newly popular hobby of geocaching. It sounded appealing to me but Jack showed no interest until one pretty day, Brian took us out to find a series of caches! It was my introduction to a GPS, (global positioning system) which with the help of satellites lead you to within roughly twenty feet of a hidden object, called a cache. Jack and I enjoyed the hunt and in no time, Jack was busy in our garage, painting altoids containers to match a possible place to hide it, adding hooks to hang a cache in a tree or bush. He learned the 99 cent store candy section had ideal containers to hide a cache in once emptied of the candy or gum within.
Our list of found caches slowly grew and to add to our hobby we had hidden between us, over one hundred caches! We were no longer newbies the day we logged our 1,000th cache! Brian made sure we were awarded a magnetic Kilo Club pin! Our geocaching friends were very pleased for us.
Our huge surprise found our story in the Calendar section of our Los Angeles Times. We didn't get a small write-up but rather a three page spread complete with pictures. That story led to a coast to coast story on the CBS Evening News. As a result, people from all over commented on the two of us. We were now classed as "legends"
We were so proud when Brian was featured in a video made by the students of USC, A video that has also been shown on the East coast.
We thought our excitement was over until we were awarded a trophy for being the Geocachers of the year for our group of Southern California geocachers.
The trophy is a travel bug which gleans mileage. It has been to the Tower of London and in the hands of a couple known as Senior Hikers has made it to the tops of some very risky and steep terrain. At our age, we do not take unnecessry chances.
In September, we will pass this trophy on to new owners. We do not try to out do those who have enjoyed the trophy before us. Our mission is to give it as much mileage as we possibly can.
We both thank Brian over and over again, not just for the excitement he has added to our lives with this popular hobby, a hobby that has introduced us to a myriad of friends, and to the digital camera and computer. He has made us, in our eighties, forget our age but rather enjoy life to the fullest. It hasn't been a teacher or a preacher who has affected, has changed and made my life fun and exciing, it has been my son, Brian! THANK YOU, BRIAN.
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