on birthday presents and technology

Some of you know today is my birthday. It sucks being here, but it’s also great to spend the day by her side. Well, part of the day was the plan. You see, I had taken Lucy, her yappy Yorkie, out on the boat last Sunday. Armed with my camera, we took a ton of photos to bring back to Mom to fortify her battle defenses. We wanted her to feel good about the things she has and give her strength to go on and come home. Ah, the photos were great! The dogs were running and swimming, the colors were vibrant and I couldn’t wait to hook up the camera to the computer to play a digital slide show of our day.

Wading back to the boat the ocean was still and the air was hot. Gentle surges of salt water lapped at my hips and then a wave came rolling in up to my chest. Before I knew it the digital camera took a dip. I almost heard the electronics ZAP. I know I had lost the camera to the Goddess of the Sea, but the memory card – maybe that will be okay. Blah blah blah, you know how this story will end… the memory card was fried. All those pictures deleted -- like my intentions, shot to hell. I was heartbroken. Mom would never see what a glorious day Lucy had, her first day at sea.

There’s a data recovery company about an hour’s drive from the hospital here in Miami, and I was bound and determined to not give up on the memory card. It was about 10am when I headed out to personally deliver the media card to the experts. In spirit of the good ole college try, one last hurrah, I loaded the card into my laptop. Whirrr, zzziiippp, click, whirrr – my Hewlett Packard was working hard. Could it be? Was something stirring underfoot, or under finger rather? Like a Las Vegas card dealer sliding a deck of cards on a Black Jack table, the pictures splayed on my screen. One by one, dozens of pictures from Sunday’s outing appeared, piling on top of one another. I cried! I really cried tears of joy! My outing to the computer data office was just cancelled.

I couldn’t ask for a better birthday present. How could a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. be any better than getting back something you thought was gone? A second chance to say I love you. Resurrection and humility. And the providence of my birthday present was the good fortune to give it to Gloria.