Forehead Smack Moments
 

Somewhere, in the last two weeks, I was shooting photographs. At some point, I decided to switch from my 18-70mm zoom and use my 50mm fixed lens. Something, I think, must have distracted me and somehow I just kept on shooting.

Someplace, I left my Nikon lens sitting, glass down, and there it remained.

:banghead:

I didn't realize it until tonight when I noticed the empty pouch in my camera bag. It is gone. Long gone. Forever. Some lucky person picked up a nice piece of glass for free. This has to be the biggest, most expensive mistake I've ever made.

:cuss:

...well, biggest and most expensive mistake that involved my money.

God dammit. It's not even the loss of the lens or the money I paid for it, it is just that I forgot it and was that absent minded at that moment with something that important. Somebody smack me, hard.

350 miles after I took a light reading with my pentax 1º digital spot meter, I stopped the car for another photo op and looked to see nothing where the meter should have been. ouch.

That was about 15 years ago. I still feel dumb. More recently I drove of with my lens caps and lens spanner on the roof. Glad it wasn't the lens.

All is not necessarily lost, Kitsune.

Walking out of the local Fred Meyer (a superstore with groceries and department store type goods), I heard something beepbeepbeepbeeping as I walked past an ATM with a Visa Card poking out of the slot. I took the card and walked into the bank (the little inside the store mini branch) of the bank sponsoring the ATM, and asked them if they knew how to reach the customer on the card (it was the same bank on the card). They said they could and would return the card to their customer.

Now, that was just yesterday, so I don't know if it's back to the owner yet, but people *do* turn in orphaned valuables. It does happen.

footfootfoot's story reminded me of another found tale.

On a curve in the road was something...I pulled over and checked it out--someone's camera bag, tripod, batteries, spare memory cards, all the paraphenilia *but* the camera. It appeared that somebody pull off the road, got the camera out, put the bag on the roof, took the picture, got in the car and drove off. The bag made it halfway through the next curve in the road.

They had a business card in the bag (good idea!) and I contacted them, verified the info and mailed the kit. I'm not bragging, I'm just saying it happens. It could happen to you.

My dad's friend had a story like that... he found a (man's) ring on the bathroom sink at a casino, with a big expensive jewel in it. His theory was someone took it off to wash their hands, and forgot to put it back on. Being a practical man, he let the staff know he had found "a ring", and told them if anyone came looking for it and could describe it to him he'd promptly return it to them, but he would not be handing it over to the relatively-low-wage staff behind the front desk. He was there for another several days, and checked back repeatedly, but no one claimed it.

So he kept it, and wore the ring for ten years.

Finally, on another vacation to Vegas, he took the ring off to wash his hands in the bathroom, and accidentally walked out without it. Moments later he rushed back, but it was gone. He didn't bother inquiring if anyone had found it, he figured it was just time for the ring to move on. :)

Well, I had a nice little GPS unit that I placed on the roof of my car to get satellite info. I forgot that I had put it there and my GPS now resides forlornly somewhere on a Wild Mustang Preserve near the Utah border or else some rancher or hunter is happily using it. If the latter is true, can't say as I blame the person who found it since there was nothing on the GPS that would clue a person in to its owner.

On the other hand, my driver's license once fell out of my coat pocket on a dirt back road near Blanding, Utah when I'd stopped to take a rest break and walk around a little. A few weeks later I got my license back in the mail from a resident of Naturita, Colorado who also had stopped at the same pull-out and discovered my license lying on the ground.

Last night b/f and I were talking about Brunei - something to do with one man, the Sultan of Brunei owning a whole country - and I turned around and said to b/f, 'Is Brunei a democratic nation?' b/f said, 'No, it's a kingdom'. D'oh! That was a head smacker if I ever had one.

Don't have any camera stories. Sorry. :)

OMG - BigV's story just reminded me of something that happened this summer (bear with me - it's funny in my sick mind)
We have a population of about 8-9 thousand people. During tourist season we can easily double the amount of people in town and we only have 3 banks within tourist reach that have ATM machines.
OK so here's the story. I refused to carry a purse/ wallet at the time (I do now, but I don't like it). My ATM card was normally carried in my back pocket, and because of that it had curved a wee bit in the shape of my derriere. Late one evening I put the card into the bank ATM machine, and it jammed due to the curvature. I couldn't get the card out!
The next day there were tourists lined up at least 20 deep... all trying the ATM that wouldn't work.
I was too embarrased to go to the bank and ask for my card back.

About 15 years ago I went to use a cashpoint and found it was already on the withdrawal screen. I wasn't sure if what I was seeing was true, so took the option to withdraw £10.

At that point I realised that someone had simply walked away from the cashpoint leaving their card in there. So I removed the card and got my b/f to hand it in - with the money - at the local police station. I thought he looked more honest than me :)

Fast forward to last year when I made a withdrawal from my account, took my card and walked away without taking my money.... The man behind me in the queue ran after me, crossing a busy road in order to return it. Cashpoint karma.

No camera story, but I did drop an uninsured mobile down the toilet. I had a stack of books in my hands with the phone on top and went into the bathroom to get a tissue. In slow motion I watched the phone slide off the books and into the open toilet. How many times did I replay that in my mind, with a different ending...?

Recently, I had computer problems. At first, I thought Windows just needed to be repaired. I couldn't locate my original XP home disk or product key, so I bit the bullet and bought a new one. I unwrapped it, put it in the drive, but when I turned it on, it wouldn't boot. I took the computer to the shop, and the man asked for the disk and product key code, which was on a sticker affixed to the cellophane wrapper - WHICH I THREW OUT! I thought it was just the price tag and bar code. :headshake :rar: So I had to buy ANOTHER XP home - yes, the third one for the same goddamn computer. http://www.clicksmilies.com/s0105/sp...smiley-008.gif

Spexxvet, that's not :smack:, that's karma trying to save you from yourself, despite your best intentions.

one time when i was in El Paso dropping off a fare, i was distracted by a ramp rat (a line service representative for the airport) while i was preflighting. well, damn this is stupid, i forgot to replace the oil dipstick and close the hatch on the cowl. i did the rest of my walk-around and never caught what i'd done until after take-off and noticed the hatch flapping in the wind. "uh-El Paso tower, N12345 has an open hatch - negative emergency - just need to return to the airport." i taxied back to where i parked, picked up the dipstick and put it back. heh, yeah, i sure felt like a dipstick for that one! :smack:

I hope you fished it out and dried it out - I've put a mobile phone through the washing machine and it worked once it dried out afterwards!

Some guy tried to retrieve his a few months ago on the metro north train out of NYC. Got his arm stuck in the john. tied up the train for hours. all the others too.

metro north intended to sue him for expenses and lost revenue. Not sure of the outcome, but I hope they won.

I tried it a couple of times over the next few weeks, but it never worked again properly - very impressed that yours did!