What's the worst thing (for me) to forget?

If you guessed the camera, nope, that's not it. It's damn near impossible for me to forget that because it's large and has a bag all its own. I'd have to forget the whole bag, which is highly unlikely.

Especially if I were heading to some place, well, let's call it picturesque. Like my dad and stepmom's cabin in northern-ish Wisconsin. It was a beautiful day, on a beautiful lake. A place completely different for me to photograph.

As we drove through the back country roads in Wisconsin, I watched the scenery pass by, wondering why I never saw how incredibly beautiful Wisconsin is when I lived there. Ah, perspective. You do change everything. I thought about snapping pictures of the lake, the trees, the cabin, and, most importantly, my family in this setting.

About 14 seconds after we got there, I pulled out my camera bag. Switched out a lens. Started to adjust some settings, and that's when I realized what I forgot. Nope, not the memory card either. That'd be too easy to replace. It was the battery. The lithium battery pack thingie that powers my happy Nikon D60.

First thought? No problem. Dad's camera uses the same battery. I asked him where his camera was.

"Well, I thought you'd take care of the pictures," he told me. Well, yeah. There aren't a lot of things I can be counted on for, but this is generally one of them.

We weren't that far from civilization, though. Hayward was about 20 minutes away, and it's a tourist town. Dad and Louise suggested the Super Walmart. No dice. Checked the yellow pages (remember those?) for photography stores, radio shack, whatever. Nothing. I called the Walgreen's. Long-shot, I know. Nope. I asked if there was a camera store, a Best Buy, whatever. "Did you try online?" she asked me. Um, yeah, that's not going to help me. How about the nearest similar store? "Duluth," she told me. Oh good gawd.

I was too mad at myself to waste my time with my camera phone. I took crappy video with my phone instead. I'm always saying we should take more video.

Allow me to explain what you're looking at, if you're going to take the 5 minutes of time it takes to watch these. (And I fully expect that only of the four of you will actually do that.) Khan took some video, too. You'll notice that his is the one that's focused and steady. Mine is the one that looks like she tried out for the Blair Witch Project and was rejected on inability to hold a camera steady.

I mentioned that we were on a lake that is actually a chain of lakes called the Chippewa Flowage. This video shows some of that scenery, which we enjoyed from Grandma Louise's new pontoon.

The other video was taken back inside the cabin, in the loft where my brothers and I would sleep. Needless to say, the tiny doors that led to tiny closets were perfect for pretend play. In this version of Reality, Lily has a house of her own behind Tiny Door 1, and Daddy's house is behind Tiny Door 2. They need to use the airplane (the twin mattress lying on the floor) to visit each other. Khan's house quickly becomes Lily's house as she realizes it is the one with Christmas party decorations. And she gives him a birthday crown.

Andalso, part of the reason I forgot the battery is because I almost never think about it. That stupid thing lasts forever, and I charge it once, maybe twice a month. And that's a pretty major advantage of this model. And  of course, the pretty major disadvantage is that I can't just get a new pack of double A's at the grocery store. But, as my dad pointed out, I'll probably never make this particular mistake again.

.