A few weeks ago my brand spanking new 6TB drive that I was going to use as my day-to-day drive holding my photos and graphics decided to tell me that it needed to be reformatted to work. Hmmmm ... not a good sign ....
Tried a few data recovery methods to recover all my data on the drive ... but my heart was not in it. There was almost 2TB of data - most of which I had backed up (thank the heavens above!) a week previously - so I was not going to go to heroic or expensive measures to recover the data - not much lost.
And what I had lost, I could go back to the sites where I had downloaded the (mainly) graphics and recover it - just a few hours of busy work ... nothing that I couldn't handle and then I would be good as new.
Back to where I started from.
~~~ EXCEPT ~~~
For my froggy photos!!!
I went outside one evening - I had left the patio light on which attracts bugs - therefore attracts those things that eat bugs - and a big froggy was just sitting there enjoying himself immensely! I was worried that Charlie would frighten him off as I went to get my camera - but he only turned his head and looked at Charlie who was sneaking up on him with a slightly cocked head as if wondering "Friend or Foe?"
Which is an improvement from our first Boxer, Chance. He LOVED, LOVED, LOVED frogs! He LOVED to suck on frogs! Yes, you heard me right HE SUCKED ON FROGS. I am really unsure how he actually coaxed them into his mouth - never seeing that part of his ritual, just the rest of it. Generally it was a surprise when he walked over and spit a slimy frog out on your lap, at your feet, where ever.
I must interject here (veering further and further off course, give me a minute - I will re-align myself shortly ...) that this was 100% preferable to when he would spit out wasps in and about your area. They seemed less ... shall we say 'mellow' about the whole 'I've-Just-Been-In-A-Dogs-Mouth' experience and would sting the first soft piece of flesh it encountered. The family soon learned to scatter quickly when Chance brought us gifts of slimy wasps ...
Frogs on the other hand just looked, well ... slimy startled and bug eyed ... but isn't that sort of generally how frogs look in the first place? No worse for wear and with no retaliation of any sort they would just hop away ... generally rather quickly.
Chance, after spitting the frog out, would act bizarre and froth at the mouth for some time. DUDE WAS GETTING HIGH OFF OF FROGS! What part of the frog got Chance high, I am unsure - a secretion on their skin, a secretion on their skin that is produced when they are frightened, by, oh - say thinking that they are being eaten by a dog, their eyeball juice ... I don't know but was up there on the list of the weird things that our dog Chance would do. Which, sadly, out of the dogs that we have had over the years - wasn't really all that weird ...
Chance was the modicum of normalcy when it comes to dogs and weirdness! He never ate an entire couch. He never ate a hole through a flat spot of a wall (I can sort of see a eating a corner, but how do you even BEGIN the hole on a flat part of a wall to begin with?). He never swore at us in Norwegian - and trust me - when Charlie swears at you in Norwegian - we are not talking about barks or growls here - we are talking about seriously angry doggy speak, so most definitely know it! Chance never did any of the oh, so many things our other dogs have managed to do while living with us.
*sigh*
Chance was a good dog ...
OK, OK, trip down doggy memory lane over.
Back to the frog outside! I grabbed my large Canon and medium camera and went back outside, thrilled to find that my new best buddy had not moved an inch!
It was dark, so I was using a flash. Unsure if this was going to scare the adorable guy away, I tried to make my first shot count - since it might have been my last. Framed the shot, dude totally ignoring me the entire time and took my photo.
He blinked, turned and looked at me like: "Go away, I'm meditating here ..."
But I just kept taking photos, each one with a flash and he kept ignoring me!
He was sort of Buddha looking with his big belly and he had this thing going on with his throat where he would blow it up and make it look like a big bubble, then collapse it, blow it up, collapse ... probably part of him finding his zen ...
Wanting a closer shot - I kept creeping up closer and closer - and getting lower and lower - trying to get a better shot of his belly and puffy throat thingy. This was an awkward position so I yelled at Gary out working in the garage that if I yelled in a minute that I had fallen and couldn't get up - to come save me and slowly got down on the concrete - first in a sitting position, then just scooted over a ways and lay down on my side.
Froggy, during all this was watching closely, be seemingly unconcerned - maybe having reached a his state of nirvana - didn't really care about what was going on around him. I was rather surprised that he still had not moved since I had started taking photos of him. A PERFECT froggy model!
Sat my large camera down flat on the ground about 12 inches in front of him and maneuvered my head and body so that I could see though the eyepiece - focus on him and at that angle I was getting his belly straight on with him looking straight at the camera - I HAD A GEM OF A SHOT! Giddy with excitement I held down the shutter button half way - and sure enough - the red dot showed up on his adorable Buddha belly and that wonderful 'beep' saying it was in focus and 'snap'! Photo taken!
I was thrilled! I knew it was a keeper and as it flashed up on the back screen I had my suspicions validated - WHAT A FROGGY PHOTO!!! Have I mentioned that I love frogs? Love, love, love them! I personally think they are one of the MOST ADORABLE CUTEST THINGS ON THE PLANET!
And now I had a lovely perfect photo of 'Buddha Froggy'!
Looked up from my perfect photo rejoicing to see that my buddy had hopped about a foot away from me and had turned so that I was getting his profile.
"Wait! Please, please - just a few more shots of your cute belly!"
And with that he hopped about two more feet away from me still lying on my side with my camera sitting on the concrete.
I grumbled and mumbled and finally got myself back up, picked up my camera and off he went again a couple of more feet and behind a garbage can. Sadly - no coaxing would get him to turn and let me take a few more shots like the last one.
But - in a rare 'I'm a glass half-full type of gal' moment, I realized that I HAD THAT ONE SHOT! That lovely, perfect, Buddha shot! Went inside, loaded it onto my computer and clicked on it to bring it up on my large monitor and
JOY!
IN FOCUS!
EVERY DETAIL CRISP, CLEAR AND SHARP!
And THE CUTEST LITTLE BUDDHA FROGGY PHOTO EVER!
I was already composing my frog blog, but it was late, I had other things that had to be done so I cleaned up my camera cards - clearing the photos off, putting them back in my cameras so that they would be 'at the ready' should another opportunity like this arose quickly like this evening. Finished up, went to bed and in the morning arose to a 'Format Drive' message on my external hard drive.
*sigh*
Yeah - CUTEST EVER Froggy Buddha Photo - the single, solitary, one of a kind, best Froggy Buddha photo ever was gone ... never to be recovered ... lost.
My only serious loss out of a little more than a weeks worth of photos. So, there is that ...
SO ...
I began froggy hunt! One night when I was not very busy - I turned on the back porch light and hoped for the best. I was out there with my camera, hopeful one would hop on up to me and ask me to take his photo. Or BETTER YET my Buddah Buddy would saunter on back for another night of meditation!
I was back there looking forlorn with my camera when Gary asked me what I was doing. I told him and continued my search while he rolled is eyes, shook his head and headed back in his 'shop' to continue on his latest woodworking project.
I gave up and headed into Garys shop aka 'The Garage' to re-take photos of his project since I had lost those photos also. Gary left to do ... something on the back porch - garbage or something. A few minutest later, he stuck his head in the garage and told me he had found me a frog!!!
OK, - so he isn't as cute. He doesn't have a cute Buddha belly ... but close. And he was HORRIBLY camera shy. So that evening I found myself chasing after a seriously scared out of his mind frog - telling him 'Everything's fine! I just want your photo! Calm the crap down .... and STOP HOPPING!'
He didn't listen, so I did the best I could.
Dude had a GIFT for turning away from the camera showing his contempt for me an my photographing of him ... and maybe the flash was freaking him out a bit ...
Hopped to another spot and no matter what way I turned he turned with me - his back was all I got ...
*sigh*
This was not going well, when he hopped over to the side of the house with a number of escape routes blocked off - AND NO WHERE TO HIDE! Yeah, you can add abusing small froggies to my resume ... At this point he either decided he was the flashy-lights dinner and just wanted to get it over with quickly, or was more intelligent than that and decided if he let me take just a few shots of him, that I would go away and leave him be. So I started snapping away:
Trying to get lower and lower for the Not-Quite-Buddha-But-Better-Than-Nothing shot:
Does he look like he is enjoying himself?
Yes?
No?
Well, what ever it was - he had decided that this WAS HIS FINAL SHOT:
Because THIS is what I got next:
Ahhhhhhhh! SO FREAKING ADORABLY CUTE AND SO NOT IN FOCUS!!!
But ... tell me that just isn't priceless! Of course there are a million and one captions that could go with this photo!
I can positively say that I do not have a photo of a frog doing this in a photo ... and I have a lot of photos of frog! You couldn't have surprised me more if I had blown it up and discovered that he was giving me the finger!
He hopped over to the crack and seriously proceeded to try to crawl into the gap - so, I decided that I would let him off the hook and stop harassing him ...
And speaking of froggies giving me the finger ... where is my Aussie family? I had completely forgotten about them!
Looked around and found them living in rather cramped, dismal quarters in one of the office cupboards. Can't see much through the zip-loc bag, but it seems as if there is an 'angry eye' or two in there:
Ah, my Aussie Cane Toad Family:
(from left to right)
Rodney - the quiet, gentle and long suffering man of the swamp. He lost his arms and legs in a rather gruesome accident at the mill and has been out of work ever since ...
Harriet - Rodney's wife and a bully. Crude, rude and insensitive she lets her opinions be known whether you asked for them or not. Foul mouthed, vulgar and perpetually FLIPPING ME OFF! She is not my favorite of the Aussie Froggy Clan ...
Tess - Ah, Tess. With the jokes about her father, a monster for a mother and that googly eye problem she seems to have, Tess is an introverted shy teen who has made some mistakes in her past that she is not proud of. She is growing up, though, and gaining more confidence. I have hopes for her - maybe with a double 'googly eye transplant' her looks would improve and she would feel better about herself.
Biff - One of Tess's mistakes. He is a big dumb frog that seems as if there is nothing inside him but stuffing(which, seriously, I hope is true ...). He has no job skills, is absolutely of no use to anyone and to top it all off - he and Tess broke up long ago. But ... without the means nor the money to get back to Australia, here he stays ...
My lovely, albeit dysfunctional Cane Toad Frog family:
Typical Biff trying to look tough:
And a very typical Harriet! This is why THE ENTIRE FAMILY have been shoved in a zip-loc and ignored! How dare she double finger me -
THE NERVE!
Oh! My laundry just beeped (Saturday cleaning and all) be right back ...
Harriet: "Bonzer! Finally, she's left the room for a minute! We're just sitting around playing silly buggers! I think it's time to make a break for it!"
Rodney: "Luv, I just don't see how we are ever going to make it out of here - Biff is sulking, and since he's the only one with legs, making a break for it and running right now just doesn't seem to be the smartest choice. I think if you keep giving her the "Aussie Cane Toad Single Finger Universal Sign of Adoration & Respect" she might soften her zip-loc stance and leave go of us somewhere.
With that lovely display just now of the double handed "Aussie Cane Toad Single Finger Universal Sign of Adoration & Respect" I don't see how her heart won't be softened just a bit and improve our living conditions just a bit.
How I long for the days when she left us in a drawer - getting us out - dressing us up and taking our photos! I felt useful again! Last thing that exciting was wearing a party hat - a celebration of for Gary's 50th birthday!
Oh, those were the days ..."
Harriett: "Honey - we don't have time to reminisce right now ... although I DID enjoy being dressed up as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln for Presidents Day that once! Sadly - I think she threw away our George wig and Lincoln top hat when she cleaned us out of her drawer - no more holiday photos for us ...
Oh! I think I hear her coming back - here - help me get into position again to show her the double handed "Aussie Cane Toad Single Finger Universal Sign of Adoration & Respect" again - I think she is softening ... hurry!"
Tess: "Mum, uh, maybe our Cane Toad finger sign doesn't translate into human? She sort of seems annoyed when you do it?"
Harriett: "Tess, that's pigs bum - EVERYONE, every SPECIES knows what the "Aussie Cane Toad Single Finger Universal Sign of Adoration & Respect" is! It's in a handbook somewhere I am sure - hurry - help me get into position! It may be our only chance!"
Biff: (from somewhere) "You're all a bunch of zippered-butt freaks! How did I get stuck with the likes of you? I have arms! I have legs! You are nothing but trinkets to put coins in ... pathetic ..."
Tess: *sigh* "Nobody listens to me ..."
OK! I'm back - laundry blissfully washing and drying itself - don't you just love that?
Ahh, my Cane Toad Collection ... I am cleaning up the office today since we are having people over tomorrow and it is a disaster ... what to do with them, what to do with them ...
I Know!
I've decided since Harriet is no longer appropriate for public display (I swear her flipping me off seems to become more and more pronounced as time goes by ... or I am just losing it ...), and I am not really using them anymore, I am going to store them with the rest of my key chain collection - up in a big trunk upstairs! Total darkness - so no sun damage - I just might miss the little guys! But PERFECT for them!
Hmmm - Biff? He was bought just for fun - TOTALLY USELESS. Since he has arms and legs he couldn't be made into a coin purse - and I only collect key chains and coin purses that keys could be hooked on - so he really doesn't fit. He's just full of stuffing and he's the ugliest one - no character! Think Charlie might like him? After all, he is leather (well Cane Toad leather - how strong do you think that is?) - a great chew toy!
But ...
Rodney!
Cute, armless, legless Rodney!
He was my first in the collection!
He is the cutest little coin purse you will ever find anywhere! Imagine the envy of your friends and those waiting in line with you at Mickey D's
I just might miss the little guy ...
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