Rain

I left my house shortly after eight o'clock, the sun shining and the temperature 64 degrees, perfect for a mid-September morning. My destination was a state park about an hour north of my house, located on the shore of Lake Michigan.

Just the week before I had restarted my adventure days. I felt like a kid in a candy store, roaming everywhere and seeing everything. This week though, I was focused on living the mission statement of my blog - Striving to find balance between intention and discovery. Last week there was a lot of discovery, this time there needed to be more intention.

I drove through my usual northward bound Starbucks for a Grande' Chai Tea Latte. As soon as I left the drive-thru window, I sniffed the small opening in the lid. The previous week, I was twenty miles up the road before I lifted the cup to my lips and smelled coffee instead of chai. I glanced at the label on the side of cup - Dark Roast. Not only did I not get what I wanted, I also paid way too much for something I don't even like. This time when I lifted the cup to my lips, I was greeted by the spicy scents of clove, cardamom, and cinnamon.

I arrived at the state park shortly after nine o'clock. This state park has a channel leading from Lake Michigan to a smaller lake, just as the state park does in my hometown. The channel was my destination. There are covered picnic tables along the water. I took my camera, Starbucks chai, notebook and pen and made a cozy place to write for an hour. I had a magazine article to work on, it wasn't getting done at home, so I was hopeful being by the water would stir my writing voice.

As soon as I had everything arranged on my makeshift desk, I heard the first rumble of thunder. It was coming from farther north, so I decided to wait and see if it would blow over. Then the second rumble came. I wanted some photographs of the channel before the rain came. I packed everything up, having only written a couple of paragraphs, and returned it to the car. I took my camera and set off down the channel sidewalk. Halfway down the walkway the skies opened up. I did a quick turnaround, unzipped my fleece jacket and nestled my camera inside. I got wet, but my camera was nice and dry.

I have been having intermittent problems with my year old Canon 70D for the last couple of months. The problem always seems prevalent in humid weather. The predicament is that all of the buttons on the back of the camera stop working. I pull and reinsert the battery and it will work for a time, but then stop again. Yet on other days, I can shoot all day with no issues. My camera was acting up that morning before the rain came, after the rain, it wouldn't work at all. I knew it was time to send it in to Canon.

Autumn is not the time I want to be without a camera. Fortunately, I do still have my old Canon T2i body. As I sat in the car, the rain beating down on the windshield, I googled the potential problem on my phone, and saw that I wasn't the only one. I also googled Borrowed Lens to see how much it would cost to rent a full-frame camera body for a week. I have danced around the idea of a full-frame camera for a few years now, I figured now was the time to give one a try.

The rain wasn't letting up, the day was a bust. But I will be back next week to try again with my full-frame camera rental in hand.