Light at the end of the tunnel ...

...let me explain. Besides things like family and fun thankfully taking up some of my blogging time in good ways lately, I've had some camera-to-computer downloading issues/frustrations and then additional uploading from computer to Flickr issues/frustations.

I had dealt with all of that pretty well and intended to spend a good deal of time Sunday, during the NASCAR race at Atlanta, working on a series of posts about one of several wonderful things I've been able to do in Portland recently, maybe the Dirty Dozen Brass Band at Jimmy Mak's Jazz Club or Michael Cully's Puppetry at the Oregon History Museum or Sharon Wortman's Bridge Walk involving the Morrison and Steel Bridges across the Willamette. I had a bounty of specials to choose from, as well as the unique every day things I notice all around town, until Sunday morning.

When I opened Honk, my precious little iBook, and then opened iPhoto, there was a message that read something like, "For iPhoto to run, the iLibrary needs to be updated," and I really only remember seeing OK highlighted as a choice, so I clicked on OK. In seconds all of my photos disappeared from the iPhoto Library, all 6992 of them. I sat here, stunned into silence.

To tell the truth, my calmness at this unreal turn of events totally shocked me. I didn't wail, holler, sob. I knew that I had many, many photos at Flickr already, so I accepted what had happened and then promptly downloaded my three full memory cards into Honk and started putting photos onto Flickr.

Now for the light at the end of the tunnel part of this tale. Today on the bus ride home, I talked as I often do with a young man who is a few years younger than my younger son. When I told him what had happened, he promptly said, "Why don't you use Finder and search for the jpg's?" So, I did. And I found gobs and gobs of photos. It will be some time before I know if I have found what disappeared on Sunday, but I'm some kind of hopeful! And blessed!