tdierikx

I met a young couple who had adopted a staffy cross from the pound the other day - they said he was 40kgs... I'd say closer to 20kgs actually... lol! He was a sweetie who gave aweome kisses though, so I didn't really care that his owners wanted to talk up his size... lol! T.

Oh, and I called my insurance company this morning and added specified cover for the camera and lens - also adjusted replacement value on the house from unlimited to a figure I could build a comfortable replacement house for, and they actually owe me money now... coolies! T.

Well - shoulder was bugging me still, so I took myself off to the physio... partial dislocation and a couple of very upset tendons is the cause apparently. Shoulder has been realigned and taped, and feels somewhat better than before... lol! My physio reckons I have the highest pain threshold she's ever seen... apparently I should have been screaming in pain for the past couple of days... errr! I knew it felt "wrong", but who woulda thunk it was dislocated? She put me in front of the mirror and told me to look at how "out" it was even! (It did look pretty ugly actually) Well - now it's back where it should be and should start feeling much better soon... lol! T.

I supposedly have wooden floors, but at the moment you'd think it was wall-to-wall carpeted... my dogs shed all year round... grrr! T.

Harper can't wait to get into her crate of an evening... she has warm snugglies in there! Sometimes it's hard to get her to come out of a morning also... T.

I had a rotti boy who was 47 kilos... and that's a heck of a lot of dog! He was actually lean at that weight. Some rotti owners like to exaggerate the weight of their dogs for some reason though... my boy was plenty huge at 47 kgs... and at 43kgs he looked too thin... One of the guys at work says his rotti is 65kgs - and it's now 7 and has arthritis. He's looking into stem cell treatment to help the arthritis, so I helpfully suggested that trimming the dog down in weight will help a lot also... *grin* (his dog is FAT - I've seen photos) T.

I'm a firm believer in punishment fitting the crime when it comes to animal cruelty cases... just sayin'... T.

Well - seeing as I can't afford the cost of a service on the lens, let alone a repair job... I'm just going to suck it up and live with the slightly sticky zoom movement and small scratches on the front element. Add to that the absolutely shitful after sales service from Canon... I live a 30 min drive from their repair shop, yet they insist on me shipping the thing to them, then waiting 2 weeks for them to produce a quote for any work that needs doing... and then they can't give any idea of timeframe to actually repair the thing (I asked how long after approval of quote would they start the work - answer was "depends how many other things there are to fix in front of yours"... WTF?). Does any bloody manufacturer actually deal face to face with people any more? I'll get another filter as soon as I can afford one... *sigh* Meantime, I'll have to be extra careful where I put my feet, so I don't fall over again. I'll also call the insurance company and see about specified extras cover on my home and contents insurance - that way at least if I fall on the lens again and really break it, I'll have some cash to replace it with. T.

I have extras cover on my home and contents that covers up to $1000 on unspecified items CC... might have to look at specifying the $3000+ all the camera equipment is actually worth, yes? Anyways, rang Digital Camera Warehouse this morning, and they said I have to deal directly with Canon as it's not a warranty case... grrr! Rang Canon, and they don't have anywhere I can physically take the thing to be looked at - have to ship it to them (a Sydney address no less) then wait 2 weeks for them to even come up with a quote for any repairs... but they did finally tell me that the minimum cost would be upwards of $300 for just a service... aarrgghh! I'm in half a mind to just leave as is and cope with the slightly sticky far end zoom movement. T.

I have a history of the right bicep tendon getting trapped... and my physio is a goddess who "pops" it back for me on a pretty regular basis. This is feeling more like it's been overstretched/jarred - the arm in question was holding the camera at the time of injury, so the bicep was contracted when I hit the elbow on the hard ground. It seems to be getting a little bit better so far. Yesterday was better than the first day, and today is a little better than yesterday. If it's still stiff tomorrow, I'll have my physio look into it. Last night I slept on that side and it didn't hurt enough to switch over to the other side like it had the night before. I'm a bit miffed that the bruise that was threatening on the elbow hasn't come out though... it looks much happier than the other day. T.

Went to Featherdale today and used the lens... yep - still seems to be focusing just fine and taking nice photos for me... Still sticky for the finer zoom adjustments though... *sigh*... amazing what you can get used to in a short period of time though... lol! Feeling a bit stiff this evening across the shoulders and upper back, but nothing seriously hurting enough to think about seeing my physio for. The bicep and tendon running up to the shoulder are not overly happy with me making any movement except those needed to take photos... funny that! Ummm - getting a photo of my elbow is gonna be tricky. It's in a spot that I can't actually see, and I have a nice bandaid on it to stop it leaking blood - it's right on the point of the elbow, and whenever I move it opens and closes. Might have to wait until it's healed up a bit more before I start trying to work out how to get a photo of it. T.

Awww... ain't they happy little beasties? T.

I found another bruise on my outer knee where I must have also landed a little hard... but it doesn't hurt unless I touch it... I've pulled up surprisingly well this morning all things considered - only a bit of muscle soreness in the bicep and bicep tendon at the shoulder. Feels like they are bruised more than anything. The elbow isn't stiff like I thought it was going to be with the cut on it. I put it down to continuing to use the arm normally yesterday after the fall... the move it or lose it attitude works! I'm sure that if I had not continued with my day as normal, I'd have been in a lot more pain this morning. What gets me is that after the fact there were a few people who approached me later on and told me they'd seen me fall over, yet no-one came to help me up or ask if I was alright when it happened. I must have gotten up pretty quickly and not looked like I was hurt... ? I WAS much more worried about the lens at first, it must be said... and once I'd established that it was only the filter that was cracked, I went up to the office to get the elbow seen to - but only because it was bleeding and I couldn't see the actual extent of the wound... needed to get it cleaned as I'd fallen down where there could have been traces of dog only knows what sort of animal effluent flow off (it was right behind the Cotton Top Tamarin - small monkeys - enclosure). Top points to Natalie who dropped everything to clean me up and make sure I was OK. I'll take the lens down to where I bought it tomorrow after work - they are big supplier of all things camera, so I'm sure they will know what I need to do next about the lens. Like I said, the internal workings seem to be fine as the photos taken after the knock are just as good as ever - it's just that the push/pull motion is a bit sticky when I want to make smaller zoom adjustments, as though I've knocked it a bit askew. T.

Wanna know how I managed to fall over? I had taken a shortcut into the garden bed next to the Emus to pat one of them... and when I went to leave, I slipped on some beauty bark... grrr! Of course I didn't manage to fall into the comparably soft bark, did I? Noooo... I managed to find the hard ground to fall on! I couldn't see the elbow wound, but could see that it was bleeding, so I just got Natalie to patch that up so I wouldn't bleed all over my jumper... and got on with what I was there for... taking photos and chatting to all "my" animals... lol! I stopped by a friend's place on the way home to help her with a computer problem, and I finally got to see the damage in the mirror when we changed the blood soaked dressing at around 3pm. It's going to tell me about it for a few days methinks... errr! It looks like the skin has split when I bashed it on the ground, so it's a nice neat wound - but the bruising was already starting to show itself... and the bicep and shoulder are a little upset with me too. I'm just gonna keep them moving and warm, and we should be fine in a day or two. On the upside, I was greeted lovingly by "my" tigers Cinta and Jalur this morning, and Chauri the red panda came down from her sleeping branch to say g'day too... best start to any day I reckon, and falling over didn't put a dent in my awesome mood at all... *grin* T.

So - as the title says - I had a bit of a tumble this morning and managed to knock my 100-400mm L lens hard enough to make a real mess of the UV filter (cracked it all to billy-o). I also bashed my elbow pretty hard on the stony and hard bit of ground I landed on - the bruise is going to be impressive - especially with the nice gash in the middle... owwie! Can't wait to see how the rest of that arm pulls up tomorrow morning too, as it's telling me now that it's not overly happy with the jarring it got. The sweet lass (Natalie) up at the Symbio office cleaned and dressed the elbow wound really nicely, and I went off to test the lens... for the next 4 hours... *grin* So - long story short - it doesn't appear that I've managed to do any internal damage to the lens (it's taken me some awesome shots today after our fall actually), but the push/pull action is a bit sticky, and there are 2 faint scratches on the front glass. The scratches are faint enough that the camera is not capturing them when I take a photo, so that's at least OK for now. The sticky push/pull action is relatively minor, but enough to be a pain if I'm trying to make minor adjustments as I'm shooting... grrr! Where do I take the lens to have it looked at/repaired? I bought it from Digital Camera Warehouse here in Sydney - should I take it there? As an afterthought, should I keep using the 100-400mm lens, or should I use another lens instead for my Featherdale visit tomorrow? It's kinda more cramped there, so the 18-270mm Tamron will do the job just fine (but I really do like the images/reach the 100-400 gives me better). T.

Rossmore Vet Clinic is good too... a few minutes up Bringelly Road from Austral... Ted, Robert, Melvin, and Kevin are awesome vets. Steer clear of the new out of Uni grads who are looking to up their "financial contribution" to the clinic though... T.

Please give Jeune an extra cuddle from me DDD... that was way too close for comfort! T.

Just remember when you give Comfortis, make sure it's straight after food... T.

My Lab was still feeding her pups at regular intervals at 10 weeks... all 9 of them. She had so much milk that she put Dolly Parton's chest to shame even at 10 weeks post whelp! The little piglets were also on multiple solid feeds per day as well... Labs are just piggy gutses... I'd hold onto your 2 littl'uns until at least 8 weeks tesslc - vaccinate at 6 weeks, 10 weeks, and 14-16 weeks to make sure of vaccine take-up when mum's immunity wears off. T.

Our farm dog when I was a teen seemed to be immune to paralysis ticks... he'd get covered in them regularly, big fat, full ones they were! - and we checked him twice a day all over. That was his fave thing on the planet getting checked for ticks, as we'd have to go all over him carefully and he loved the attention... *grin* T.

Where are you located? T.

My old girl Zeddy is nearly 15 - she has a few small lipomas and fibromas, none seem to be getting larger as yet... she's also stepped up the skin tag production... *grin* She's been fed all types of kibble over the years - both cheap supermarket stuff and the more expensive premium kibble - only started getting the old dog lumps and bumps a couple of years ago. Still has all bar one tooth that got knocked out in a fight, and they are in good nick. Eyesight and hearing loss are minimal so far too. I'm so lucky with my sturdy old girl. Her only real medical issue is a bit of arthritis, and so far this year (even with the recent cold snap) she hasn't needed any medication to assist with that. I think making sure her bedroom is warm and she has a nice snuggly beddy is working it's charm there so far - last year she required Meloxicam through winter even though it wasn't all that cold compared to our current nippy mornings. Zeddy's vet reckons that she'd sail through surgery if she needed it - she's a very healthy specimen for an old duck he reckons! T.

Run free little Myrtie... you will live on in the hearts of all who knew you sweet girl. DDD - big hugs to you... T.

I've had great experiences with Dogtainers Sydney... excellent service, and the handlers really care about their precious cargo... T.

Run free and healthy sweet little man... now finally able to romp and chase balls at the Bridge... T.