Lost

Today I played Scrabble at lunchtime. Nothing unusual.

I lost: 297 to 306. Nothing unusual about that, either. Generally the difference in scores is much greater. My normal goal is to break 300. So I got close.

Well, we counted tiles when putting the game away. 99. We counted again. 99. Still, we re-checked. 99. The number of tiles in a standard Scrabble game is 100. I'd lost a tile. We did a visual check. I'm missing the second "C" tile. Irksome. A little thing. Nothing to compare with what others have lost in the past few weeks and months. Irksome, nonetheless.

It was a good set: lasting just over a year, with an average of 1 to 2 games a week. I used it much more than most games I buy these days.

Thursday last I stayed home from work. I slept in extra long, took mega-doses of Vitamin C and other herbs. Caught an incipient cold before it got bad and had opportunity to take care of my wife for the day. She was still suffering from the lingering effects of what we thought was a cold or flu, but now appears might be whooping-cough. I made her eat. I made her take vitamins and other natural remedies. I made sure she was warm and slept.

While home, I cranked up the scanner again. Finished scanning my 1998 journal. I decided to take a break and scan some of my wife's stuff. So I scanned her 1975 diary and 1977 journal. When those were done, I scanned my grandmother's mission journals from 1919 and 1920. A full day. One that wasn't full of lost minutes spent in front of a television.

Saturday I lost another day to the scanner. The scan-a-thon continued as I began scanning negatives from my father-in-law's family. His sisters were going to throw out the negatives last year as they settled his mother's estate. My mother-in-law rescued them. She scanned what she could, mostly the standard 35 mm film. She gave me a stuffed manila envelope with a request for me to scan the rest.

These are old non-standard size negatives. I end up taping them to the negative scanner, trying to include the best parts of the picture. We've found some treasures.

The day wasn't completely lost, I guess. I cleaned a sink full of dishes, midday, and went grocery shopping in the evening. By day's end, I'd scanned and enhanced 196 images. I've hardly made a dent in the pile of negatives. Lots to do. Preservation of a family's smiles is always worth the effort, though.

I wonder if my parents have old, lost negatives somewhere.