Old Friends

I'm really trying to become a little more adept in using things for photos on the computer. I have PhotoShop Elements, but pretty much am NOT familiar enough with it to do much of anything except crop photos and make them a little lighter.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking at the Kohl's ad that came in the mail and saw something that was almost too good to be true! It's a small scanner, just for photographs! How convenient is that?? I could just sit here and scan to my heart's content. It just so happened that I was lucky enough to peel the sticker off the front of the ad and get an additional 30% off any purchase, so I decided that I just HAD to have it.

Several days later, after the 30% offer went into effect, I ordered the scanner (as well as a few other things) and sat back and waited. I just love ordering things online. During the month of December, Ted calls our foyer the "warehouse" or "shipping and receiving central" because there are so many boxes piled up in there.

Anyway, the scanner came yesterday and I was too busy (and tired...you know how it is once Friday evening rolls around) to open it. About half an hour ago I finally took it out.

All I can say is that I can't BELIEVE it's this simple! It even came with a memory card!

Yes, I read all the directions too.

I plugged it in.

I put the memory card in the back.

I lined up an old photograph and it rolled right on through.

After the light stopped blinking (a matter of about 5 seconds) I took out the memory card.

I put it into the computer.

I uploaded the photos to a file.

I opened up PhotoShop, did an "autofix" and cropped it.

WOW! This is way too easy!

Now I can see that there's a drawback in that it only takes photos up to 4" x 6" but that's okay. I can scan larger ones with my regular scanner if need be.

Ted thought it was great and said he had a photo for me to run through. Then he insisted that I publish it here, and title the blog post "Old Friends."

This photo was taken on December 26, 1973 when our high school band here in Ohio was on our way to Houston, Texas. We'd been invited to play in the Astro Blue Bonnet Bowl (a college bowl game) in the Astrodome. Our band parents and directors made sure that it was a trip that none of us would soon forget. We all worked hard to earn enough money so that a plane could be chartered, and for many of us, it was our first plane ride. There were enough extra seats that some parents were able to go along too. Ted's mom and dad went and took this picture of him and his best friend.

Even though Ted's best friend has moved to Texas, we get to see them once in a while. He and his wife were here a year and a half ago, and plan to visit again this coming summer. We can hardly wait to see them again!

By the way, we were there from December 26 - December 30 and had a fabulous time! The Band Boosters made sure that we did some sightseeing (NASA, San Jacinto Battleground, the USS Texas battleship) in addition to practicing for our performance.

All I need to do is keep Alex from seeing this old picture of his dad...because then he'll say, "See? Dad had long hair too, and his hair was WAY longer than mine!"