SteveJamieson.com

My car made it to the body shop sometime yesterday afternoon, so after work I headed over to see my car for the first time since it had been stolen. Considering all that it had probably been through, it didn’t seem all that bad.

The rear passenger side window had been broken in—apparently with the brick that I found inside the car. It looks like they tried breaking the rear driver’s side window first, since I noticed three or four impact points with a radial distribution of brick dust. Once inside they did indeed punch out the ignition, which was nowhere to be found. The flat tire was in the back seat, and had about an inch wide gash in the side wall. Apart from that, I didn’t notice any other damage.

The contents of the car had been thoroughly riffled through—with stuff strewn about the floor, the back seat, and the trunk—however, the only things I’ve noticed missing so far are the two portable air compressors (tire inflators) that I had in the trunk. One of them was the old one that had been blowing fuses every five minutes, and the other was the new one (still in the box) that my Mom had just bought me as an early Christmas present. Even my iPod auto accessories (which I had hidden in the arm rest compartment) were still there. (My iPod was with me, of course.) After taking this quick inventory, I loaded up all my stuff into my rental car and brought it home.

I got the call at 6:30 this morning from the St. Louis Police that my car had been found. I forgot to ask where they found it, but it’s on its way to the impound lot right now. Supposedly, there isn’t much in the way of gratuitous damage (apart from the broken window and punched-out ignition)—just a flat tire, and even then the perp(s) was/were nice enough to put on the spare.

Anyway, it’s been a restless night. I went to bed around 11, woke up briefly a couple times during the night, and hit quasi-insomnia sometime after 4:00. I think I finally managed to drift off to some state of light sleep around 6:00—just in time to be woken up by the phone. ::sigh:: Well, I’m certainly awake now. Maybe I can get a power nap this afternoon.

My Neon should be sitting down in my garage right now, tucked away for the night. Instead, it’s somewhere on the mean, cold streets of St. Louis. While I was in my library science class, some miscreant busted out one of my windows and drove off with my car. All that was left for me to find was the pile of broken glass.

Please pray that this gets resolved quickly and with minimal cost.

My friends Nick & Suzanne wanted me to take some pictures of them today at a wedding we were attending. Being glad to have an excuse to use my camera, which I tend to carry around with me these days, I pulled it out of my bag and powered it up. However, after the standard Canon startup logo on the view-screen, I was presented with a garish sight:

While these pics are kind of fun in an abstract way, it’s not really what I want to get out of my camera all the time. When I got home I popped over to the Canon support website, which suggested that I talk to a tech support rep on the phone before trying to send it in for service. I dialed the number and told the tech support guy about my problem. He informed me that a service advisory has been issued about image sensor problems with the PowerShot A70 (my camera) and that they’ll fix it for free if that’s indeed the problem. So, in a couple days I’ll be getting a prepaid shipping label to send my camera in for service.

A quick Google search turned up this page, which appears to confirm that I am having the faulty image sensor (CCD) problem.

And from Canon’s advisory:

While reports of this malfunction have been rare in the United States, we have determined that it may occur if the product is exposed to hot and humid environments.

Hmmm… hot and humid… St. Louis broke my camera!

I had a brilliant idea for something to blog about the other day. And then I forgot what it was. Dang.

On a completely unrelated note, my class for the semester is completely done, and I think my final paper turned out really well.