It's Friday, which means normally I'd be sharing my favorite photo of the week with you.
Instead, I'm sharing this one, a photo I did not take of two girls I do not even know in a place that does not look familiar to me at all.
Does anyone else recognize them or the place?
My computer tells me this was taken on January 10, 2005 with a Kodak V550 Zoom Digital Camera, which I do not own. Also, I'm not sure where I was on January 10, 2005, but I would bet a lot of money, I wasn't near these two girls.
No offense to them, of course.
Unless they had a hand in what happened. Then I wish a lot of offense on them!
You see, somehow this mystery photo ended up in a one of my three most recent folders, which includes the one that previously stored all the photos from Daniel's graduation – all of those of him getting his diploma, smiling with us afterwards, my three kids crowding together acting goofy for the camera, my parents who were bound and determined to be at his graduation and just glowed with love and pride, the fireworks lighting up the UT Tower – plus some wonderful ones from this past weekend of Daniel with the dogs, a day out on the lake, and of course, my usual flower shots.
I say "previously stored…" because all of those precious photos are now gone, replaced by a flat gray rectangle or an "Invalid Image" message. One or two appear to be there, but when I open them, they've been mostly gobbled up by globs of bright pixels.
Hence, no favorite photo of the past week. They're all gone.
In my very last folder, this image of the girls is all that's left, period. I suspect it had something to do with the elimination of the others, kind of like "Survivor" in JPEG.
But I really don't know. How could it do that? Does anyone out there have an idea what happened? Has it happened to you?
How the heck did someone else's photo get onto my camera/computer?
I'm casting suspicious glances everywhere. Is it my computer itself? Is it my external hard drive where all my photos are stored, and not saved anywhere else, unfortunately? (How could I be so stupid? <sigh>) Is it my Picasa program? Or some kind of virus that snuck in from somewhere else and landed on my external hard drive?
Just how do I prevent delinquent girls like these from sneaking in and stealing my digital treasure if I have no idea how they got in or which lock I need to replace?
The good thing is, they are only photos. I still have the memories the images represent, and thank goodness I posted a few on my blogs. But I am very, very sad about it. I wish now I'd posted all of them.
Anyway…Happy Friday! I hope you have a wonderful weekend. But again, if you have any information or advice or suspicions or theories about that mystery photo and my lost treasure, please, please, PLEASE share it with me! Thank you!
"Have courage for the great sorrows of life, and patience for the small ones. When you have laboriously accomplished your daily tasks, go to sleep in peace for God is awake.
~Victor Hugo
Long Hollow 
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