"Fish sounds good. Yeah, I'll have fish for lunch."

Thud.

"What the hell was that?"

Turning around, my eyes traced the lines of the linoleum out of the kitchen and into the dining room. There on the floor lay my K10D and Sigma 135-400.

Separately.

They were assembled just a little while ago, resting on the kitchen table.

Rushing to my camera, my worst fears were imagined. My camera, my tool, my instrument for documenting the world... was broken. The metal ring that mates the lens to the body was still attached, to the lens. There laying before me was my 10D with it's mirror out for all the world to see.

As fear and hysteria gripped me, I grabbed for my tools in the hopes of saving my friend. Immediately I went to work removing the ring from the end of the lens. Several frustrating minutes later, I had the now orphaned part of the 10D off of the Sigma and discovered to my dismay that it was bent. A lot.

I attempted mating the errant piece back onto it's camera, but to no avail. Being a large man I placed the deformed piece between two large, plastic cutting boards and used my mass for good, trying to straighten the piece out. With the piece resembling it's former self, I again tried to reassemble the broken friend before me, but another problem presented itself.

Beneath the ring on the body there is a copper ring that is connected to the inner workings of the camera via a soldered wire. I know this because in the attempt to reassemble the camera I grabbed my *ist DL and carefully removed the same piece from it hoping that it'd fit the 10D. (For those curious enough to ask, everything lines up perfectly, just the ring on the DL is not as wide as the one on the 10D) This copper ring was also laying on the floor next to the body.

This is the point in our story where a fat, 31 year old, father of two gets pissed off. And misty eyed.

Fortunately, my wife is amazing. She learned of the tale shortly after the prognosis, my voice wavering with emotion as it was told. Her immediate reaction was one of understanding and concern. "Replace it," was her final recommendation to me as I have shoots this week that just couldn't be put off.

I can never truly put into words how lucky, and how grateful I am to have such a wonderful and amazing woman for my wife. Even if she believes me a dumbass for this happening.