Begging through blogging

On Monday I found a camera in a camera bag down at the aquarium. In case you missed it, I posted about it on my Chattanooga blog. In comments Scott asked if I would get to claim the camera after a certain amount of time. I have to admit that I wondered that myself. I mean, I did find it and turn it in, wouldn't it be logical to think that I would get to claim it for my own if the owners didn't come forward?

Wednesday morning I called the Visitor's Center and asked about the status of the camera and if I could claim it. The guy who answered the phone said that the camera was still there and since it was still there, the owner probably wasn't going to come back. He spoke like a man with experience. Then he said, "You can come get it if you want."

My heart jumped with excitement... and yet it was a little guarded. I didn't actually get a great look at the camera and I had a suspicion that the camera wasn't what I actually thought it was.

I spoke with my mom later that morning and mentioned that I was going to pick up the camera. She then dropped a hint... could she have the camera?

She traded in her old camera in October so she could get Daddy a new, better camera to take to Afghanistan. She would be camera-less while Daddy was gone. And knowing how awesome it is to take pictures of everything and anything, it made me sad to think she would be without a camera.

I didn't tell her this, but I was going to let her have the camera, if it was the nicer version of what I thought it was.

I used my lunch hour to go claim the camera. When I got out of the visitor's center I took a closer look and I was right about my suspicion. It was a Canon 35 mil SLR... not a DSLR like I originally thought. The bag also contained a telephoto lens and external flash. And a clue to who it might belong to. (That's another story.)

Sorry Mom, I don't think you want this camera.

This is where I do a little begging through blogging. The partnership of HP with PayPerPost has created an opportunity for free cameras to bloggers. The above is my sob story... I did a good deed, I got a nice thing, but it wasn't nice enough to give to my mom so that she could have a digital camera while Daddy is serving our country.

I think this story is good enough. Ted, do you?

This post was sponsored by HP.