I’m writing this on my brand new computer, and tomorrow being a very important day to me, I’m going to place an order for the camera lens of my dreams: the Canon 300mm f/2.8 that will make photography in dark woods, at dusk, and under overcast skies so much easier.
What’s so important about tomorrow? It’s Ulysses S. Grant’s birthday, and it’s also the 6th anniversary of the first two eggs hatching in the Great Blue Heron nest under the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s watchful nest cam. I was a moderator in Cornell’s heron cam community where I made dear and permanent friends, many of whom contributed to my Go Fund Me campaign.
I’ll be depleting my checking and savings accounts to make tomorrow’s purchase, but there is no way I could have bought these two important but truly luxury items at all without the generous contributions that are covering fully 2/3 of the cost and, indeed, making both purchases possible in the first place. It feels wonderful to know that so many people were willing to support my volunteer work on my blog, photography, and podcast in such a tangible way. I hope I can make my work even better in the coming years thanks to my new equipment.
I’ll be closing down the Go Fund Me campaign at midnight as April transitions into May. I’ll have the camera lens in time for The Biggest Week, the Iowa Ornithologists Union meeting, and the Acadia Birding Festival. With luck, I'll be able to take some amazing warbler shots over the coming spring. It’s been faster and easier processing the sound files for my production of For the Birds, and because the new computer is significantly faster than my old one, it’ll be easier and quicker to archive more old programs as well.
Now that Russ’s and my trip to Florida is over and I’ve taken care of two exhausting speaking gigs this past week, I’ll have time to focus this weekend on ordering prints and notecards as gifts for these many contributions. That, too, will more easily be done on the new computer.
And all of this is possible because of YOU. I can't thank you enough.
