Wear and tear

The littlest things are always the hardest to replace.

Last year it was the back wiper on my 2003 Element.  It's such an odd size that no one had it in stock. I went to Honda dealers which steered me to auto parts stores that couldn't find it anywhere in the city.  Those who know me understand that I do things in bursts.  So it was vitally important that I had it right away.  In order to check it off my imaginary to-do list, I wound up ordering it online.  When it arrived, it was the wrong one.  The blade size was fine but the connecting clip was wrong.  Fine. I got aggravated, wrote a nasty email, and proceeded to make the best of it by bastardizing the old and the new together.

This year, it's my D200's battery grip. One of the little battery holder clips succumbed to time and poor design to fracture the head off of it.  A little research and I find a whole mess of Nikonians in the same boat. I wondered if I could repair it but it quickly became obvious that is was made of a plastic that resists all glues and bonding material. Fortunately, the forums also yielded a lot of people who repaired theirs.  Many more were found who chose to live with one battery in the grip. A couple of people were offering to repair it for me for the low, low price of way-too-much.  Within minutes I was able to find the part description and some one who would sell me a set.  If all goes well, Precision Photo in Michigan will be sending me a pair of battery clips to replace the broken one.  I've already taken my grip apart and removed the offending piece.  Forum members were kind enough to indicate the hidden screw under the name plate and rubber hand grip.  For simplicity, I've put it back together with as few screws as I can until my parts arrive.  I'll then be making the decision as to whether or not to replace those hidden screws. Given their placement, I don't think that I'll be missing much structurally.

I never did mention that my Sigma 105 was back. They didn't even charge me the $17 for the repair that they originally quoted. Coincidentally, $17 is exactly how much the parts from Precision Photo cost.  Karma, anyone.  Still, if this is the worst that life wants to deal me right now, I'll not complain.