Monday 12/13/2021
I woke up early as I knew that I had to be at PostNet in Austin to pick up my mail by 12:30 pm. For some reason, they want a specific time for pick ups which I suppose makes sense as I am sure they have to gather up a persons mail and hold it somewhere for collection differing from the normal personal locker box where each person’s mail is kept. We went for our normal walk around the park followed by the usual breakfast and then to the computer to check emails. I don’t know why I bother with this habit, email that is not breakfast, as I get very few emails of importance. There is the occasional one or two that require an answer but most are read (or not) and discarded. It’s amazing how much of our time is spent on emails. Way too much from my perspective.
With both breakfast for us and checking the mail out of the way, I went about the business of collecting all of the cameras and gear that I want to trade in at Precision Camera and Video in Austin. Somewhat reluctantly I might add as much of it has served me well over the years and we have shared a lot of adventures together, before putting everything in the Jeep. The trip in was uneventful and I arrived at PostNet and the young lady collected all of what she had to give to me. I thanked her and went back out to the Jeep and was perusing the very large stack when I got a knock on the window. The same young lady was standing there with a package mail that she had missed and had taken the time to track me down in the Parking Lot. Good job I hadn’t just driven off and that my curiosity as to what might be in the pile of letters, had got the better of me. I thanked her profusely and then drove to the Camera shop which was not very far away.
Precision Camera and Video is located on Anderson Lane in Austin and is a huge camera store. I have shopped there many times and most of the equipment that I wanted to trade had been purchased from that store. I somewhat reluctantly presented everything at the Trade In counter and then proceeded to wait a half hour or so as they evaluated what I had to offer. I knew that I would be taking a big hit on what I had paid and what it was worth as a trade in and my fears were quickly acknowledged as I looked at the invoice. But, I had made up my mind that a lighter camera and lens were what I wanted and that the “old” stuff was now history and we went ahead with the trade or rather, they gave me a listed invoice and the prices against each item of it’s worth to them. Altogether, they allowed me almost $2000.00 on the old equipment which I traded in for a new Olympus Mark 5 plus a 14/150 lens that doubles to a 14/300. The weight of the combined camera and lens were probably less than half of my old equipment. This is my first time with the Olympus brand as I have always been a Nikon/Tamron man.
I spent almost two hours in the camera store before walking out with my goodies. The lady that assisted me by the name of Tamra Green was very knowledgeable and helpful plus I might add, also very patient as I kept bombarding her with questions and demands. Incidentally, I originally wanted one of the Nikon Z mirrorless models but my old 16/300 lens would not work with it and neither did they have anything in stock that was compatible. Hence the switch in camera brand. Tamra also informed me that she was teaching a class on the new camera on the 30th of this month which I added to my diary. Incidentally, by the time I had finished, we had spent the full allowance that they had offered me on the trade-ins. Fancy that…
The drive home was uneventful except for the traffic which was horrendous as by then, I was in rush hour traffic, again. I got to work on my timing. I was greeted by two very excited little dogs and we went out on out evenings walk as we usually do covering around 1.5 miles for the day. Most of my time in the camera store was in waiting around hence very few steps not like in the big box stores where I am on the move all of the time.
Written 12/14/2021 – Read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com