So Saturday Damon and I got caught in a deluge of rain. I think he told me he read that Jordan-Hare Stadium got 4 inches of rain during the downpour of doom, which is a lot of rain for the amount of time it rained.

While the student section was being carefree about the rainy situation, we were taking heed the advice of the loudspeaker and making our way to the cover of the concourse. As I mentioned before, I had a poncho. I had my camera on its strap underneath the poncho, thinking it was enough protection. But due to the flimsy nature of the hood opening, rain still got to me and the camera.

When I got to the concourse I headed to the ladies room to make use of the changing table. I was able to spread out my belonging and assess the situation. The camera was wet and working for the moment, but I knew it was precarious. So I took out the battery, wiped stuff down with a paper towel, and prayed hard.

I spent at least the first quarter of the game pouting and worried. This meant I spent a lot of time sitting while the folks around me were getting up and down. In the second quarter the ball was coming toward our section, so I decided to get into it. I put the battery back in the camera and tried to shoot some pics. Nothing but a big old “err” message on the viewfinder. The LCD screen was blank. And I wanted to cry.

Damon was very sweet about it all, telling me we would work to replace the camera if it was truly a goner. This lifted my spirits and I took the battery out again.

Once we got back to my grandmother’s house, Damon turned her laundry room into a dry room. He used a space heater to warm up the room and spread out his costume to dry. I put my camera lenses and camera body (with the mirror exposed) out on the ironing board. I put both batteries out with the sensors up. And Damon took the memory card out later (because I forgot). And I didn’t touch them at all.

Damon put a lens back on the camera to come home. Once we were settled I went ahead and put a battery back in the camera. I turned it on and started taking some pictures.

It worked! It worked! It worked!

I am so happy the camera is better. It was going to be such a disappointment to go on a field trip today (which was canceled) and not be able to take pictures. I was going to be scrambling to have a camera for my trip to the Type A Mom Conference on Thursday. And so much more.

Going to the game I had downsized what I normally take in order to travel lighter. I regret that now. I regret not taking the water resistant camera bag. I regret not checking the hour by hour weather on weather.com to see what could be coming our way. I regret not putting my camera under my shirt.

A wet Nikon D40 can be catastrophic, but I was fortunate and have learned my lesson. I hope no one else ever has this problem.

Pictures I was able to get before the rains came are on Flickr.

Technorati Tags: Nikon D40, wet DSLR, Auburn football