The Wonders of Modern Technology

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I can now scan documents and photos. I am thrilled. No more taking flash-bleached photos of photos or documents and then downloading and cropping. Now, with the press of a single button, I can digitize pretty much anything that will fit face down on the scanner's flatbed. So exciting!

My new scanner is like a time machine. It lets me resurrect photos that have been stuffed in shoe boxes for more than a decade, and relive the moments in them. Now I can now digitally revisit my Roma artifacts—as well as preserve and share them on the Web. Roma, of course, was born long before the acceleration of the digital age (and she passed away six months ago this week). All the photos of her youth and middle-age were taken and printed the old fashioned way—on film and at the nearest drug store. So, I am pleased, very pleased, to be able to show folks (most of whom only knew her as an old dame) evidence of Roma in her prime.

But first, here is the health record that came with her from the Austin Humane Society. As you can see, she was originally called "Chardinet," pronounced Chardonnay. I don't think I ever realized before that her name was not spelled like the wine.

Here is Roma at age 2, in August, 1998. We had just moved to Iowa City, Iowa. (I can tell from the unforgivably ugly carpeting.) It was in Iowa that Roma discovered the joys of snow and winter, joys I did not share.

Here she is at age 3, at my parents' house in Pennsylvania for Christmas.  I had forgotten that she was pretty solid, almost voluptuous, in those days. Also, her right ear did that flop-down thing. The tip would jiggle cutely when she ran. For some reason, in her old age, both ears stood up properly. Her look of intent earnestness, however, never changed.

And here's my girl at age 7, cooling off at Bull Creek Park, her favorite place in Texas. We had just moved back to Austin after our stints in the Midwest and New England. Although Roma loved cold climes, I did not. I regretted bringing her back to Austin (in August, no less), but I missed my friends and Austin's laid-back vibe, good food, and (usually) mild winters.

My sketch of Roma at the top of this page is an artifact I unearthed recently in a box of old papers. Apparently, I drew it on the back of a print-out of a chapter from my ex-husband's dissertation. That fact helps me date it to 1996, the year that we adopted Roma. (She was the best birthday present ever.)  My rendering makes her look a little more coy and wide-eyed than she ever was. Gosh, I miss that dog.

Thanks for indulging my little dog walk down memory lane.
-z