First time playing, and I didn't know what numbers to pick, so I 'quick pick'ed them all.

So the Powerball is at like $660 million dollars. So I took a road trip and bought some lottery tickets.

It was a fun time with my bandmate, Wendy. We had both never played the lottery, and figured the cost of a meal was ample enough of an expenditure to place betting on something so statistically impossible we could only equate buying the lottery tickets as pure entertainment anyway.

However, it was getting back to the house where things got interesting.

As I stepped out of the car and put my camera bag on, I heard a thud, a crack - and I knew what happened. Something had fallen out of my bag. What was it? My 24mm f1.4L lens was laying on the ground, tiny speckles of glass shimmered in the light, and there was a big gaping hole in the lens.

An almost Zen-like cloud descended on my brain: "I'm not attached to my lens. It's my favorite lens, but it's just one more thing."

I sighed, picked it up, wondering at the big hole...

But that's also when I realized, "Hey, wait a minute. The lens is fine. That's the lens filter that smashed up, and as long as those glass shards didn't scratch the front lens element, we should be back in business!!!"

And, after using a rubber band to get a better handle on the now death grip clutch of the Tiffen 77mm UV filter hammered into the front of my lens, I unscrewed the filter, used a lens brush to try to knock free the small glass particles still on the front lens element, plugged it into my camera, and it still worked.

$2,000 lens saved by $20 filter.

I'll take that any day I can get it.

For the record, I'm pretty meticulous (perhaps "anal" is a better word) about keeping my gear in good shape, but I never thought I would have needed a lens filter to save my lens.

Thank you, Tiffen!