I have been back from vacation for over four months yet my four hundred photos remain in their envelopes from the photo developer. Why is that? Am I a procrastinator? That’s true of course, yet not in this case. The reason I have not been thrusting my latest vacation photo album under everyone’s nose is that I have not been able to find photo album refill pages for 4″ x 7″ prints.

These are odd dimensions for photos, yet I prefer this size. It seems that every photo shop has discontinued its 4″ x 7″ refill pages and no matter where I call, no shop has them in stock. There are plenty of 5″ x 7″ refill pages, but I don’t want those. I have placed ads on-line (Craigslist, Kijiji) and have had no luck. I have even asked my American friends to be on the lookout for them. One vendor has such refill sheets for sale on eBay at some ridiculous price, and I may have to buy some from him. Fortunately, I will not have to buy all of them from him.

This past weekend I found some old stock at the Henry’s outlet store in downtown Toronto. Yay! I have sheets for three hundred photos. Yet yesterday, after I slid the photos into their individual pockets, the glue that had kept the pockets distinct and separate from one another had disintegrated, and the pictures all fell to the bottom of the page. Yikes. This happened to twenty-one of the fifty sheets I bought. I didn’t want to throw these refill pages away, and I wondered if the same self-destruction would eventually occur to all of the other pages.

So with a little ingenuity I thought of a way to fix these pages. I lit a candle, took an old screwdriver and held it over the flame. I held the screwdriver tip over the plastic and slowly followed the powdery glue-line. Presto! Instant repair job. The photos slid in and the melted plastic did not come apart. I am dreading having to do this for over twenty more sheets, but the job has to be done.

I might have to pay through the teeth on eBay for a few more sheets to accommodate the remaining hundred of my vacation pictures. The screwdriver glue job seems stronger than the original “gluestick” job. If the photos in the other pages crash through the glued separator lines, I’ll be able to fix them. I just dread the idea of having to do a repair job for potentially all three hundred photos.

Who wants to see my pics of Brittany where I went snap-happy taking photos of Breton signage and separatist graffiti?