Forget to tighten one of your tripod legs and find out.

I didn't exactly count all of the shards since parts of the ground glass were basically pulverized on impact with my floor. I was mostly screaming and cursing. I even threw my cowboy hat onto the ground. How is that for an image? I may even have shouted: "jumping jehosafat!" By criminy!

My fault: did not tighten sticks

Anyway, I had my mind on some other things and set my Speed Graphic on my Benro sticks and didn't check to see that everything was tight. Just the other weekend my buddy with his Gitzo showed me how his sticks lock tight with a twist. The Benros don't. You have to tighten and tighten and it's either tight enough or it isn't -- no snap no lock. So after I put it on its feet as I was talking to Sarah one of the legs lost tension and it all slipped down and I watched in slow motion as the Pacemaker swung down.. BSHHHHHHhSHHH! went the glass.

After I screamed a bit I picked up the camera and I cursed some more. Meanwhile, Sarah swung into action with the broom and pan and eventually I got the vacuum out. Our poor hardwood floor now bares a mark. I call it a tie. Pacemaker: 1 - Hardwood floor: 1.

4x5 camera with no focusing glass

So now my 4x5 camera is without a focusing glass. It has two other ways to 'focus'; there is the Kalart rangefinder which I have yet to use and may not even be calibrated for the lens I have; and also the 'sports finder' which is just a wire frame that the press photographers used to generally frame a picture while setting their lens on a hyperfocal distance.

Fortunately, I had already ordered a new ground glass and it may arrive this week. It's as if the old ground glass had heard it was to be replaced and decided to go out in spectacular fashion.