Wait, it gets better....
So, I go into the darkroom, and pop the canister.
Have you ever cursed gravity? I did. I lost my grip on the spool and it dropped to the floor. Fortunately, I keep the floor in my closet pretty clean. So figure, I'll get it started on the spool; as long as I don't drag it all over the place, it'll last til I can get it started, then I can carefully follow the film down by the edges, pick up the quantity that's on the floor, stand up and let it dangle while I spool it up.
Okay, no problemmo. About 3/4 the way up, I realize it's not spooling. I gently feel to make sure that it's alligned correctly; it is. Then, I realize that it's wet--there are droplets of water on it.
Oh crapp! Yes, it's fallen into the bucket of water I use as a holding tank for prints. I do several prints in succession, drop them in the tub, and when the last one is done, I run them out to the sink and wash.
So, now it doesn't want to spool. I get it a few more inches in, and the slack doesn't seem to be touching anywhere. I know that it's not going in any further, so I figure, what the hey, it should be allright. I close up the tank, and after double and triple checking (since I know I'm accident-prone today), I open the door and head for the counter.
Then it hits me: the prints I put in the tub have been soaking in fixer. So there are at least trace amounts of fixer in that water, which is now on the film.
Well, they're RC prints (God Bless RC Paper! Re: our brief discussion of RC vs. FB papers the other day, Charlie), so there shouldn't be too much fix, and if it affects the negatives, then it was only the end of the roll, when the sun was going down, and the IR was probably pretty low anyway.
I hurry into the bathroom and dump in the dev. I carefully follow your advice, Terri: three inversions at the start, then one each minute for six minutes total. Dump out the the fix, and in that yellow vinegar-smellin' stuff known as stop bath. Agitate for 30 seconds, dump out.
Oh Crapp! Yes, Crapp with two "p's" at the end. I've never seen exhausted indicator stop before. I now know that it looks a lot like grape kool-aid. Actually, more like grape gatorade. I remember that lots of people don't use stop, just a water rinse (the Kodak datasheets even suggest you can do that), so I quickly turn on the tap and stick the tank under it, let it fil, and soak for a good 25 seconds or so. Then, I dump it out.
Note to self: never return stop to the bottle. I keep prepared chemicals in 1-qt gatorade bottles. I'm also fond of grape Gatorade and Kool-aid. I reuse the Gatorade bottles for Kool-aid, too (different bottles than the chemical ones!). The idea is scary.
Anyway, out goes the water, in goes the fix. Now, I'm paranoid, so I mix up some fresh fixer between agitations, pour out the old and in the new. I fix an extra minute; six instead of the usual five. Just in case.
When the time comes, I dump the fix and open the can. Turn on the tap and start washing. After the tank fills, I swish the film a couple times, then take it out for a quick look. The last few frames are overexposed, I believe, but there appear to be some good ones in further. Back into the tank and under the faucet.
-sigh-
So, we shall see. I forgot to mention: the shutter in my AE-1P (oh, yeah, I accidentally poked it while fighting with the camera to get the damned cassette out in the first place; it was being stubborn. Hopefully I didn't damage it) is cloth. Hopefully it's IR-opaque cloth; since there appears to be stuff on the roll, it probably is.
Shutter appears to be okay.
-sigh-
Ten minutes 'til wash is done.
:banghead: <--this barely describes it.