February 15, 2013
Dear Everyone:
I don’t wish to sound like I’m gloating (much), but I really do like not
having to get up and go to work each day.
I’m very glad I “went back to work” last year.
When I first left (in the vernacular:
“Got tossed like a sack of garbage”), it wasn’t my decision.
After eight months in the office, I was in a position to make
that decision for myself.
Of course, I was very tired.
That may be the result of the usual “post-Christmas” exhaustion that
we’ve all experienced. And,
technically, the project was over.
On the other hand, there was probably enough work to keep me there for
months, if not a year or more.
And it was interesting work that I enjoyed doing.
But it was time to go.
And it was my decision to make.
The people were very nice about it.
They even took me out to lunch, something I suspect doesn’t
always attend the departure of your “average temporary worker”.
So now I’m “foot loose and fancy free”.
And feeling much more rested.
As a result, a recent problem with my
printer became something I could
easily handle. Usually, a
problem “at home” is something you can only deal with when you’re “at
home”. After a full day at
work.
Or you wait until the weekend, the shortest 48 hours in the week.
As it was, the printer suddenly decided to stop printing in black.
Red, OK. Blue, OK.
Even yellow or green, OK.
But black, no soap.
I tried taking the ink cartridge out and putting it back in, but the
printer wasn’t fooled. It
reported that the cartridge “might be damaged…see documentation”.
And that meant finding the “documentation”.
Remember, I had this printer before I bought the latest computer.
So any “documentation” would be “out of date”.
In fact, when I got the computer set up, it recognized the
printer in a “basic” way, which allowed me to print, but not to use it
as a scanner, which is something else I found handy.
Each month, when I attend the ARMA Chapter Dinner, I get a receipt.
I take the receipt home and scan it as “proof” that I attended
the dinner. This is
something the Institute of Certified Records Managers (ICRM) requires
for me to get Continuing Education (CE) Credit for the program presented
at the dinner. I scan the
receipt using the printer and it sends a “picture” to the computer.
Then I “upload” the picture to ICRM’s website and get CE credit.
(I currently have 10.5 hours of credit for this year.)
But when I got the new computer, the printer wasn’t “properly
introduced”. One weekend,
when I “had time”, I downloaded the necessary software from the printer
manufacturer’s website, and we were in business.
Until earlier this week, when the printer suddenly didn’t like black.
So I managed to find the “documentation” and drilled down until I
located “Maintenance and Troubleshooting”.
Troubleshooting was less than helpful.
But somewhere under Maintenance, I managed to stumble across
“cleaning the printhead”.
This involved reading something on the screen, then getting up and going
down the hall to the “back bedroom”, where the printer is located.
And hopefully remembering what I’d read by the time I got to the
printer. Of course, I
couldn’t print the instructions; that was the problem.
After several trips up and down the hall, I pushed all the right buttons
and, presto! The printer is
working just fine now.
Another crisis averted.
In the meantime, I’m still working on my
knitting project.
It’s beginning to look a lot like a soft, warm scarf to wrap
around someone’s neck in cold weather.
And I fully expect to have it finished in time for next winter.
Love, as always,
Pete
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