Pictures Or No Pictures, That Is The Question

It doesn’t take anyone long to realize that I am not a real tech-savvy person, simple tasks on the computer, my phone or a basic calculator will prove it every time. I have stated more than once that I am more comfortable with the sledgehammer in my hand than a tech device and it shows.

My copier/printer caused me a problem recently. I knew that I needed to purchase more ink before I could do much more printing and dutifully had it on my list and purchased the products needed when I was in town last week. This week when it was time to print up the invoices for firewood delivery, my computer told me my printer needed a new blue ink cartridge only it didn’t refer to it as blue, it was called cyan. I deciphered that easily enough and switched out the old cartridge for the new cyan and thought I was back in business. Only my computer did not agree and told me the red cartridge was in need of replacement, again it was not simply red but magenta and I figured out how to swap out the old one for the new one easily. I got all the flaps and doors closed up and was ready to print when my computer said that the yellow ink cartridge needed to be replaced, how all three colors can empty at exactly the same time is a mystery but I believed my computer that stopped all printing until I attended to changing out this third cartridge. Once changed I was going to go back to the computer to tell my printer to do its job when an alert flashed on the information window, the printer did not recognize the new cartridge.

I tried putting the old yellow cartridge back in and the familiar message of out of ink/needs replacement showed on the screen. I put the new one in and the printer stated that it could not detect the cartridge. I took it out and shook it, turned it upside down, dusted the contact points that are used to communicate to the printer and reinserted it and closed all the flaps and doors. Still the printer could not detect the cartridge. So I tried putting a different color cartridge in and got some really rude comments on the screen to the effect that I did not know what I was doing, that the machine was not happy and that I should pay attention to the instruction manual. I was dead in the water even though I did not even need any color cyan, magenta or yellow to print a black and white invoice, the machine did not care, if everything is not working correctly nothing will work.

For this week, my invoices are handwritten. The stores that get the deliveries are chuckling along with commiserating with my plight.

As for the photos in my stories, I have still not tracked down a new camera, the hunt has been elusive up to this point but I will keep at it. I am finding issues with supply chains, discontinued, and in my case maybe obsolete technology. I may yet resort to a sledgehammer…