Smudger Snippets
Created | Updated Feb 14, 2008
I suppose it's because I have so much time on my hands these days, that all these memories come flooding back to me.
The Checkout
Well I managed it, well I had to, it was out of ink altogether and I was forced to change it. Yes, you have got it, it was the colour cartridge in my Epsom printer. The reason I was so concerned about was, a few months ago I had a different printer, one that required very expensive refill cartridges, and I went ahead and changed a cartridge over without even a thought to anything going wrong. Just shows how wrong you can be, as once I had replaced it, the printer lost all contact with the computer, and the computer lost contact with the printer,just like an old married couple not speaking, resulting in me having to throw the printer away. All because I changed the cartridge myself as that window that pops up to tell you when they need replacing, never popped up for some reason. So you can understand my hesitancy in carrying out the same operation again, as once more the pop-up reminder never came up. I remembered the last time this happened, I had to throw out what was a perfectly good printer. Mind you, the cost of the refill cartridge was about the same price as the printer itself. I had no choice in the end, as the cartridge was bone-dry, and the only warning I got was the one telling me that it had 20% of the ink level left, and that was weeks ago. I had even forgotten how to stop the head in the centre of its run, in order for me to gain access to the heads to change it, and I had to phone my stepson to ask him.
So I started the procedure with very little confidence in what I was doing, and stopped the head dead centre, and removed the bulkier colour cartridge. At this point, I was so unsure of what I was doing, that my hand started shaking; I don't know why it did really, as after all, I can only do my best, and if that doesn't work, well, the price of printers has fallen a lot recently.
So I removed the tape from it and inserted the new one, then I had a long, agonising wait while the printer went through all that start-up procedure, with the heads running back and forth, while it made all those noises. Then, after it had completed all that, I clicked on 'Type Test', and waited anxiously for the piece of paper to be thrown out onto the tray. I was then delighted to see the perfect result with all three blocks full of the three different colours, and they were all perfect. The reason I was so surprised was that a window had opened up, right after I had inserted the new cartridge saying that it was not an original cartridge and did I want to carry on anyway, so I plucked up the courage and pressed on Yes.
I had that nice, contented feeling that we all get when we have completed something challenging. Well you might think that such a simple job like that could not be considered challenging, but for me, a silver surfer, it was. The fact that I never had to throw out another serviceable printer made me feel good about it. I have only had a computer and been online with it for the past four years, and keeping up with all the latest technology alone is hard enough for me. It's the same with cars these days, long gone are the days when you could lift the bonnet and set the timing and the space between the points to make the engine run better. As for changing the spark plugs, forget it, they are so hard find, in fact I am sure they have placed them down beside the oil pump drain plug. In fact, lift the bonnet on any modern car and you can hardly see the engine, let alone start tweaking it. With all these computers they have these days, you actually need a laptop to carry out the simplest servicing task. The computer in our own car is situated under the passenger seat and is about the same size as a standard DVD player. It controls everything, from the trip computer to the amount of petrol going into each cylinder, so if it were to crash, you can just imagine how useless the car would be, a bit more expensive to throw away than a printer, I would think.
Yet computers are everywhere these days, and we use them every day, even if we think that we don't know how to. For example taking money out from a cash machine, or even paying for your shopping in one of those self-pay checkouts, means that you are actually using one. This point came to my mind recently when I was doing just that. I only had a few items to pay for so I went to one of those self-serve ones, as all the rest had long queues, and found an elderly woman there in front of me. She had done well really, as she had scanned all her items and bagged them, the only thing she had done wrong was to leave her purse on the weighing scales. This had confused the computer, as she had completed the paying process, and was indeed waiting for her change, when the problem arose. I heard her exclaim her frustration as I approached the checkout, and all I did was to point out to her that her purse was confusing the computer. "Dam these things, I will never get the hang of them!" she said.
In fact, I thought that she had done really well, and indeed was quick to point that out to her,as not a lot of people of that age would even consider using that facility. "Ah well, it's my grandson" she said, "he has one of these laptops, and I look after him when he comes out of school until his Mum gets home from work, and he is always showing me things all about it", she explained. It just goes to show that us oldies still have it in us when push comes to shove, and we are never too old to learn. Mind you, I was just thinking about the very subject when I realised that I had made a mistake when weighing the grapes that I had bought for Mk 2, and had to cancel the whole transaction and start all over again. I couldn't help but smile as I did so, when I looked over to the doors and saw that elderly lady walking out.
