My old high school buddy, Cas, has been staying with us this past week or so and, as a thank you for hosting him, he bought me a new wireless printer. I told him he didn’t have to do it, that I was perfectly happy with my old, dependable plug and print, but he insisted it was time to move on. Think of all the time I’d save printing from anywhere in the house with just the push of a button. Despite my protests, he bought me an HP 6600 series, just like he has at home. And, after setting it up, we were good to go! All I had to do was print a test page from my laptop and I would finally enter the 21st century. I selected print and –
Nothing. I waited. A little onscreen window informed me that the printer was busy and that it would attempt to reconnect in another five seconds. Busy? Doing what? It was just sitting there! Five seconds later, the little onscreen window informed me that the printer was still busy, but that it would attempt to reconnect in another ten seconds. Then, thirty seconds. “Make sure to add the new printer to your computer,”Cas advised. Silly me. Of course! I went into my printer settings, input the IP address for the new printer, hit print and –
Nothing. I waited. The little onscreen window informed that the printer was busy and that it would attempt to reconnect in another five seconds. “Here,”said Cas handing me the software disc that came with the printer. “Install the driver.” So I slid the disc into my Mac, clicked the little install icon and –
Nothing. Another little window popped up, informing me that the HP software was not compatible with my Mac (he’s Baptist, she’s Southern Methodist) and that the installer required MAC OS X version 10.6 or later. “No problem,”I said. “I’ll just hit the old “Software Update” option on my Mac and then, it’ll be smooooooooth sailing. So I hit the software update and –
Nothing. My software is, apparently, up to date. “You need to go online and download the driver from the HP site,”Cas suggested. So I went to the HP site, downloaded the Mac version of the driver for the 6600 series. I got rid of my old, potentially confusing printer settings. My laptop detected the new printer. Bingo! I hit print and –
Nothing. I went back to my printer settings and added the new IP address. Hit print.
Nothing. My new printer was, apparently, unable to connect…but perfectly willing to retry in 5, 10, and 30 seconds increments. Worse still, an annoying pop-up window started to appear, unprompted, to inform me that the “Application HP Device Monitor Quit Unexpectedly”, offering me the choice to “Quit”, “Report”, or “Relaunch”. Okay, I thought, and clicked “Quit”. Seconds later, the warning popped up once again. Again, I hit “Quit” and, seconds later, it reappeared. I clicked “Relaunch”. The window reappeared within seconds. I settled on “Report”. And still the window reappeared. No matter what I clicked, it just kept reappearing, annoyingly persistent as an ad for Hangover III. “Maybe you need to reboot,”suggested Cas.
Ah, reboot – the last refuge of the weak, the desperate, and the technologically inept. I was all three, so who was I to argue? Within seconds of rebooting my laptop, the window popped up once again. Exasperated, I turned things over to our resident all-around expert, google, and was promptly directed to a forum where I was offered instructions on uninstalling the HP software. Which I did.
While I’d love to admit my incompetence and tell you I’m back at “square one”, the truth is that, having wiped my original printer settings and unable to find the set-up disc for my old printer, I’m actually worse off now than when I began. So what can I do now if I need something printed?
That’s right. Absolutely nothing.
A SIDEBAR ON MY SIDEBAR –
May I direct your attention to my sidebar to the right of this text. It’s chock full of interesting goodies like…
A handy search option that allows you to seek out specific subjects I’ve covered in past blog entries like “Atlantis”, “SG-1”, and “Crispy prawn head recipe”.
A drop down Archives section allows you peruse past entries by month. Look! December 27th! My Snow Monkeys are world champs!
A section dedicated to our Supermovie of the Week Club gives you a rundown of the superhero-themed movies up for review and discussion in the next few weeks. Looks like the Green Lantern is up next, with this blog’s resident film critic, Cookie Monster, weighing in with his review on Monday, May 27th.
The Stuff I’ve Worked On section lets you know the projects I’ve worked on the last ten years or so. I hope to add one or two (maybe more!) to this section before year’s end.
Consult my Watching window to find out what I’m currently viewing. At the moment, I’m halfway through the second season of Girls.
Consult my Recently Watched window to find out what I’ve just finished viewing – most recently, the second season of Downton Abbey. Damn, I can’t believe how much I love this show. I was planning to jump on a couple of other shows before moving on to Downton Abbey’s third season (I figured it would make the looong wait for season four more bearable), but I’ve been suffering withdrawal pangs and fear I won’t be able to hold out past the weekend. Wonderful characters, especially Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess. I ♥ Violet Crawley.
A little further down you can check out what I’m Currently Reading. At present, I’m doubling up on true crime.
And, below that, you can peruse my list of Recently Read titles. A lot of true crime in there as well in addition to David Sedaris’s latest and the terrific first book of a new-to-me fantasy trilogy: Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice. Great stuff. I’ll be ordering the next two books.
And, finally, a list of Categories. Want to read through all of my Fantasty Football-related entries? No problem. Just click on the Fantasy Football.
Mailbag:
Kathode writes: “Did your mom really tear your exercise book in half?!? (Or were you taking poetic license in writing that?) Was she THAT angry at you for quitting, or was the book-tear merely a clever dramatic show intended to guilt you into keeping on with your piano lessons? Have you discussed this with your mother since you’ve become an adult, to get her side of the story? Does she even remember this incident? I am fascinated with this story. I want to know more.”
Answer: Oh, she did tear it in half. And cried. And made my sister cry. When I asked her about the incident years ago, she drew a blank.
dasndanger writes: “So, can you play the piano?”
Answer: Yes, I’m able to play all five songs I happen to remember from back in the day.
Ponytail writes: “How is Bubba’s paw healing?”
Answer: Bubba is back to his old lazy, anxiety-prone, walk-loving self. Thanks for asking!
luis811 writes: “Can you get the recipe for Cas workout Shake?????”
Answer: Mixed frozen berries, fresh pineapple, banana, pomegranate juice, cranberry juice, one lime (rind and all), toasted oats, greek yogurt.
JeffW writes: “We made the Sancocho a couple of days ago and we enjoyed it…very gumbo like. Did you try the Gouda grilled cheese with it? It made for a nice “soup” and sandwich combo.”
Airelle writes: “Joe forgot to ask, are you packed for a trip to LA?”
Answer: Not yet. Paul and I should be making plans early next week.
Answer: I had the sancocho with cheddar and havarti grilled cheese (and steak and chicken and avocado and caramelized onions) sandwiches.
Today’s entry is dedicated to Bethany!
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