I love living in the future, #1790

[gerisullivan]

When I packed my car for my extended trip to Michigan a little over a month ago, I boxed up the Canon PIXMA MP500 all-in-one I'd bought just a few weeks earlier. I was a tad apprehensive -- I think still think of inkjet printers as temperamental little things, and I hadn't even installed the Canon software on my laptop. At home, it's hooked up to my desktop computer-on-a-stick.

All went well with the printer in Michigan. The software loaded with ease and the couple hundred sheets of paper I went through was proof enough that bringing it along was a good idea. It's so much easier to make document changes when one has a hard copy to refer to instead of having to flip back and forth between the eFax image on screen and the layout being worked on.

Overall, all went well with my trip, too. Sue is well ahead of the curve on her recovery from hip replacement surgery. She was walking a mile and more by the end of the week she got home from the hospital, and started climbing stairs in normal fashion a week after that. She had a few unrelated health set-backs along the way; I'm glad I was around to help her through those, but on the hip front, all has been golden every step of the way.

I returned home a month to the day after I left. Yesterday I unloaded the car...a remarkable experience in itself, desk, chair, gargoyles, Candlewick, carnival glass, elephant, tuba, harp, rocks, bomb, and all. Including a few small prezzies for batwrangler, some of which I haven't found yet.

The bomb is only a practice bomb, and it's an empty one at that. It's been modified -- my uncle put a handle on it for carrying ease, and supposedly used it as a boat anchor for awhile. I picked it up at a family estate sale in Climax, Michigan. (Yes, there is such a town. It's not all that far from Kalamazoo, which is also rumored to exist.) The bomb's current home is in the mudroom, surrounded by two hunks of salt'n'pepper granite and another of amethyst. Some people keep a shotgun by the door; this is much more my style.

But I was talking about the printer. I unpacked it a few minutes ago, reconnected the cables, and set it to printing some invoices. The power came on, the desktop computer saw the printer, all was well. Until the error box popped up on my screen. Oh, dear. I'd been worried something might go wrong, that the printer might not endure the 1,500+ miles of road bumps and the like, as well as the other ordeals of the trip. Just because it made it there didn't mean it would make it back again.

"Output paper tray is closed. Open paper tray and resume printing."

Duh. And there, on the little monitor screen on the printer, was a picture directing my attention to the location of the button that opens the paper output tray.

Tray opened, invoices printed, all is well.

Printers didn't use to be this easy. I'm glad they are now.

Comments

Hip Hip Hurray

[judith-dascoyne.livejournal.com]

Good for both you and Sue.
I am suprised your desk top is a G4. I am on one at work and I find it much less that the lap top you used to have. (I understand you have a reallllllly zoooooomie computer now.

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

My printer not only has error messages appear on the computer screen, but the computer also speaks the alerts (with great authority through the laptop's Harman/Kardon speakers). Not bad for a six-in-one printer I picked up for $20 at Goodwill. ;)

Re: Hip Hip Hurray

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Nope, Brick (the laptop) is also a G4. About 2.5 years old. Both computers are serving me really well, though. No complaints here.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Sweet.

My dad gave me a coconut monkey he picked up at the Goodwill. It doesn't say anything. Then again, he didn't have to part with $20 to get it, so I guess that's fair.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I made my printer stop talking to me. I can read already.

[von-krag.livejournal.com]

To replace the toner cart on my laser printer will cost as much as a new laser printer from Micro Center. This bothers me.