Tag Archives: printer

Day 39

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I’m writing again now, and some of it has promise. I’ve even started reading a bit more. Unfortunately, like my weight loss, I still need to do a lot more.

Of course, the time can’t just be devoted to writing. Even the “writing time” has to take in research and administration. I need to get my submissions log up to date, as I didn’t record everything that went out in the rush at the end of January. I also need to get my printouts of published poems up to date – they are probably lagging by six months but I like to keep a hard copy so that I can browse it when I’m feeling down. The printer has broken, yet again, and I really need to get another one. However, it doesn’t seem as simple as it used to be, and I keep putting it off for fear of buying the wrong sort.

A lot of them seem to be wireless or bluetooth these days and I’ve never had much luck with either system.

Although I’m currently writing various things I will have to find out which magazines are open for submissions before I go much further. It’s a lot easier to meet a deadline when you know the exact date.

The header photo is a temperance medal from the Independent Order of Good Templars, who broke away from the Order of Good Templars in 1852 (which reminds me of so many committees I have seen). They eventually merged again, expanded internationally and are now known as the International Organisation of Good Templars. The medal dates from the latter part of the 19th century and is in excellent condition for its age. I listed it just before lunch yesterday and someone bought it twenty minutes later. With that and the cigarette case I seem to be on a roll. The medal is big, about 45mm in diameter, despite the size it appears to be on my screen. I haven’t quite got the hang of sizing photos yet.

Independent Order of Good Templars medal (obverse)

Independent Order of Good Templars medal (Reverse)

Study Number 1 - The Idiot

Dull anecdote about a parcel

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I just had to use my printer as a scanner – Number Two son needs copies of documents to support his bid to remain in Canada, and anything I can do to make sure he stays away from my fridge is good. However, despite owning the computer and the printer I have had to register with HP to be able to scan. I don’t know why. I just know it is very annoying, and very intrusive.

I’m afraid that there is nothing much happening either at home or at work. The only episode of any interest (and I use the term lightly) was when I packaged a parcel, only to find that the same customer had ordered something else a bit later. Because they were seperated by three other items I had not picked up on the fact. There are two things you can do when this happens (apart from swearing and declaring that customers, though necessary, are also frustrating). You can carry on and pack the second parcel, but this often results in a complaint that you could have packed it all in one and reduced the postage.

Fair comment, but they could either have done all their shopping at one time, or have sent you a message to let you know before you start packing.

Second choice is to repack the parcel. That’s what we did in this case. It involved a bigger envelope and cutting the front off the other envelope to stick to the second so that we didn’t waste the stamps. This is slightly more complicated when using padded envelopes, but it went OK and I used the rest of the old envelope instead of using bubble wrap. In the end, nothing was wasted apart from a little time and a sliver of vocabulary.

The Post Office was crowded today. It’s a long shop and the queue was out of the door. I suspect it is the last posting day for some places.

Life Gets in the Way

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Robin

Just a quick post. Number Two son has been called in to work early so I want to squeeze a post in before going out.

I also have to make tea. This is potato wedges, veggie burgers and beans, rather than the comforting beverage. It’s just a modern twist on the old favourite – burger, beans and chips. We are, as you can probably guess, not familiar with the concept of fine dining. On the other hand, I’ve never been mistaken for a bag of bones.

I had a strange experience with the printer at work yesterday. It refused to connect to my computer. Everyone else could connect with no problem. Eddie printed out the compliments slips I needed and a while later Mark printed out two invoices.

After half an hour of messing about unsuccessfully, including restarting, reloading and reswearing, I gave up, got back to work and decided to restart the router at the end of the day. I thought the end of the day would be a good time, as it would, the way my luck was going, probably wreck our entire network.

A couple of hours later the printer chugged into life and disgorged two pages of printing. Fortunately I’d cancelled the other print jobs that had failed or I’d probably have ended up knee deep in paper.

I haven’t a clue why it suddenly started working.

When we were finishing, I passed Mark his invoices. He was surprised. He’d forgotten all about them because they were part of a job he’d tried to print 12 days previously. Yes, twelve days! Printers truly are a mystery…