Welcome!

I've finally decided that I am a writer - all the other things I do just pay the bills. Someone eloquent once said that if you do what you love, the money will follow. Well, let's just see about that.

RIP Aggie

RIP Aggie
Aggie was my fifteen-year-old cairn terrier - or maybe I should say I was her 55-year-old person! She was my faithful companion, spoiled rotten and I am still trying to figure out what to do without her.

Peter the Cat...

Peter the Cat...
This is Peter the gingersnap tabby! He's seven years old and has just been promoted to Peter the Very, Very Good. He is working his way up to Peter the Great...

Bee - the Cat Who Came From Somewhere Else...

Bee - the Cat Who Came From Somewhere Else...
Bee is Peter's buddy. He's eight years old and has made himself right at home. I guess cats really do come in pairs or sets of three!

And Jasper makes three!

And Jasper makes three!
Jasper is our new guy - the Cat From Another Place. He's four years old and we think he likes it here - so far, so good!

Buzz about...

Friday, March 25, 2011

The tax season jinx...

struck once again this year.  Last year it was my internet connection gone crazy - I had to disconnect my wireless network and connect directly to the router to be able to transmit tax returns.  Not a big deal - and I have come to appreciate the added security of a direct connection rather than a hackable wireless connection - but it was trying at the time, since I am not computer hardware savvy in the least.  This year: my all-in-one printer/scanner/fax.  I am not a big fan of those all-in-one contraptions, but this laser printer from Dell held up very well during nearly four years of continuous use, so I can't complain.  The fuser was going and the noise that emanated from the thing was horrific - and it would cost almost as much to replace the fuser as it would to buy a new printer, so I'm sure you can see where I am going with this.  And there's Aggie protecting Mom from the big, bad printer box.
Here's where I confess my lifelong love of HP printers - their durability, ease of use and long-lasting toner cartridges.  This is not a paid advertisement - if you've ever owned one, you know what I mean.  So, for a little more than the price of a new fuser for the dying Dell, I got a color laser printer/scanner/fax from Staples.  Ordered it one day; it was delivered the next.  The price was the same at all the big stores - but Staples had one in stock.  Al came to my rescue by taking time out of his busy day to come unpack it and set it up for me; Jonathan cheerfully hauled the old printer and the box away.  I love my friends!  We printed a test page and voila!  Beautiful quality - and no grinding noise!
An hour or so later, one of my clients sent me a fax - that worked.  Good to know.  And then I decided to scan the day's work.  Or tried.  And tried.  Again.  Apparently, you can't just hook an all-in-one machine up and be good to go.  Well, if you just want to print and fax, sure - but not if you plan to scan.  After a half dozen false starts, I finally consulted the installation instructions and found that it is recommended that one install the scanner software prior to connecting the unit via its USB cable.  Once I worked through that little obstacle, everything worked just fine.  The scanner is much faster, more efficient and way more user-friendly than the Dell ever was - so the little installation glitch has fast faded from my memory.  Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard have greatly simplified my daily work-scanning ritual - it doesn't take much to make me happy!

2 comments:

  1. Congrats on your new 'all in one.' I used to have that kind but no longer have a land line so no faxing for me! I have a plain HP printer now! Love all things HP!

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  2. I'm on my second HP Printer--love it, although I do have a few glitches with it. I'm sure if I took the time to figure them out I could solve all the problems, but thus far it hasn't been anything worth the time and effort needed to solve it.
    Best,
    Susan

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