A Day of Appointments and the Printer Saga Resolution

Today is my first day of Radiation therapy, with an appointment for 9:00 am. I follow that up with a 10:00 am appointment with a doc to double-check my armpit (which seems to be healing very well - FINALLY), and I also have an appointment with my Orthodontist at 2:00 pm for a six-month checkup. Busy day! 

Brian was an absolute sweetheart, very detail 
oriented, and focused. He was the perfect 
service tech - not wasting a lot of time on chit 
chat, just getting right to work. 

The printer saga ... oy veh! So, Brian arrived from the service department of our local printer and copier store. I've done business with them for years and years, they're really good and very dependable. So, he took a thorough look at the printer that had just died (A), and also at the replacement printer (B) that I purchased a couple of years ago. The printer that died had lost a very important sensor. I actually remember seeing a piece of metal while printing a report, I guess that was it! After realizing the importance of that very small piece of metal, we recognized that the second printer (B) actually did have that sensor. The question was would we be able to (1) move the sensor from B ro A, or (2) make B feed paper properly. After some serious time, tearing things apart and rebuilding them, the consensus was a firm "NO", it won't work. *sigh* 

It's a VERY old printer, but it's HP, so it's a workhorse 
and it's reliable. I could never bring myself to toss it 
away because it worked well, just was very old. Well, 
my system seems to like it just fine, so it's now our new 
printer until we close. It's a LOT bigger than our old 
printer, but we'll just have to deal with that. 

In desperation we looked for something we had that might work. I've had an old HP LaserJet 5P for decades. It was a workhorse when I was in my Mall of America shop. I had tried it with the sales system before, relying on the printer setting recommendations of my Computer Guru (who will be the first person to admit he knows nothing about printers). This time we tried printing on "Generic Printer" setting, and it worked, but it didn't print at the size we needed. I switched the setting to an HP setting offered by my program, and tried printing again. Perfection! It works! Now I have to find and buy a replacement printer cartridge for it, because I have no idea how many pages are left in the current cartridge, but it works, and we'll use it. It takes up a LOT more desk space, however, so DH has cut another shelf for our over-structure and will install that today. I'm sure it will be messy in no time at all - LOL. 

As you can tell from comparing the two photos, 
the printer here is much smaller. It's unfortunate 
that it couldn't be fixed, but the fact that both 
printers died from the same cause means it's 
a systemic failure. I won't bother trying another 
used one, we'll just deal with the 5P instead since 
it seems to work properly - slowly, but properly. 

I hope your problems all turn out to be minimal. I have a billion appointments today, but should JUST get back home in time to chat with Aearwen. At least, that's the plan - LOL. Have a great Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow, just in time for the next session of Radiation (fifteen days in a row, no weekends). Be good to yourself and kind to others. Slava Ukraini. 

It's a Tuesday, I'm NOT at any Clinics, Just at Work - Yippee!

It's Tuesday, and checking my calendar, I have absolutely NOTHING except work on my schedule today. Oh, I do have to go to the bank to buy rolls of coins for the shop, but no doctor appointments, no clinic appointments, and no pokes, prods or examinations until tomorrow when I begin radiation. It's almost like getting a day off from school - LOL. I'll be at work, of course, but that's not a problem. I'll be working with Chickie, and I have a few questions on a program she developed for us, so it'll be good to have her around. 

I have a question ... actually I probably have a lot 
of questions. ... the meaning and purpose of 
life, the reason why people harm other people, 
and other things. Lots of questions. This particular 
question, however, is about a price tag program 
that Chickie thought out. It works really well, 
but I have a question ... LOL. 

DH finally gets a day off today, although I suspect he'll be in the shop anyway. We're finally getting a little caught up since Chickie managed to cobble together a program between Xcel and Word that allows us to print our price tags on the main printer instead of the printer we use for our cash register system. The main printer is outstanding - a higher end Epson that I purchased to replace a poor quality HP. The cash register system printer sucks right now - it's not working. It's vintage 1999 but my local repair people think they can repair it. They'll be over at the shop today to collect it and bring it to their location for new parts and upgrades. This is my HP LaserJet 1100 - a reliable printer, but dating from 1999. It's a bit long in the tooth, as the saying goes; but it's the only printer that talks to our specialized sales register system. We need it operational, and right now it's not. 

I thought the printer was older than it is, but 
when I was checking the specs for the repair 
guy, the back placard stated it was made in 
August of 1999. It's a workhorse of a printer, 
very reliable, with a rather small footprint. 
It's the only printer that talks to our software. *sigh*

I had actually purchased a second HP LaserJet 1100 printer a year or so ago because we were having problems then. The "new" used printer worked great for a couple of days, but then it died, and we went back to our original one which was wonky, but at least printed. Right now, however, neither one of them print cleanly at all. It'll be a ridiculous amount to get it fixed, but it's mandatory. 

It's going to be a ridiculous amount of money to get 
this printer fully operational again, but we have no 
choice. We need to get through the end of the year 
with all of our long reports necessary for the 
government entities. *sigh* A workable printer is 
a necessity. 

So life forges ahead, and I'm still on the ride, enjoying most of it. It's not perfect, there are bumps and detours along the route, but it's mainly a really good thing. I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday. I didn't manage the treadmill for my full 45 minutes, but did make it for 35 minutes, so I'm considering that a win. LOL I'll be back tomorrow. Be kind, spread love, and smile. Happy Tuesday, Slava Ukraini. 

Life is a Series of Vicissitudes

Yesterday's clinic appointment was for a second ultrasound and aspersion on my underarm. *sigh* Although I have great doctors, it's one procedure that I'm not all that fond of. Nonetheless, I'm certainly getting used to it, and they pulled out more than 20 cc of fluid buildup (slightly less than seven fluid ounces), so that was excellent and I feel much better today. 

The printer for the store sales computer system is an 
HP Laserjet 1100 printer - VERY old. I bought a 
duplicate printer a couple of years ago just in case, 
and we might have to switch over to it for a while 
to see if it is any improvement (or even works at all). 

Of course, when one thing starts going well, something else makes up for it, and that happened at work when our store laser printer decided it didn't want to work properly. Eventually we did get it to work, but it's not feeding the paper quite straight. Print quality has been an issue for years, but we live with it. It's a VERY old printer, and anything newer doesn't work with the VERY old software it needs to mesh with. I do have a spare - I purchased one a couple of years ago just in case. As I recall, that one had problems too, but between them, we'll hopefully be able to get reports printed out through the end of the year or whenever we actually shut the doors permanently. 

The Allina/United Hospital complex in 
downtown St Paul is massive in scope. 
I usually park in the Gold ramp (upper 
right), crossing to the orange section for 
my breast cancer appointments. For my 
radiation therapy, I'll be at the opposite 
end, in the purple/red building on the 
right. My surgery took place in the main 
turquoise blue building. 

If all goes well, I start Radiation treatment next week Wednesday for a total of fifteen days, every weekday morning. I needed appointments as early as possible, and they've accommodated me to the best of their ability. I have 9:15 am for the first week, 9:15 am for the second week, the third full week ranges from 9:00 am through 8:00 am, and the final days have me there at 7:45 am. That's excellent. Hopefully snow won't mess things up even more, but I'll deal as I need to. I take major roads all the way to the clinic and back, so street clearing shouldn't be a factor. (I only think of this because we got a major snow dump last night that DH will need to snow blow this morning so that I can grocery shop, he can go to work, and I can put the trash bin to the curb for the weekly pickup). 

It's winter, so no leaves on the trees, but the main 
hospital complex is this. I'm always impressed when 
I come down to here. I worked in hospitals for years 
when I was young, and our hospitals then were 
nothing like the ones we have now! 

So, life is a series of vicissitudes. I'm sure your own life also has its' challenges that you must face, whether it be just getting the kids out of the door and off to school, or dealing with an illness or a dysfunctional companion. Everyone is dealing with something in their lives, so be kind to others today. Smile, offer a sincere compliment, and generally, try to make their lives slightly brighter. Shine that light! I'll be back tomorrow, Slava Ukraini. 

Le Sigh - Computers, Food and the Weekend

Wow! Maybe I shouldn't be allowed to touch a computer today because I'm having ALL kinds of issues. *sigh* But, the most important thing is that I have the ability to write my daily blog, so if this posts, I'll be happy (until I get to the shop and fight with the laptop - LOL). 

It's as if my printer at home only loves my desktop 
computer, and my printer at the shop only loves 
my laptop. *sigh* So silly! 

Yesterday, my third day off in a row, was absolutely delightful. Because of the July 4 holiday, my third swim of the week got pushed off to Friday instead of Thursday. That turned out to be fabulous. Apparently a lot of people were either sleeping in, out of town, or exhausted from visits and traveling. There weren't very many of us in the pool, and I had a lane to myself for most of my hour. Heaven! 

The recipe I base my roasted pears on actually calls for 
roasting 1/2 pears. I cut mine up, however, mix them with 
maple syrup, nuts and pumpkin pie seasoning, add any other 
fruits I feel like having (like my dried cranberries), and then 
roast the whole thing. It allows for the eight pears to 
spread into 10-12 containers, and it tastes fabulous! 

I got my grocery shopping done, cooked my next batch of roasted pears, and filled up my refrigerator once again. I also made my "Ogre Juice" for the upcoming week. I didn't get to cooking my cauliflower soup, but maybe I can do that quickly over the weekend. Maybe. No guarantees. But all-in-all, between kitchen and computer work (and harvesting some peas and peppers from the garden), it was an excellent day. 

*sigh* The laptop hates my home printer, so I'll have to 
fill out and print this governmental tax form at the 
shop instead of at home. Oh well, I have options, at least - LOL. 

Today started out a little rocky, however. I needed to fill out and print out a governmental form, and my desktop computer wasn't cooperating, and my laptop doesn't talk with my home printer. So, I'll have to do that first thing in the morning today at the shop where my laptop loves chatting with my new printer. It's as bad as children pouting in separate corners - LOL. 

Have a fabulous weekend, one and all. I'll be back to 
bug you once again on Monday - LOL. *hugs* all around! 

So, I'm going to keep this short and get moving on my day. I have a lot to do, and I'm already running late at 6:18 am! Oy!!! LOL I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back on Monday morning - hopefully with all of my electronics talking with each other once again *sigh*. LOL

 

ARGH! Just ARGH!

I got the new printer set up at the shop. What a wonderful and positive thing! I'm already using it a lot and I'm looking forward to bringing it home when I retire, putting it into the "office" at home and taking the one I currently have in that room into my craft room for my etching and enameling work. What fun! 

Life can be a lot of fun. Yesterday doesn't 
qualify in all respects, however. 

In the midrange of joy, we've accepted the fence quotation and received the final paperwork. I need to get that submitted along with a payment to get onto their schedule. I was going to do that last night except. ... 

We're moving ahead with the fence. Since we have a 
sloped yard, it actually ends up staggered - each 
panel slightly (or a lot) higher than the previous one. 
It's pretty, and we like that style of fencing. 

On the down side of joy - bending into anger and annoyance, was a phone call from my Credit Union informing me that several odd charges had shown up on my Joint Account. I called their Fraud Department, we determined that the charges were not legitimate, so we've cancelled that access card. I'm without access to that account for another 24 hours because I can't get a new card for it until Wednesday, at 9:00 am, when they open and I'm off work to head over there (it's only a mile away from the house, so really close). It's inconvenient. Not the end of the world, but very inconvenient. I think they caught it right away, but I'll be checking my activity carefully while I have a bit of time at the shop today, and I'll be ready to get a different card tomorrow. I was going to pay the fence downpayment with this card, though, so that will delay that ... or I'll put it on one of my credit cards instead. As I said ... not the end of the world, but worrisome, and very inconvenient. 

I'm frustrated that the main bank account was 
compromised, but delighted that their fraud 
department caught it right away and froze the 
account. I'll get a new card tomorrow, and be back 
in business again. 

But, it's a swimming day today (thank goodness). It'll be a quiet swimming day today since I won't get my new headphone until today at the shop (at which time I'll immediately plug them in to charge, and then load my book and let it run for several hours to get close to where I had to leave it when my old headset died. Today will be a VERY boring swim, though. I really like listening to my books while I exercise. 

I want my Aftershokz waterproof headphones back so 
that I can swim while listening to my books. It's 
frustrating to have silent swims - I'm not good with 
a silence, except when I'm meditating, and even then, I'm 
often using a guided meditation, not just sitting and 
getting into my own skin. 

So, that's my life - some plusses, some minutes, and always something new. These days you just have to roll with the punches - no real choice ahead of you, just moving forward the best you can. That's what I'm doing, that's what we're all doing. Stumbles and obstacles will appear and happen, but we must keep moving. It's the movement that keeps us alive. Have an excellent Tuesday and I'll be back for a very busy Wednesday. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Fences, Yardwork and Printers - It Actually Was a Busy Sunday

We got the quote from the fence company. It's going to be expensive, but not as bad as it could be. Considering we've had the original fence for 30 years, and it's a bit less than double that cost, it could have been much worse. I'll be accepting their bid today so that we can get onto their books. It's probably going to be 3-4 months before it actually gets done. 

The fence style we want is just like this. Alternating 
boards on the bottom section with a lattice top and 
a straight span without finials. We'll have them put a 
capping board across the top to help with water issues, 
and if it lasts as long as the previous one, we shouldn't 
have any issues. They'll get all of the permits, etc. 

DH is talking about building a three-compartment composting bin. We had one at the old house when we first lived up here and it worked really well. We've got the space for it, and if he uses the boards from the old fence, it'll be almost free. We have three panels of the old fence down - the posts rotted and unable to allow them to stand proudly from the earth. Those boards could easily be reused for the compost bin. We'll see if it actually gets built, or if it's another smoke dream, but it would be a nice thing to have. 

We're thinking about a three-compartment compost 
bin similar to this. The cedar planks from the old 
fence should be perfect for the sides and backing. 
It would be a better use than just having the fence company 
haul away the old sections. 

Our tulips and lillies and other early bloom flowers are starting to come up, and it's a pleasure seeing green coming to the garden once again. He's plotting what he wants where - the garden is his thing, and he's lost and at loose ends in the winter when he can't putter with the flowers and plants. The deer, however, have been coming into our yard without hesitation since we no longer have the fence intact. They've been eating some of the bulbs - seeming to have a special love for our crocus bulbs. I'm not sure how many crocus will escape the browsing killers, but hopefully some will. We do love our early Spring crocus blooms, and of course they can't bloom if they're eaten by the damned deer. 

We love our spring crocus flowers, but apparently the 
deer consider it a delicacy. I think, out of maybe eight 
plants (or more), we might have two that have survived 
the deer. *sigh*

We spent a good amount of time yesterday raking up the dead thatch from the grass and getting the last of the fall leaves off the grass as well. Things are starting to green up now, and Spring is fully here. It was the weirdest Winter I've ever experienced up here in the Frozen Northlands. We only had two snowstorms of any accumulation. I shoveled at the shop exactly two times. We had some cold temps, but not much, really. It was as if Nature was apologizing for last year's record-setting snowfalls. But, it also means our soils are parched - no snowmelt to give them a good soaking. We'll have to be early with our watering this year, I fear. 

I'm SO looking forward to having my new 
Epson 4830 printer set up at the shop. I adore 
Epson printers - their clarity is outstanding 
and they're workhorses. I've had the one at 
home for more than a decade and I work it 
hard. It will be a joy to be able to print 
things out at the shop right away instead of 
taking them home to be printed and returned 
the next day. 

So that's about all - not really exciting. Oh! I did buy a new ink-jet printer for the shop. It's two steps above the Epson printer that I use here at home - my workhorse. It was on sale at the office supply company for less than $150 - more than $100 off the usual price - but only through Saturday. I wasn't able to get to the store until first thing Sunday morning, but their computers hadn't been updated yet, and I still got the sale price! Yippee. A total WIN. I'm taking it to the shop this morning and hopefully will have it installed and ready to go no later than tomorrow night (it all depends on how easily things work with our computer system). It won't work for our inventory/sales system, but it will be used to print things like government forms, inventory sheets that I'm devising on the laptop, and other items. It will be a joy to have a top-notch printer at the shop, and when we close, it's coming home with me. It will replace the computer I have next to me in our computer room, and the printer I use now will move to my craft room. Perfect! 

The Epson 4720 printer (just like this) is what 
I've been using at home for more than a decade. 
It's extremely dependable, gives a quality, 
crisp and clear printout, and I can't imaging 
functioning without it. We have an HP printer 
at the shop and it's a piece of crap. The printing 
is fuzzy and it's just NOT a good printer. It 
was free - that's the only good thing about it. 
But I need some quality at the shop now, so 
Epson got the nod. 

So, have an excellent day. I'm plugging photos in here and wrapping things up. I'd like to get started getting that new printer set up ASAP, so I'll be at the shop unusually early today. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

It's Our First Single-Digit Day Since Last Winter - COLD

I am running SUPER late today and need to get to the swimming pool. It's damned COLD outside - our first day when I'm waking up to single digit temperatures, and I'm NOT happy about it. I also needed to get my price tags copied, but my printer isn't recognizing that I want full paper size, not an envelope size. I have turned it off to contemplate it's mistakes, but it's going to really mess me up both in terms of time and in terms of the specialized paper that I use for our price tags. *sigh*

Oh yeah - I can totally relate to this today. 
Hopefully your day will start a bit smoother 
than mine did. I'm hoping mine settles 
down soon, because I don't need a day of 
"OMG", but rather a day of accomplishment. 

So, since I'm running super late and my printer isn't being cooperative and I'm cold and my phone is almost out of power, I'm going to just leave today's post right here. I think today might be a day of running into walls, and that won't be very welcoming this close to Christmas. I'll figure it all out, but I'm really grumpy right now. 

We're cold today, and I'll be using most/all 
of these items to help keep me warm. My parka 
is ankle length, but I have the boots, socks, 
mittens, scarf and hat as a norm in the winter. 
The actual clothing - turtleneck and leggings 
are often a choice too. 

Still, please have a great day. Hopefully you'll be warm - if not outside, then with friends and family to warm your heart. Do a kindness for yourself today - pet a dog or cat, take a walk if weather permits, listen to a bird who has down feathers, so it's probably a lot warmer than I am right now. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

I'm Going To Pack a Lot Into My "Day Off" & Printer Woes Again

I spent yesterday at the shop dealing with printer issues - at least, that's how I started my day. DH had run the end-of-day report on Wednesday night, and come home extremely frustrated with the new printer. I totally understood ... I had issues with it myself on Tuesday night, but thought I had resolved them. Apparently I had not. 

The new printer I got is having problems 
feeding paper properly. I'll probably tear 
it apart and give it a good cleaning later 
on, but right now I've returned to my older 
printer instead. At least that one works 
(with some quirks, of course). 

However, I don't know what DH did at all, but communication between the printer and the computer was spotty (they're direct wired, there shouldn't be spotty communications at all), and the printer was only feeding in half a sheet of paper before giving up. I finally pulled the old printer out of its' box and set that one back up again. An old enemy is a known enemy ... and we know how to approach the old printer very well. 

Of course, I had to convince my computer that it recognized and acknowledged the old printer once again, and that took some time. All in all, I spent more than an hour of my early morning getting printers shifted and recognized by my proprietary program. However, that at least was successful. I'm back to running price tags onto plain paper and copying them onto the actual price tag sheets at home, then returning them to the shop in the morning. But at least that's an inconvenience that I'm familiar with. 

We use a sheet of sticky price tags similar 
(but not identical) to this format. We've been 
doing this for a long time, and it works for 
our system and our products pretty well. I used 
to be able to print directly from the computer to 
the printer at work, but not lately. Now I have 
to take home the paper copies and copy them 
onto the label stock with my home printer. 

The rest of the day was spent entering price tags. Lots and lots of them. DH has decided to put the final category of seed beads, our 8o size, onto clearance. It joins a host of other sizes and shapes we already have offered for clearance prices. He had three large boxes of beads for me to enter tags for, and I actually got through 2-1/4 of them before the end of the day. I copied the sheets of tags onto my labels at home last night, and I'm dropping them off at the shop on my way to the grocery store today. One more thing accomplished. 

I adore my Soozy's Grain Free breads for my breakfast. I get 
their bread and their bagels, and love them. They're gluten 
free, grain free, dairy free and sugar free. Their sweeteners 
of choice are maple syrup and sometimes a dash of 
coconut sugar. The only place I can find them locally is 
at Whole Foods, so I'll start my day off at that grocery 
store when they open at 8:00 am. 

So today is my "day off" and it's packed with errands and cooking and stuff. I've got to get going on all of that, so I'm going to wrap this up now. Have an excellent Friday, enjoy your day, and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

A Tale of Computers, Printers and a Computer Guru

I had a nice long conversation with my Computer Guru. To remind you (and me for future reference) I've been unable to use Google on my main computer for several days now. The file is corrupted and I get the following message: 

    The procedure entry point SetProcessMitigationPolicy could not be located in the dynamic link library

My major concern with this is software platform - I'm running Windows 7 on my main computer, and Google is no longer supporting Windows 7 or 8. So although I know I could have uninstalled Google and reinstalled it from their website options, I was concerned (since my computer system is no longer supported), whether that was a viable option any more. 

"Hmmm ... that's a legitimate concern", said Dale when I mentioned that aspect to him. "Let me try something on a really old computer I have that's still up and running." So, he went over to a Vista computer he has in the corner of his workshop powered that up, and tried a couple of things. What we finally decided would be the best solution would be for me to go into my "Downloads" file on my computer and find Google there to reload it from an older version. Hopefully that will fix the problem. After I'm finished cooking today, I'll give it a try. 

After Dale was done with the "business" aspect, I mentioned that I had enjoyed the book he had recommended to me - "Person of Interest-Why Jesus Still Matters in a World that Rejects the Bible". He's an adamant Christian, and I'm an adamant Pagan. He bears hope of bringing me into the fold, and no ,,, it's never going to happen. But he keeps trying and I keep enjoying his efforts. So after a spirited discussion for another 15-20 minutes, we signed off. 

I also spent an hour or so trying to see if my older laser printer could be made to work with my register software. I need something more effective to print out my End of Day and inventory reports than my current printer which needs to have each page hand-fed to it now (it's dying of old age and heavy use). Unfortunately. this was a no-go. Although the printer is recognized by my computer in general, the actual sales register program does not recognize it as a legitimate resource and can't send the reports to it for printing. So the older printer went back into the corner. 

I turned to the internet, as I often do, and tried to find a replacement printer and I actually found one! The same model as what I'm currently using, at a reasonable price ($50 plus $20 shipping). Apparently the guy selling it had a total of 10 that he got from a company that was upgrading their printers. This was quite recent ... the beginning of the month. He'd already sold one of them, and I decided I was willing to make a $70 gamble on a new/old printer. It should be shipped to me within a day or so and I'll know if it works when I get it hooked up. Hopefully it will automatically feed paper and, even more importantly, price tags, so that I won't have to go jump through the printing hoops I'm currently dealing with. 

On that note, I'm out of here. We're getting snow (probably about 1/2 inch total, so not much, but wet and heavy stuff), and I'll need to shovel before I leave for the swimming pool. Have an excellent day, and if I get any time to do computer stuff today, I might be back to my regular format tomorrow with photos and all! Here's hoping, (although that may not happen until Friday). Slava Ukraini. 

A Tale of Two Printers - Free Is a Wonderful Word

It's nice to be back at the shop, but the frustrations are also there. We're trying to wrap up our end of the year forms, tax filings and paperwork, and it's plodding along. A lot of it has to be done at home because that's the only printer I have available to use. Yes, I have a printer at the shop for emergencies, and I use it; but I strictly ration the number of pages per month. Why? Because I'm cheap and I like free. 

I have an HP Deskjet 3630 at the shop which I've never 
spent a dime on. I use it regularly, but I watch how much 
I'm printing and make sure to never exceed my maximum 
number of pages per month. As long as I'm under that 
total, HP has to supply me with free ink cartridges when 
needed. It's a total win'/win since I use my Epson at 
home for all of my serious printing needs. 

When I purchased the printer for the backroom at the shop, I had a purchase rebate credit of $60-$70 (I don't recall the exact amount) that I could use until the end of January. DH had purchased a new desk chair for my use in our computer room at home, and the credit was a bonus offered by Office Depot. I needed a new printer at the shop - the old one was toast. I found a little HP printer that was relatively new and offered at a great price - totally affordable with my store credit. So, I bought the new HP printer (for free) and got it set up. 

The set of Black and Colored inks for the 
printer runs a bit less than $60 for the set. 
I haven't had to purchase a set since I got 
the printer more than two years ago. Maybe 
even three years ago by now. I find that 
delightful - LOL. 

HP has a program where you allow them to monitor your ink usage and you'll get automatic refill inks sent to you when needed. You subscribe to a certain number of pages per month as your estimated usage. I subscribed for a total of 15 pages or less for my printer, because there was no charge as long as I stayed within that usage number. They sent me my initial ink cartridges (the printer, of course, came with a set of ink cartridges, but they weren't full sized). When I get down to needing a new cartridge, if I haven't gone beyond my 15 or less printouts per month, my ink will be free. It's been more than two years and I haven't bought ink yet. 

The printer I have at home is this one - an Epson 
WorkForce Pro WF-4720 ink jet printer. It's my 
workhorse and I use it heavily. The ink cartridges 
run me close to $200 if I need all of them, but 
fortunately, I don't need them that often. I put the 
printer through its' paces, though. Over the years, I've 
found that I have a preference for Epson printers, and 
I've used and burnt out several of them. They're 
heavy-duty and very dependable, which are important 
attributes for me. 

So, I take a lot of things home to print instead of using the store printer. (Ink cartridges are expensive, and I only want to spend the high dollars for my high-end/high-speed Epson printer that I use at home). That means that we do things like filing our monthly tax forms, etc, at home, instead of at the shop. Although doing things this way also makes sense because I don't need to be talking finances on the edges of the sales floor if any questions come up that I need to ask DH about. Sometimes we're delayed by a day, but it's infrequent. 

I do love it when I can get a good bargain, and 
my little HP printer has proven to be exactly 
that - a great bargain. 

That means I have a lovely backup printer at the shop that's entering it's third year of use, and it's still completely free. I paid nothing for it. I use it, (carefully, because we do need copies or printouts of things occasionally at work), but I want to keep it free. I suspect I'm not HP's favorite customer - LOL. 

On that note of thrifty shopping, I'm out of here. I'm cold, I'm tired, and I can hardly wait for my Sunday off. Have an excellent weekend and I'll be back on Monday morning. 

Back To Court Again and Adventures in Printing

 I was actually able to be in the shop yesterday, although I didn't know it until after the 11:30 am call-in to the Jury Duty room. I wasn't called in yesterday, but was instructed to phone again after 5:00 pm. At that time, I called in and the recording said that ALL jurors who were not assigned to a case must report today at 8:45 am. So, I'm off to the Courthouse once again. If I get selected for a jury today, I might be in court for most of next week. Not impossible, but not ideal either. 

My old JP LaserJet 5P is a workhorse, but it's slow in the 
realm of today's printers. It prints a whopping 6 pages per 
minute, and that's REALLY slow. I was afraid the printer 
cartridge might be too old, but the sample sheets I printed 
out yesterday were beautiful and detailed. So, it works well, 
it just doesn't communicate with my sales computer. Now 
to get the software loaded and see how it does. 

I took advantage of my day at the shop to investigate whether or not I can use my old HP LaserJet 5P with my store's computer system instead of the HP LaserJet 1100 that I've used for two decades. The 1100 is dying - heating components are refusing to heat enough to bond the toner to the paper. Also, it decided that it wasn't going to accept my slightly heavier-weight price tag sheets. It's only accepting standard paper now, and that's not going to work. 

The HP 5P printer actually should work fine with my 
Windows 98 sales system, it runs an older program than Win 98,
made to work with Win 3.1. The problem is 
getting the printer into the computer so that it's recognized 
as a legitimate printer. I have a couple of websites written 
down to help me download and copy the printer 
program to CD. Then, (since Dale made sure I had 
an operational CD Rom reader in the computer after 
the last crash), I can download the program and, 
ideally, Windows will recognize it as another 
valid printer. If so, I'm off and running. 

As a work-around, I've been printing the price tags out on standard paper and bringing them home, where I've used my Epson to copy them onto the price tag sheets. That has been working, but it's fussy. I have this lovely, old, and perfectly functional HP LaserJet 5P in my back room at the shop, and I thought I'd see if it was operational and if so, whether it would work with my current set-up. 

I came across this while looking through photos 
this morning. I had never heard of this before, 
although I'm sure my computer could use a 
good cleaning. But then again, so could my desk 
(which is currently a DISASTER). What 
about you. Is your desk clean and pristine or is 
it a mess of TBD and in-progress tasks? How 
about your computer? Have you cleaned out old 
files and streamlined things recently? I'm 
just curious because my desk is SO bad!!! 

So, yes. It is functional. It prints beautifully, in fact. BUT, (because there always seems to be a BUT), the sales software isn't automatically recognizing the new printer. That wasn't unexpected given the age of my system, but it does mean I'll need to go on-line this weekend and record a CD with the appropriate software (which I did locate on-line), then take that CD to the shop and download it onto the sales computer which runs Win98 (yes, it's a VERY old computer system). If I can get it downloaded properly and if it will recognize the software, then I can try the large printer once again and see if I can make it functional. It would resolve a lot of issues that we've had to work around over the past few months, so I'm crossing my fingers. 

The current courthouse that I've been in for the 
past week actually opened in 1932 and is a prime 
example of Art Deco style. This is the courthouse 
just prior to that, occupied from 1889-1932, and 
there was one even older used from 1851-1889. 
I'm a huge fan of Art Deco, so I'm totally in love 
with the courthouse. If you're at all interested 
in more particulars, there's a nice one-page 
synopsis of the building here. 
https://www.mnopedia.org/structure/st-paul-city-hall-and-ramsey-county-courthouse 

So today I'm heading back to the courthouse. If I don't get selected and impaneled onto a jury today, I'm done for a minimum of four years. If I get chosen for a jury, however, I'm probably stuck going to court for most of next week. I'm not sure what I'm hoping for - either way has positive and negative associations and scheduling. At least Monday is a Federal (and State) holiday, (Martin Luther King Day), so I won't have to be in court, I can actually work at the shop for a change - LOL. Have a great Friday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Happy Christmas Eve Eve - We're Going to Have a Blizzard Today

Happy Christmas Eve Eve. Today is the last day that the shop will be open until next week Tuesday, and I'll be taking a few days off from my daily posting as well, to return on Tuesday. It's VERY cold outside, currently -11 F (-23.8 C) and we're under a blizzard warning for the day. I'm off work today (although I'll drive over there in the late afternoon for our gift exchange) and I still have some errands to do and a few gifts to buy. I'll be in the middle of whatever Mother Nature wants to throw at us today, and I'm none to happy about it. 

We broke a lot of snowfall records on Wednesday to Thursday 
here in the Twin Cities. Average in the Cities was at 
least 7 inches, the airport saw slightly over 8 inches. I'm 
grateful the snow blower started properly. Today we're 
not getting a snowfall, we're getting a blizzard because 
of high winds. Ick! 

To add to my problems, the laser printer that is hooked up to my main computer at work isn't feeding paper properly. The only way I was able to get last night's report printed out was to feed the paper in one sheet at a time. That's OK (if inconvenient) for the nightly reports, but we're coming up on year-end, and we print a LOT of reports out at that time. I'd just get a new printer ... except ... 

We've had this HP Laser Jet printer since I opened 
my store in Mall of America in 1992. It's been a 
workhorse, but suddenly isn't feeding paper properly. 
That's a problem. The work-around exists, but it's very 
clunky and slow and means we have to hand-feed 
each blank page into it. The printer is no longer 
supported by HP, so we're really on our own for 
this one. I might have another laser printer that's even 
older in my back room, but I'm not 100% sure it's 
functional. One step at a time. 

This is an OLD computer system. It was new when I opened my shop in Mall of America in 1992, so you can tell from that it's ancient. It runs Win 98 - very well, actually - and even though the program has some glitches that have crept in over time, we've found work-arounds for almost all of them. This one, however, might be more difficult. 

The cable connections between the printer and the 
computer are this style. I have more cables, but I 
doubt it's a cable thing. I think it's a problem with the 
paper feeding mechanism and that's not an easy fix. 
I took it apart and cleaned it last night, but it was 
still messing up, so I hand-fed the paper into it. 
That's going to be a mess for our year-end reports. 

First of all, it needs a multi-pin connector - no USB connectors for a few more decades. I'll have to take a careful look at exactly what the printer cable looks like, and then see if I can find a printer that is compatible. I also have to see what printers Win98 was set up to accept easily in the operating system. Another computer nightmare, and I'm none to happy about it. The printer will limp along, but DH is going to have to exercise patience and carefully monitor the printer, which he's not very good at. 

So, that's my extended holiday weekend - LOL. I hope yours is a bit easier and less fraught with cold, snow and broken computers. Have a wonderful and safe Holiday - no matter what spiritual pathway you follow, and I'll be back on Tuesday the 27th. Slava Ukraini.