Technology challenged

My ancient inkjet printer has been slowly dying--at first it was misfeeding paper and then it developed a tendency toward spitting out ink. I changed inkjet cartridges (twice), but while there was a brief improvement, the smearing ink came back. As did a new symptom, where random lines appeared much lighter than the text above and below them. I tentatively diagnosed a problem with the track mechanism--as it travels back and forth the cartridge is either too close to the paper (smearing) or too far (light print).

So on Saturday I went over to Staples to see what they had in stock, and found a printer that looked good, with a 30% off rebate. But since I hadn't made up my mind, I decided to check a couple of other places to see what they had on offer.

Somehow I missed the fine print that the rebate offer was only good for one week. When I returned Sunday, the printer was back to its regular price.

Grr. Argh. Now I'm stuck waiting to see if that printer goes back on sale, or trying to find something else at a comparable price. And in the meantime, my HP knows it's about to be replaced and is misprinting with wild enthusiasm.

The Investigator and the Law

One of the topics I'm not learning about tonight. Grr and argh.

I'd given myself extra time to drive to class because of the earlier snow, but shortly before I left it started to snow again. Hard. The Escape shimmied a bit on the unplowed/unsalted roads, but I had hopes that once I hit the county roads things would be fine.

Not so much. I persevered at a snail's pace, as the wind whipped up the snow until there was little visibility. The newly updated weather forecast was warning of lake effect snow and localized snow squalls. When I reached the turn-off that would take me up over the significant hills--a bad place in even a moderate storm, I turned around.

I hated turning around. It felt like failure, even if it was the right thing to do. In good weather it's a 50 minute drive up to Dryden, almost entirely on country roads, where there's seldom anyone to see if you run off into a ditch. In bad weather, it wasn't a bright idea. Even if I made it there, coming back three hours later was going to be dicey.

As it was, once I turned around I had to navigate around numerous wrecks--it took four tries to find a clear street so I could get through Endicott--cars were spun out, off on the shoulders, or just abandoned midway up a hill when the owners figured they couldn't go up or down. I didn't see any serious injuries, just the general stupidity of the first bad storm, and all the morons trying to remember how to drive in the snow, or figuring out that they really ought to have put on their snow tires before now.

Glad to be safe home, but very bummed. Tonight was the second to last class--next week's just an exam so this was basically it.

Going off to sulk.