Is this You?

A Huge Power Surge

Yes we all bemoan the electronic world and all the bumps and bruises it occasionally puts on us. I actually try my level best not to generalize like that, you know saying “we all”. But I have yet to meet someone who does not have some horror story about the delicate balance between adding content, saving and then hitting print.

I find more and more that when I hit print I am on my knees, head bowed and just for added measure I cross all my fingers and toes! Well today even my finger and toe crossings didn’t help. The printer is just sitting there blinking its orange WIFI wiper blade at me.

I am not without some computer knowledge. I can find my control panel and I can even open the printer information boxes. From there I can read all about the bytes being sent to a fro, the properties of my under $75 printer, even who my printer likes to date on Saturday nights. (He likes to see the digital camera sitting next to him all dolled up in her come hither black case!) I can see everything except what to do to make that orange light turn to green.

This all started a week or so ago. Our house was hit by lightning. We fared well, no fire, no hole in the roof, no flying witches on bicycles. Apparently the bolt of electricity flew around in the air, looked our house over and zap, crack, bang, picked the internet radio as its entry way into our home. We apparently live on a spot on mother earth that attracts these wayward bolts of lightning as the five acres where we live has been hit several times in the past 40 years. So you would think we would either move or get used to the humungous crack caused by the splitting of hot and cold air and the blinding white light that comes along with it. Well we won’t do either.

So some nine or ten different items are now on our list to replace since the surge protection devices are only equipped to handle the occasional power surge from the power company. Maybe even a surge from a faraway lightning strike. You know you see a flash and then count; one Mississippi, two Mississippi…Then on the number when you hear the roll of the thunder is how far away the lighting is. Yea those far away lightning strike power surges are what surge protectors are built for.

We have ordered new televisions and gotten a new DVD player. Had a great guy come out and get our internet back up and running. However I will call him again. See the printer worked the morning after the storm but when he left our house after two or three hours of grumble, mumble and an occasional ,”Well what the..” under his breath the printer seems to have decided that it is on strike. I know the internet has nothing to do with the printer but this great internet guy will surely take poor pity on this frazzled house wife and come back and do magic to get the thing going again. I hope I hope, again, with all my fingers and toes crossed.

Oh the icing on the cake of this little lightning strike? The death of my heating pad. Yes it has gone into the great beyond of small electrical appliances. Now on the surface this may seem to be quite petty. Considering all the terrible things that could have happened with a huge bolt of lightning coming into your home. But this particular heating pad was very old and durable. The best thing about it was that it didn’t have an automatic timer that turns off the heating pad every two hours. Who in the world came up with that? My old pad was turned on at bedtime, put on my feet and in the morning I still had warm tootsies and the cat liked it too. Now, with this new-fangled safer thing my nights will never be the same. Even the cat is upset. But see if I were not so electronically challenged I bet I could break into that new heating pad and disable that timer thingy. Yea and I could get the printer printing too.

The only thing that has stayed a constant in this whole unfortunate list of problems is that there are two huge owls in the trees outside of our house. They continue to hoot and screech in the evenings into the night and in the early mornings. Never miss a beat. Were there before the bolt of lightning and are still hootin’. I mention this because I always heard that having owls around was supposed to be a sign of good luck. Well they are not doing their jobs very well.

So if anyone has any ideas of how to get this printer to stop winking at me let me know. If not I guess I could use it as target practice! Gee isn’t life a hoot, hoot, hoot?

Trina lives is Eureka. Her book ITY BITS can be found on Kindle. Share your thoughts and opinions with her at itybytrina@yahoo.com.