An Ode To My Two Best Friends, My Computer And My Printer Elita Sohmer Clayman

We bought a new printer today. We took it home, unboxed it, took the tape securing certain parts off, took out the instruction booklet, which did not tell us too much though it was printed a few pages in English, a bunch of pages in Spanish, French and Portuguese. The French I could understand a bit and then there were a couple of sheets how to hook it up. It did not come with a USB cable and lucky we had one from the former printer. It seems odd you spend $229.00 Dollars and that was on sale, and the box clearly said no USB cable. We did not note that until we got home and tried for about one hour to hook it up. We got the printer running, but could not hook it to the computer. Finally, I figured out what to do, right before we were ready to pack it up and take it back to Office Depot.

You begin to feel great emotion when you complete it. It was not just plugging three wires in; it was getting one of the plugs to go in the right hole. Oh well, I guess if we were not seniors, it would have been easier. We got so frustrated that I called my handy man/painter, paper hanger and all around do it for me person, and he answered and said he was in Williamsburg, Virginia and would be back in seven days and to call him if we were still unable to do it.

Then my husband went back to Office Depot and someone there told him to put one of the wires into the telephone socket. Then we were able to print and copy, but not to scan. As of now which is midnight of the next day, I scan and it is unable to open the picture or scan up. I will figure it out from the poor instructions in English. Perhaps, it will tell me what I did wrong on scanning or saving the scan and I could read the information in the French (Françoise) section. Ha.

We took it home, no delivery, and we worked for over an hour, but when we got it to print and scan, we felt such high success in doing something like this at our ages. I will probably still need my handy man to help me get the scan picture scan to open to see it or wait until my daughter-in-law to visit from out of town in five weeks. She is a computer programmer and maven (expert) and maybe she can tell me what I am doing wrong.

Most of the instructions are on the screen of the printer or on the CD disk you insert in to tell you what is happening.

Oh for the old days in the forties, fifties and even sixties, when we did not have these contraptions and needed not to be frustrated for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. Oh well, it passed the time buying it, coming home and setting it up. It is not as easy as the salesmen tell you it will be. I even took a survey on the internet to gain a ten dollar discount slip towards my next purchase of fifty dollars. Of course, it excludes the things we need the most, but I am sure I will be able to spend fifty to gain ten and that will make it forty probably for things I do not need too much. At first the survey screen said this was a dangerous site, so I exited it and called the manager John at the Pikesville store we bought it at. He said people were complaining about it being not there for them; so he gave me a Google address to type in and it worked. It asked me if I was satisfied, how satisfied and rate it five for excellent, 4 for less excellent and etc. If they asked me to rate the instructions, I would have said about zero that is for English, perhaps in French, it would have been a number four.

I remember when I bought Mom and Dad an electric can opener in about 1953 for the December holiday season and mom used a lot of canned veggies in those days. It was so new and so delightful and it cost a whopping twenty-five dollars in those days. Dad was enamored of it and opened the can, emptied it, washed it out and turned it over to do the other end, just for fun. The neighbors came in to see the big time present the Sohmer’s darling daughter had bought her parents. They could not believe a young girl working would spend such a huge sum of money for a purchase for their parents. They thought me a very rich person and my parents very lucky to have me.Right they were, but the amazement of everyone on this new and unusual cooking equipment still amazes me about fifty-nine years later. We in those days were so thrilled with something new, whether clothing, cooking items, books, going to a movie, going roller skating, seeing a live show in a theater downtown or even playing tennis at the playground tennis court which was for free.

We did not have the great amount of electrical items we all have. Now people are so caught up with using their phones to talk text or email that they are running into other people because they are not looking where they are walking. Two ladies got off the elevator the other day in a big medical/office building in Pikesville and almost ran down some people waiting to get on the elevator.

That is a bit wrong, it is almost as bad as texting and driving a car or turning the corner in the car with one hand and the other hand is holding the phone and they are talking.

So we spent our Saturday afternoon pursuing the purchase of a printer which is connected to the computer which is connected to our mind and thoughts. If I did not have or learn to use the computer about twelve years ago; I do not think I would be as sharp and up to date on life, the world, health, activity and happiness that I do have. The computer is more than an instrument to type something into Google and get answers; it is a source of accomplishment, attainment, action, altruism, augury, and attitude. Attachment, answers, amazement, association, agility, amusement, amalgamation and affection.

I have great affection for my computer and all it affords me to accomplish every day in every way.

If my knee is aching, I can shop online and sometimes I get good bargains and also to find things I cannot find in some store shopping in person. I found powder compacts Revlon online at Target that I have not been able to find for months in the store. I even got it delivered for free and it arrived in three days to my home. I found a great shampoo in large bottles that I use and could not find it in that size and paid less for it per ounce in the large version and also got free delivery. I found my eye drops in a mild dose kind online at Target, than in the store in person. I just found a pretty dress to wear next week out of state to my two younger grandchildren’s fifth and seventh birthday party. I am sure it will be pretty as the picture when it arrives. I researched my new printer mentioned above online on Office Depot this morning and so I was prepared with knowledge about it and its good or bad qualities online too at Consumers online, which I subscribe to for nineteen well spend dollars. I just click it on and type in the name and get all kinds of information as to the good points, bad points and overall average price. All this I knew before I got to Office Depot and that makes me a knowledgeable consumer instead of an unknowing buyer.

So this is an ode to the computers to which I have become a friend to over the last twelve years. No more handwriting articles or stories or mailing greeting cards or writing letters to friends or family out of town.

My computer is now one of my best and longtime friends for these twelve years and when I awake in the morning, after morning wakeup things we have to do; I check my friend, the computer for updates, emails and tracking of packages, I may have purchased. My friend, the computer does not argue with me, or forget me, and though it sometimes does let me down for a while, it always comes back to me and is my friend again.

Next to family, friends and acquaintances, my computer is joined now with my second best friend, my new printer, all Hewlett Packard, all my friends and all keeping me happy, and my mind is working and quite alert. My fingers are slim and not Arthritic because they are being exercised all day, typing  with them and when in 1987, my son’s friend said he had graduated in computers and was going to earn a lot of money, when he got a job, because computers were the  ‘ in thing’, I thought him not living in reality.

He has his own company now and he was way ahead of his time, in knowing about one of my best friends-my COMPUTER.