A TOUCH OF SSD

It’s been a fever of folding and labelling and stamping, and more folding and more printing. And then — disaster!

The HappenStance Accounts

It’s been a fever of folding and labelling and stamping, and more folding and more printing. And then — disaster!

I always think I’m well-prepared, and this time I was particularly good with the address labels. That is to say, I updated the subscriber list (which I’m happy to say keeps expanding, even in times of blizzard) and made up new address labels with exquisite care.

Nearly all the flyers were done by Dolphin Press, because it’s too time-consuming these days to print as well as design them. However, the letter to subscribers, the updated publications list and flyers for my own book were my job.

Which was fine because my HP2055 printer works beautifully and I had an extra toner cartridge sitting there if needed.

When the current toner ran out, and multiple shaking proved it really wouldn’t do any more, I felt an ominous shiver. The spare cartridge was a recycled refill. It ‘only’ cost fifty quid. But it fitted into the machine neatly. Oh ye of little faith!

And then . . . each sheet of paper stuck resolutely half-way round the cylinder. The machine did not like the toner cartridge, though the error message was blaming the paper. I needed to print 400-500 more documents. Grrr.

I went to Misco and ordered three new toner cartridges, full price. What’s money? They’ll arrive too late, but they’ll avert the next crisis.

And meanwhile, ever resourceful — I had ANOTHER PRINTER. A new one. I shouldn’t have this printer, but I got it when I bought the new Imac on which I’m now working, because if you bought the printer with the Mac you got seventy quid back, and so the printer itself (which is also a scanner and probably boils eggs) cost only twenty. And it was colour. I hadn’t got a colour printer. (For very good reasons which some part of my brain temporarily deleted.)

So I paused the mailshot. No, actually that’s not true. The mailshot paused itself because I ran out of price lists at about letter E.

These new machines are so clever they make you feel neanderthal. It took me a while to find the right pressure of ‘touch’ to make the tiny touchscreen operate, but I did it in the end. And then everything found everything else by whatever remote wireless magic these things function. And the printer worked.

But multi-function as it is (Photoshot 1100 series) it doesn’t like two-sided printing. It seems to be designed for people printing colour photographs at home. And of course the toner bundle it came with hasn’t got much toner in it, has it? I forgot that bit. Printing about 80 sheets worth of price lists — with some difficulty because front was okay but back was not — has more or less used up the black.

I ordered another toner ‘bundle’ for the new bijou scanning, faxing, carol-singing printer. That’s only £250 on toner in a week. It’s an investment.

Back to folding the Christmas cards and Poemcards, getting more stressed. I know why. It’s a touch of SSD (Seasonal Stress Disorder). Meanwhile, the Accounts are nearly done. Not quite. And neither are the personal Christmas cards. I need to fold at least another 100.

When I woke this morning, it was snowing again. I am up to letter L.

This time the blanket of white and the blurred flaky sky looks reassuring. It’s getting darker by the minute. The blizzard is  getting thicker. Snow calms things. You can make footprints without a printer.

The HappenStance Accounts

 

 

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