Problems

They say it never rains but it pours.  So true.  Nothing horrible, but it is like "being nibbled to death by ducks"...

Camera -  I lost my simple point&shoot digital camera a week ago.  I've looked everywhere (except, obviously, where ever it actually is).   When you start looking in the refrigerator and oven, you know you have run out of places to look!

It is possible I dropped it in the recycle bin or something, but I doubt that.  So, when I find it someday I'll laugh.  Binq likes to carry pens and shove things off the table, but I don't think she could manage a camera.  If I ever find it, I will post about it.

Meanwhile I ordered a replacement (same model).  Simple point&shoot types are getting hard to find.  The brand names have all upgraded to fancier ones with controls and features I don't need (and are much more expensive)...

Cable Set-top box -  A few weeks ago, the On Demand feature of the cable box stopped working.  The cable company sent a replacement.  I set it up today and went through all that annoying set-up procedure.  But it works again.  The displays are rather different though.  

I was happy with the old displays and I can't see any actual improvements.  Why do things change like that?  I'm big on "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".  I assume they have made it easier to rent movies and add channels (profit drives change I guess).  But since I virtually never actually buy or rent movies I don't care.

The problem is that they wanted the old box back by today.  But there were only 3 addresses listed and the nearest one is 15 miles away.  I hate driving!  But I found "more addresses" and one was in my town.  So I drove there.  

No luck there.  They are only for wireless services.  I mentioned the website.  They said, "yeah but that's an error".  So I reluctantly decided to drive to the 15 mile away location.  Which led to the next problem...

Car - I have a 4 year old Subaru Forrester (great car normally).  But I don't drive much these days (about 4,000 miles in 4 years).  A couple months ago, it wouldn't start.  Weak battery.  I don't drive long enough to rechrge the battery, I suspect).  Fortunately, I have a trickle-charger from when my 15 year old Toyota Highlander started having the same problem, so I recharged the battery overnight and the Forrester started right up.

Which was fine for 3 weeks.  Now it needs to stay on the trickle-charger all the time (it is addicted?).  And also fortunately,  I have a portable power pack (bought for an old troublesome riding mower I no longer have).  I keep that  in the car and fully charged now for when the car battery is dead while I'm out shopping.  I've helped a few people start their car with that in parking lots.  

So I visited the cable company store that wasn't the right one (see above).  I debated whether to drive there today or just go home.  I decided to drive to the cable store.  But the car wouldn't start (again).  I had just recharged it!  I'm glad i had that portable power pack in the car.

So I decided this had to end.  I drove to the dealership (jump-started it with the portable power pack) and explained the problem, noting that I did not drive much.  So I couldn't tell if the battery had gone bad or it was a bad alternator/charger/generator/whatever (I'm not a "car person").  And since I was there, to do routine maintenance like oil/filter, tune-up, etc.

They will call me Wednesday sometime in the afternoon after they have checked out some "charging parts". 

Computer Printer - I don't print much, so those inkjet printer cartridges dry up before they are half used and got expensive.  So several years ago, I decided to buy a color laser toner printer.  Worked great for 3 years.  The toner is slightly more expensive, but the toner is good nearly forever.  I did the math...

Well, last December, when I went to make my own holiday cards for family, friends, and fellow cat-bloggers, the color stopped working.  Canon support had me try all sorts of things, but couldn't solve the problem.  They finally said to just try new toner.  I did, and that didn't solve the problem.  Well, I do most of my printing in black&white anyway.

Last week, it kept telling me it was out of paper.  I added an inch of it.  Still reported the same problem.  So something new is going wrong.  Well, the printer is very specific about what kind of paper is in the tray.  I don't need "the best paper".  There are detailed settings about that.  And getting through the menu about that is maddening.  Sometimes, I don't even know what the paper definitions mean.

Part of the problem is that I seem to have bought a printer intended for office use.  It took a week after I bought it to figure out the default settings were "network".  When I solved that, I could print.

These new problems are (so far) unsolvable.  I think I need to delete then reinstall the printer.  Which, as I recall, was a real pain.  And it means rediscovering all the setting adjustments I made to convince the printer that it isn't part of an office network!

I'm not looking forward to that.  But I have to do it soon, because I can't print anything! 

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I'll post about any good news when I get any...