Some time ago I mentioned that I was responsible for getting my mother-in-law into using a computer. There are many things I regret in my life and this is in the top ten. When she has a problem, it usually would make Bill Gates cut his throat. Such is the case in point for today. She called and said that her printer had 175 print jobs and she had no idea why. I have an idea why.
She did take the paper out of the machine - after awhile. And, she had turned it off. If you have never tried to talk an 86 year old woman through a procedure that is not on Yahoo Mail or in Word Perfect, then you have not experienced real pain. I did get her to follow instructions for about 2 seconds, then she started second guessing. As I tried to remember the screens she should see in Windows XP, I would describe each step and ask her what she could see on the screen. Suddenly she realized the printer was not turned on. As she turned it on, I told her not to load any paper. She did anyway.
After several more minutes of sheer joy, I told her to turn off the printer and to unplug the power cord. She did not know where the power cord was. We did get it unplugged. My hope is that the printer will clear the cue when it is plugged in again. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. I told her to wait awhile and I would call her back in a couple of hours.
Maybe I’ll die before then.
PMO
©2013
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