November 17, 2003
Stone Tablet Tech Supportby Halcyon
Every Thursday I have lunch with my grandpa. It is a multi-purposed event.
If fulfills the social function of staying in touch with my family patriarch.
It fulfills the basic body needs of food and drink.
And it fulfills Grandpa’s need for weekly computer help.
Keep in mind he is 92, so the fact he has computer problems at all is a miracle. It’s like needing weekly time-travel assistance.
Each week he has a list of questions scribbled on a scrap of paper.
He can rarely read his scribbling. At best, he will recognize a word that will trigger his memory.
“Oh, um…I think I need to delete more things” is frequently on the list.
Or perhaps it is simply the same scrap of an envelope that he picks up each time I visit.
This week he had a simple request, help fix his printer. Despite the fact that the whole point of a computer is to store words and pictures digitally, Grandpa doesn’t trust the bits and bytes. He sees the computer as a holding tank for the documents until they can be printed out. Any digital photo or email that he likes, he prints out.
So you can see why printer trouble would be disconcerting for grandpa.
Usually when I come to fix his printer it is easy to trace back his steps and see what he’s done so far:
1) Click “PRINT.”
2) If nothing happens, go to step 1.
So by the time I get to troubleshooting, there are dozens and dozens of print jobs in the cue. I question the need for ONE copy of “Why Jesus is Better than a Cucumber.” But 26 copies is clearly excessive.
First I clean out the print queue and then try to see what is wrong. No ink? Paper jam? Cables plugged in? Is the printer turned on?
This week, it appeared to be a paper jam. I fiddled around, reached in the paper feed area, and discovered what was going on.
I held out my discovery to grandpa…
“Well, I think I see the problem. You dropped a prune into the printer.”
He laughed like it was an accident. But I wonder if he was intentionally trying to keep the machinery regular. I suppose we'll see next Thursday.
by Halcyon at November 17, 2003 08:36 PM
i like the funny halcyon way better than the furry panted halcyon.
welcome back my friend. welcome back.
(but you still look like a highlighter)
"It’s like needing weekly time-travel assistance." Ha! Nicely done.
what a coincidence. i played tech support with my 86 year old grandfather this weekend. he decided that he wanted a digital camera and wanted it to work with his computer.
great post hal
That is too cute. I can't stop giggling at the mental image of your face and his when the "problem" was discovered.
*xoxo*
Great writing... fun and instantly endearing (both Grandpa Caleb and you). :)
It is so great to read all these stories from the three of you; it's like seeing three connected, uplifting spirits, each of whom walks their own ways. AND it's like visiting with you from afar.
At least he didn't put Metamucil in there.
even funnier the second time around...! xoxo
Thank you for brightening up my day. A prune--what a detail! God has a sense of humor these days.
Oh that was terrific!!
Thanks for sharing that. =)
Hmmm. My 72 year old father is forever doing a lot of deleting with his computer too... keeping the damned thing "cleaned out". Do you suppose he's trying to keep it regular in his own way???
Hope he doesn't think of prunes in the CDrom!
Great read!
hehehehe, that reminds me of my mother. not the prune part, but the printing part- she has a drawer full of forwards and one of those big plastic crates full fully organized, stapled/paper clipped e-mails that she's printed out and the end of the world has come when her printer doesn't work right ;)
I have missed reading about you and am very glad (thanks to The Mighty Jimbo, Linking Man) to have someplace to appreciate you, again!
Caleb is quite a kick. Prunes are good for everyone, no?
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one,
an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
- Edmund Burke
lipitor
I have a brothers printer 3100mfc it dont work it give the code 41
