Friday, the 13th

I always consider Friday the 13th a very good day and today was no exception. I didn't do much, except drive over to Jeannie's this afternoon - cooked a special dinner for her this evening: filet of sole (so fresh there was absolutely no fishy odor to it at all); potatos, carrots, and barely wilted fresh spinach. Donald had one filet although he is not much for fish, but like a dutiful son-in-law, he said it was good.

It had just gotten dark by the time I got back home and for some reason, the dome light on my truck stays on a very long time after the ignition is turned off. I have to keep running out to see if it is still lit and I don't know what I would do if doesn't go out. So I'll end today's blog and go back out to check.

NOTE: After a couple of trips outside I saw that all the truck lights had gone off. The lights at the racetrack have come on, and it's nearly as bright as day out there.

Moving things around

I have long been wanting to come up with a better idea for my computer placement. A couple of weeks ago I tried turning my dining table so that it is perpendicular with the side wall but it didn't give me any additional space and left me with chairs that didn't fit anywhere. This morning I decided to open up the table with the extra leaf, and then turned the table sideways. Not bad - my printer & monitor fit side by side, and I have room for the keyboard & mouse directly in front of the monitor. I think I could even leave it as is when I pull in the slide before moving the rig. The only problem is that I have one chair that really doesn't fit anywhere, and one that is sort of hanging in front of the corner on one end of the table. This arrangement leaves me with 1/3 of the table to use as dining space, at least once I remove eyeglasses, camera, pens & pencils, etc. from it. I honestly don't know how two people manage to live in an RV and not kill each other for space!

While I was at it I vacuumed all my cookie crumbs from under the table. I like to mess with the dogs sometimes by using the vacuum - they are terrified of it and I can't understand why, but they scatter!

I knew I had been running low on propane so I phoned the man who delivers right to your rig. He was here within an hour and filled and replaced both tanks, for which I paid $40 cash! It sure is cheaper and easier than taking them to U Haul. He does everything - removes the tanks, fills them, and then replaces them into the compartment. It is especially a godsend for me as I could remove them from the 5ver but I couldn't lift the full ones back up.

The gauges I bought to let me know the status of the tanks are nice to have but made it really difficult to get the tanks in place and close the door. This gentleman suggested I remove the gauges and turn the valve off on one tank; then when the other tank is empty I will have a full tank left and can see about getting the first one refilled. I decided to leave a gauge on the tank in use so I can tell when it is just about empty and then open the valve. That way I won't run out in the middle of something.

It is so nice and warm outdoors, but still cold in my rig. I get the morning sun in the back window which is not very large, and then on one side during the afternoon. It never really warms the place up, and right outside my door where I should be able to set up my chair is always in the shade. In three more weeks it will be something different.

A Happy Compromise

As of this morning I had no printer. As of this afternoon, after I retrieved my Brother HL-2040 from Donald & Jeannie's house, I am ready to print. I always loved this printer. It is monochrome and only prints - no copy and no scan. But it prints fast and prints exceptionally well. It installed in a flash - power cord plugged in, USB cord connected to computer, install disk inserted, and in under 5 minutes it was good to go. I bought this printer about 2 yrs ago at Staples, on sale for about $40. When I went to buy a new toner I was stunned that it costs over $50! I found an online supplier and have bought two toners since then for about $20 each. I don't expect to print as much as I have in the past when I was printing lots of articles on full-time RVing, among many other things, so the cost of toner isn't much of a problem. I weighed the Brother before I left NC and found it weighed 15#. I had hoped to find something lighter in weight, but after seeing what is out there in the stores, I think I will be happy with the 15#. I will still keep looking for a multifunction printer and if I can find one without fax that fits my wants and needs, then I will buy it. Until then I'm happy as a clam with my old printer.

While I was at Jeannie's, Joe came by to pick up Alyssa (he leaves her there on mornings he has class), so I got to visit with him too. In the conversation I dropped the statement "I need someone to get on the roof before I leave...." and before I finished the sentence he replied "I'll do it". My youngest child, he has always been a daredevil, and when Jeannie & Donald had squirrels in their attic, Joe was the one they sent up to the very-high roof to get them. One storey--three-storey--ten storey is all the same to him. How I ever survived raising him I will never know. But I am glad to have someone as agile and sure footed as he is to get up on my RV and inspect the roof, seals, caulking, etc. My four kids have no idea the anguish I still go through over them, and now I can add all my grandchildren to the number I worry about. My oldest granddaughter, Ara, is in Florida on spring break and I fret about that although I keep it to myself around Jeannie because I know she worries too. When my ex husband was living at least I knew someone shared the worries with me and we balanced each other out, but now I'm on my own. Darn him for leaving me to handle it alone! (This picture was taken in February of 2007 and Bill died on March 24th).

Interesting note about printers

...or rather printer ink cartridges. I shamelessly lifted this off a discussion in the NuWa Owners Forum.

"Last summer when gas was high, there were quite a few forwards of the price per gallon of various items, with printer ink being at the top of that scale... along the lines of $5,200 per gallon! shocked At a photography convention, a printer factory rep said to me, "We'd give away the printers if we could be sure you'd buy the ink from us." (The reason all the ink cartridges are proprietary.)"

The Continuing Search

I am still searching for the perfect printer. Yesterday I bought an HP, and after installing it twice I decided it was not for me. In the first place it takes too much memory. I really don't know how much memory I have on my computer (nor am I very much interested in knowing) - I'm just sure that since I've had this computer the memory has been adequate, so I'm not about to let a printer gobble up what I have. I even tried a custom installation whereby I should have been able to load only those elements I wanted, namely printing, but I still ended up with "Shopping for HP" on my computer. I printed a one-page document with the HP and it was satisfactory, but when I tried to print a 3-page application form in Word, I was informed the margins were too wide to fit in the available space, or something like that. I attempted to modify the Word document but the computer kept freezing up so I just un-installed, returned the box this morning, and I am currently looking for something that will work for me. I think either the Epson or the Lexmark which I bought and returned would have been satisfactory, however, the Lexmark was missing ink cartridges, and the Epson had a problem recognizing an Epson ink cartridge. I don't want a printer that polices my ink--I think they should tell you straight out on the box that the printer will not work with any other cartridge except theirs. Of course, if they can't even recognize their own cartridge.....

I JUST WANT A PRINTER THAT CAN PRINT, COPY AND SCAN!!! One that doesn't take up an entire table and is lightweight, i.e., 10/11# or under. I don't fax and I don't print photos. Is it asking too much?

Random Observation: You don't want to let an opened package of cookies sit very long in an RV because they tend to absorb the dampness, but sometimes only the cookie on top of the stack is soft, so eat an entire stack at a sitting or else you will waste them.

The subject is still printers

I took the Lexmark back to Target this morning. Then I went to Office Max and bought an HP. Got it back home and realized I had lost my reading glasses, so I had a terrible time installing it. Why is it that they would give you a booklet explaining in three languages how to print, scan, etc., but the installation instructions are on a cd? To top that off, no where in the cd is anything mentioned about how to install the ink cartridges, or even where the ink cartridges are located. I finally found the compartment but the only clue as to how to insert the cartridges properly is a series of pictures, or icons if you will. An icon is a picture, and in this case it is certainly not worth a thousand words. I was ready to smash the whole thing before I finally got it to work. It prints ok as far as I can see, but every time I turn it on it wants to print an alignment page for me as I have just inserted a new cartridge. I'd like to know how long this will go on because it's wasting my paper and ink! It's too bad we don't manufacture anything anymore because this stuff from China is just crap.

They don't make them like they used to

A few weeks ago I bought an Epson printer that was the perfect size and weight for my RV. When I initially installed it I kept getting messages that the ink cartridges were not genuine Epson cartridges, which surprised me since they came with the Epson printer. I kept trying and turning the whole thing off, back on, and trying again. After several tries, everything worked ok, and I was very happy with the printer. Things started to go downhill when I ran out of black ink and bought a replacement, an Epson cartridge in an Epson box. When I tried to install it, I first got a message that it wasn't a genuine Epson product. I kept trying over and over, and then, I got messages showing that the black cartridge was ok, but that the other three were not genuine. At that point I decided to take the printer back to the store, which I did. I explained to customer service the problems I had, but they just taped the box back up and gave me my money back.

I then bought a Lexmark printer, thinking because I had such good luck with my Lexmark that I bought in 2003 and finally tossed when I started fulltiming, that I would be happy with another Lexmark. Well, got it home and started to set it up. My old Lexmark came with a printed user guide that was helpful to me throughout the time I had the printer. Not so with the new one - you insert a CD and follow the instructions. All went well until I got to the part about inserting cartridges. There were no cartridges included. I looked all over, and read every single word on the box and the limited printed material that was included. Nada! So I now get the picture of someone returning this Lexmark, the customer service rep taping the box back up and returning the product to their shelves. I need a printer desperately, but don't know what I should do next. Is there a printer available that is NOT made in China? Is there one that is reliable (and doesn't cost an exhorbitant amount of money) and that comes with a printed guide as well as ink cartridges?

The only good part about today was the fact that I was accompanied by my daughter and granddaughter, and the stop we made for frozen yogurt!