I'm above average with most of them, I think. Tech issues, that is. When I was a teacher, I had to keep up with technology--not just to function in the ever-more-electronic classroom but just to converse with the kids or (rarely) help them. (Often, they were helping me.)
My mom, now 96, was a very early user of computers--she had an Apple II in the mid-1970s, and until a few years ago we were exchanging emails, and she was passing along bizarre Internet rumors forwarded to her by her friends. (Don't boil water in a microwave!--that sort of thing.) Now, age, infirmity, memory loss have ended her computer days. And in some ways, I think, she's fortunate. Her blood pressure has surely dropped--as has the number of homicidal and/or destruction-of-property thoughts she has during the day.
My expensive laser-printer/scanner has just decided it's cute to print a nice, thick vertical line running the length of my scanned documents. That's nice. Online, I read that a number of people have the same problem, and HP does not seem to have a solution. That's comforting. Some people said it just takes "time"--that it eventually stops doing what it's doing.
That's not comforting.
The last hour--dealing with this--I've been trying to remember if I have a sledge hammer in the garage. I'm pretty sure I do. And I'm very sure what I want to do with it.
Meanwhile, I ruminate about other tech issues that have driven me to the brink of the Cliff of Madness--and then over. Printers that routinely jam. Laptops that work at slug-speed. Smart phones that aren't. E-readers that lock up. Files that won't open. Jump drives that won't open. Wireless that decides it's time for a rest. Streaming video that reaches a dam. Stops. Whirls.
And on and on.
Accelerating my heart rate, elevating my blood pressure, darkening my already lightless view of the human soul (especially of tech designers).
I think I'm going to take a look around in the garage now.
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