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Warning! Warning! Danger! Danger!
Sep. 16th, 2021 09:24 pmI don't like nags. Some people can keep hundreds of unread emails with a counter showing the three-digit total. (I am married to one of these people.) On the other hand, if I see a single 1 in a circle in red next to an inbox, I can't rest until I've read it and cleared it. If the voicemail light on my office phone is flashing, I must listen. These are quick and ephemeral, usually; the ones that come out of the blue are the ones that really make me crazed.
Like this one:
THAT popped up on the top of the status screen on my Xerox office printer-scanner yesterday morning. I hoped it meant a page had jammed or the tray was empty, but no, it gave the dreaded message of LOWWWW TONER! Seems I just put a toner cartridge in this thing a few months ago ::checks records:: yup, June 10th. And I haven't had any major print jobs for court notices or anything; I use a much older, end-of-lifed Xerox that still, sorta, works for those.
Those original manufacturer cartridges ain't cheap. Retail for one of them is close to $200, but I usually find one on sale for about a buck twenty, hopefully with free shipping. Usually, the first pop of that code means I've got about 20 percent left, but the monitor told me it was already under 10 percent, and when it goes, it GOES. I can buy an offbrand one for about half the price, but that just leads to more nags from the monitor about OMG NOT GENUINE XEROX TONER YOU'RE RUINING YOUR MACHINE AND VOIDING YOUR WARRANTY!
(It expired over a year ago, assholes.)
So I'm finally doing what I should have done in June: going back to a leased machine with an all-except paper service contract for repairs and supplies. Three year lease, under 50 bucks a month and they cover all the costs, versus $120 every three months for cartridges and I run all the risks of repairs. I will sink one last cartridge into the damn Xerox and bring it home to replace the even more annoying home printer-scanner we have been limping along with here. And if it blows a code here, I won't give a shit.
----
I resigned myself to that fate yesterday, was doing pretty well with work and life through the early afternoon today, but then, on the way to Wegmans, the robot popped another DANGER WILL ROBINSON! scream:
The check engine light on JARVIS came on, with just over two months before inspection, when such a code will fail the emissions test. I had an expensive turn with one of those two years ago, again right before inspection time and right after the car went out of warranty. This time, I saved myself an initial cost at the dealer, who charges $150 just to tell you what the code means. They're pretty sure it's something called the O2 sensor, which I don't think was part of the very big emissions fix in 2019, but which is still an over-$200 part on this stupidly small car. I am going to check with our non-dealer repair people to see if they can handle it; I've got over three months to figure it out, so that helps.
----
Then there was the one we didn't get any warning on: Eleanor happened to notice that she wasn't hearing the sound in the cellar of the solar panel inverter turning on and off. Sure enough, we were down for two days, which coincided with the HVAC work done on Monday. She found their breaker had tripped, probably because something they did caused a surge while they were mucking about. We're back up and running without any new leases or parts, and they are going to get a talking-to when they come back tomorrow to finish the job.
----
On the bright side, they are coming back tomorrow to finish the job, and we've been lucky the past two days that the temperature and humidity have both gone down to tolerable levels without us having any AC to use. I even cooked a full meal in the kitchen tonight without it being too beastly!
I also reported a goof to IMDB in the first episode of the Steve MartinShort series we've been watching, and they approved and posted it!
I have no appointments tomorrow and will be just catching up on things and herding animals while the AC work gets finished. Monday, they begin insulation and such, and the new printer arrives.
Chill, Robot.
Like this one:
THAT popped up on the top of the status screen on my Xerox office printer-scanner yesterday morning. I hoped it meant a page had jammed or the tray was empty, but no, it gave the dreaded message of LOWWWW TONER! Seems I just put a toner cartridge in this thing a few months ago ::checks records:: yup, June 10th. And I haven't had any major print jobs for court notices or anything; I use a much older, end-of-lifed Xerox that still, sorta, works for those.
Those original manufacturer cartridges ain't cheap. Retail for one of them is close to $200, but I usually find one on sale for about a buck twenty, hopefully with free shipping. Usually, the first pop of that code means I've got about 20 percent left, but the monitor told me it was already under 10 percent, and when it goes, it GOES. I can buy an offbrand one for about half the price, but that just leads to more nags from the monitor about OMG NOT GENUINE XEROX TONER YOU'RE RUINING YOUR MACHINE AND VOIDING YOUR WARRANTY!
(It expired over a year ago, assholes.)
So I'm finally doing what I should have done in June: going back to a leased machine with an all-except paper service contract for repairs and supplies. Three year lease, under 50 bucks a month and they cover all the costs, versus $120 every three months for cartridges and I run all the risks of repairs. I will sink one last cartridge into the damn Xerox and bring it home to replace the even more annoying home printer-scanner we have been limping along with here. And if it blows a code here, I won't give a shit.
----
I resigned myself to that fate yesterday, was doing pretty well with work and life through the early afternoon today, but then, on the way to Wegmans, the robot popped another DANGER WILL ROBINSON! scream:
The check engine light on JARVIS came on, with just over two months before inspection, when such a code will fail the emissions test. I had an expensive turn with one of those two years ago, again right before inspection time and right after the car went out of warranty. This time, I saved myself an initial cost at the dealer, who charges $150 just to tell you what the code means. They're pretty sure it's something called the O2 sensor, which I don't think was part of the very big emissions fix in 2019, but which is still an over-$200 part on this stupidly small car. I am going to check with our non-dealer repair people to see if they can handle it; I've got over three months to figure it out, so that helps.
----
Then there was the one we didn't get any warning on: Eleanor happened to notice that she wasn't hearing the sound in the cellar of the solar panel inverter turning on and off. Sure enough, we were down for two days, which coincided with the HVAC work done on Monday. She found their breaker had tripped, probably because something they did caused a surge while they were mucking about. We're back up and running without any new leases or parts, and they are going to get a talking-to when they come back tomorrow to finish the job.
----
On the bright side, they are coming back tomorrow to finish the job, and we've been lucky the past two days that the temperature and humidity have both gone down to tolerable levels without us having any AC to use. I even cooked a full meal in the kitchen tonight without it being too beastly!
I also reported a goof to IMDB in the first episode of the Steve MartinShort series we've been watching, and they approved and posted it!
I have no appointments tomorrow and will be just catching up on things and herding animals while the AC work gets finished. Monday, they begin insulation and such, and the new printer arrives.
Chill, Robot.