Seriously…
What a week. Earlier, the kitchen sink started spouting water, so we were doing dishes in the bathroom sink.
Then the water heater died. Matt found a plumber, who will be coming out today, but since Monday, I’ve been refreshing my unused-but-never-forgotten camping skills, and have been doing a daily bath using one cup of bottled water.
Yeah, it can be done.
Yeah, you can get clean.
No, it is NOT as wonderful as a nice shower with hot water. And washing your hair in the other cup of water from the bottle isn’t fun, and does not give great results.
Good news, though… the plumber is coming today.
Meanwhile, I got ready to print out all four remaining manuscripts for a single five-novel one-pass revision. (Book One is already revised, but I do have to read through it and take notes on important elements that need to be consistent from book to book.)
However, I accidentally printed #5 first, and used up the last of my in-place HP printer cartridge doing that.
No problem, though. I’d bought a well-reviewed refurb cartridge off Amazon.
Except the product turned out to be A) a counterfeit cartridge for which B) people giving it 5-star reviews could prove they’d purchased it in order to get a $30 kickback from the company (information was in the box). I shredded the kickback offer. (wish I hadn’t now) — I would have added photos of the get-your-kick-back paperwork to my one-star review.
Meanwhile, the printer identified it as counterfeit, and would not use it.
Because I bought it months ago so I’d have it ready to go for the five novels, I couldn’t return it.
So yesterday, we went to the BIG BOX (name withheld ‘cause I’m betting this next thing isn’t their fault) local office supply company, got their brand refill cartridge for $110, and got THIS warning message…
So I didn’t use it. I just put it back in the box, and am hoping that the place from which I bought it will take it back. We paid $110 for it yesterday. I have NO pages to show for that money spent.
So…
Now I’m just going to wait for the plumber to get here.
A veritable trifecta of suck. Luckily, my Amazon cartridges have held up pretty well, but since Murphy will be leaving your place for greener pasture to wreck, I think I’ll keep an eye out for him…
The solution… move the printer to Matt’s desk, and hook it up to his Windows game machine. Have that machine open up a PDF of the manuscript.
Printed perfectly. I’m putting this on a combination of using a Mac and using a Brother Laser Jet Pro M404n with an updated driver that seems custom-designed to make things NOT WORK.
And there we have one of the hazards of sensor chips in print cartridges. Grrr…
How to wash hair with no water and minimal expense:
— Rub a teaspoon (or less if you have little hair) of plain cornstarch into your hair. (This is the secret ingredient in pricey “dry shampoo”.)
— Let sit for about 15 minutes.
— Brush out thoroughly (preferably with a dampened hairbrush but dry will do).
This also does wonders for itchy scalp. Should only need do it once or twice a week. (Oily hair is caused mostly by the skin trying to defend itself from the effects of shampoo.)
And driver updates delivered by manufacturers who might hope to upsell customers on newer and more expensive printer models. Pretty sure at this point that my next printer isn’t going to be an HP.
Sorry to hear that Murphy is visiting. If you figure out how to toss the bum out, please publish your results.
Toss him out?
No, no. If I find the little bastard, I’m shooting him.