Busier Than You’d Think

Oops, yesterday I completely forgot to post something—which doesn’t happen often, and you’d think it wouldn’t happen at all, considering that I have no job for the time being to drain the hours away. But I was fairly busy anyway. Working on a writing assignment, which involved reading on line, spending some e-mails and making a few phone calls; doing things around the house, including the assimilation of debris from my former office -- you accumulate heaps in five years; and then there was the matter of looking after little Ann, which, as any experienced parent will tell you, is no trifle. All in a context of mood swings, which certainly must be common so soon after getting your routine upended: moments of vague dread for the future, mixed with Wow! I’m free of the office!

I expect it’ll even out soon enough, and I’ll be my more-or-less phlegmatic self before too long. In the evening, after Yuriko returned looking a little drained (it was her first away-from-home work in years), I went out and bought a printer for the computer. Actually, a printer/fax/copier, a low-end Brother device costing roughly a C-note and displaying great ingenuity on the part of its Chinese manufacturers in the use of cheap-looking plastic parts. If it lasts a year, that’ll be about right. I need it for printing cover letters, faxing clips of my work to prospective employers, and so on.

It wasn’t my love for Brother that decided the purchase. HP and Epson and others have combo function plastic boxes for in the $100 range too. But just about every one of them refused to work with any Mac OS lower than 9.1, and of course I’m still trog enough to muddle along with 9.0. Sure, I could have run out and upgraded a long time ago, but I’ve always taken my techno-procrastination seriously, since it has always saved me money. I was a mind to buy a computer in early 1987, as I recall, but I didn’t get around to it. It would have cost thousands, and where would it be now? Instead I bought a $500 Smith-Corona typewriter, a nice electric with a line’s worth of text available for preview in a LCD, and I can still use it. In fact, I used it earlier this week to type out Yuriko’s resume, since we had no printer then.

In any case, I was discouraged enough to consider upgrading, money I don’t care to spend just yet, but then I noticed that the Brother model is friendly all the way back to OS 8.6. Good work, Brother. Capture just a little more market share, made up of techno-slugs like me, when they invest a little in backwards compatibility.

My daughters have also decided they need the printer too. We haven’t had it even 24 hours, and already I’ve printed coloring pages from various Internet sites that Lilly knows. Ann has figured it out as well, in her rudimentary way. Just a few minutes ago, she asked, with points, noises and “want W” for a printout of the D.W. character from the Arthur web site.