Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Friday, April 21, 2017

*facepalm*

The other day my printer stopped working, which was unfortunate, because I
  1. Had just replaced the ink and gotten it going again,
  2. Need it for reviews of my job materials and keeping track of my applications, and
  3. Know that it's often cheaper just to buy another printer if it breaks, rather than repair it, for which I have no money at the moment.
I'd done everything I could think of: changed the height of the paper, loaded and reloaded the drawer, pulled out the duplexer and put it back in, looked at the back of the machine where the drawer goes in, all that. But that last one I'd done when I'd been frustrated. This time, I realised that there was white in the back. My printer is black. Ding, ding, ding. There was an accordion of paper trapped between the back of the printer and the drawer, keeping the rollers from pulling up the paper. Simple fix. Obvious fix. But I wasn't doing so well a couple of days ago when I was troubleshooting, apparently.

Fortunately, I did drive well last night. We had a very close call. I was in the right lane on Alumni where it meets Nicholasville Road. At that time of night, that right lane can either go right or left (it's a dead end, so there's no straight). I had my signal on for left, and the sign was lit up clearly. When the light turned green, I proceeded in my lane left. The SUV in the left lane, which was huge, maybe an Expedition, swerved halfway into my lane, and ran me up the curb and off the road, briefly, but there was a utility pole so I laid on the horn, got back on the road, and the driver was either drunk, oblivious, or an utter asshole, because he or she just went quickly into my lane and sped down the road. The only reason we didn't collide is I was able to come to a dead stop (without getting hit from behind). We were probably about 2-3 inches from one another or less at one point. My passenger and I were a little shaken, but I got him home a couple more blocks down the road and then got myself home (going back down Alumni).

Things I don't understand:
  1. Why do people get into the wrong turn lane for the lane they want?
  2. Why do people not read signs or indicators like the other cars' turn signals?
  3. Why do people not turn into the correct lane?
  4. Why, on hearing not a little beep but a sustained horn, would you not, if you were blithely turning into the wrong lane, would you not get your ass back in your own lane, as someone was obviously in the other lane?
I'm putting it down to drunken idiocy in this case, for now. I'm glad no one was hurt. If I'd hit that utility pole, my passenger would have taken the brunt. If I'd been hit by the SUV, I would have. I seriously doubt the SUV driver would have had much trouble---I drive a Ford Taurus, which is much lower and smaller. The SUV would definitely have won, which I think is one reason why it seems drivers of big SUVs and trucks don't really seem to care how badly they drive, they can just bully their way through. I see that all the time. Sigh. And people wonder why I have so much driving anxiety. But hey, I did what I could, drove well (my passenger thanked me for that), and we survived.

Okay, I'm alive, the printer is fixed, the corrections have been made and printed, and uploaded to Google Sites (I had the string of letters 'rmaterials' written on one of the sheets). I swear every time I proofread, and think I'm looking at a perfect document, I find something else. I also turned the air conditioner on this morning because it was 75.7 degrees in here and I was sleeping with a fan on the middle setting (normally it's low), without a blanket, and was still sweating. I have some things to do, including some exercising while practicing my breathing to do before I go over to YKWIA's later today. I'll write later.

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