Some Days You Just Want to Pitch a Hissy

Today has been one of those days. Having the day off and a laundry list of things to do and places to go I set out early – before dawn, actually – to do exactly that. Laundry!

If you visit here, you may know that Laundromats are not my favourite places to spend time. That said, a while back I discovered new one that is clean and well maintained making the wash/dry experience tolerable.

Not so this morning. Two men and one woman - members of the drug-addled homeless set - staggered through the door to get out of the pre-dawn cold and lurched (actually their movements defied description) to the rear of the building, into the restroom and closed the door. Yes, the place has an open (clean) restroom for the customers.

Taking no notice of me they got down to business. They lit up a joint!

For whatever reason the owner was not around this morning and as others arrived to wash their unmentionables it became pretty obvious what was going on. The smell wasn’t the worst of the episode, in fact I rather enjoyed it second-hand as it was, it was their language as they did their thang. Very foul, indeed. So much so that a couple of people left immediately. They could have handled the pot, but the language was too much for them. I probably would have left too had I not just put in quarters for 42 minutes of dryer time. I escaped by going back to the car and reading for the duration. No folding on site today. Threw everything in the hamper and fled to the car. As I drove out of the parking lot a police car was entering, so I can only imagine what went down. I didn’t have the cell phone with me or I would have called earlier myself.

Next to the U-Store office to pay the monthly fee, then the post office to check mail and pick up stamps, followed by a few quick stops at various markets for needed items before returning to the apartment with a plan to cook for the rest of the day. (There is a crock-pot of chicken & vegetable soup bubbling on the counter and the ingredients for a turkey loaf wait to be assembled for supper.)

Having cranked up the PC to check mail, came across a few news items that required printing, only to discover the printer was not working anymore. I’ve had problems with it running at all on the VISTA platform. I think my next computer will be a MAC. HP hasn’t come up with new drivers for this only two-year old printer to alleviate the problems. The printer has refused to print envelopes, certain formatting results in an intermittent black strip running down the right side of the page outside the printed area, and it would not print is landscape mode. Not a total loss, but still a problem.

Anyway…it simply died. No lights, no fan, no mechanical noise whatsoever.

Great! Just what I need right now – another f**king expense.

So I will spend the remaining hours of the afternoon searching for a new printer. I prefer lasers to inkjets so I hope there’s a nice sale going on somewhere. (beats fists on desktop)

Next stop – Amazon! My keyboard went to heaven last month and I found a new one on sale there, so maybe, just maybe, I’ll get lucky again.

It’s cocktail hour somewhere and I smell olives in my future.

And so it goes.

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UPDATE: Amazon came through for this poor wayfaring stranger who, btw, gets a bit stranger every day. Never mind. Thank God and the universe. I have gone into hock for a new Canon laser duplex printer I have been lusting after eyeing for months having given up hope on HP. This Canon boasted 4 ½ stars while the comparable HP model didn’t get better than 3 stars. $100.00 off and the toner is $20.00 cheaper than HP and FREE shipping. I have always had HP printers. They’re real workhorses at home or office, but it looks like they’re slipping on the products for the home office. The new unit should arrive by the weekend, so I’m without print capabilities for two days. I’ll live.

The smell of olives is strong now, so I may as well give in to temptation and celebrate.