No one is going to believe what I’ve done today! For a little background info, I’m very computer challenged. I can mess up a computer simply by walking past it . . I touch nothing and it just messes up. Vince is very patient with me but I know he gets sick of my computer mess ups. Thankfully, Vince can fix most anything I mess up.
My parents are in their 70’s and they think I know so much about computers. How do you tell your parents that they’re so very wrong? I didn’t! I just love it that they think I know so much and I let them continue to think that I’m so smart and so talented.
They have two old computers – a desktop and a laptop that had belonged to my nephew, Daniel, who died in 2006. Daniel did know a lot about computers and he could fix anything Mom messed up. Dad wasn’t using the computer back then. Mom continued to use the desktop but the laptop sat in the case for over a year after Daniel died. Dad finally learned to use the computer, found ebay and is now attached permanently to the computer! When I was home in November, Dad wanted me to fix the laptop so he could use it. Hmmmm, that’s a bit over my head. How about I take it home and let Vince fix it? That worked. When they were at our house for Christmas, Dad go the laptop back and a few lessons from Vince and everything was fine.
When I got here Saturday afternoon, neither the laptop or the desktop were working. Apparently one of the grandkids had pushed some of the wrong buttons on the desktop and it was kinda in turmoil. Somehow between things I did and things Chad did (neither of us know for sure what we did!), it started working again. OK . . what’s wrong with the laptop? It won’t get on the internet. I turned on my laptop and it wouldn’t connect either. Called Bellsouth and got some settings changed and after being here just a few hours, both computers are working again and I’ve done nothing really. But, oh, they’re just gushing about how much I know about computers.
Things were fine til today when Chad and I started to town and Dad said: Can you go by Circuit City and get the stuff to fix the laptop so the printer is wireless and I can print from the laptop when I’m in the kitchen? Oh, you gotta be kidding! I can’t do that! But, I can’t let them think I don’t know everything there is to know about computers!
10:30 a.m. I’m in Circuit City begging for a magic box that will do this for me! I did find out that the wireless thingy was $99 and I could get a whole new printer for $116 that is already wireless but still needs some amount of installation. Called Dad to see what he wanted me to do. Yes, get the new printer. The young man in Circuit City, who obviously does know everything about computers, assured me it was easy and I could do it all myself.
12:30 p.m. Chad and I are home and I’ve opened the box and am starting to sweat. There are things in this box that look very intimidating, weird cords and plug in parts, two CD’s . . ok, this can’t be too hard. I’ll just read the instructions. Put the CD in and . . nothing. Re-boot (that does solve everything, right?), put the CD in again and . . nothing. Finally stick in a music CD and . . nothing! The CD drive on the desktop seems to no longer work. Called Vince. Dad is sitting there watching like . . I don’t think this should be this hard! I’m really getting frustrated. Vince tells me to download the drivers from the HP website. Oh, great! This is going to be hard.
4:30 p.m. Family is beginning to arrive for dinner. Nothing is working. Old printer has been removed, new printer just sits there looking shiny and clean but does not print. Why did I ever think I could do this? Mom has said “the old one worked just fine” about 10 times. Dad is saying “just take it back, we don’t need to print from the laptop”. I just want the darned thing to work! This can’t be so hard .. did I say that yet?
5:30 p.m. My sister has arrived. Great! Not my biggest fan to start with and I surely don’t need to deal with her and this darned printer at the same time.
5:45 p.m. Just before everyone arrives, the printer prints a test sheet from the desktop. At least I don’t have to stop for dinner feeling like a total failure!
8:00 p.m. My sister and my nephew, Kristy and her family are gone. It’s just Chad, Mom, Dad and me here. Dad again says “just take it back and hook the old printer back up”. NO! I’m going to get it. I start working on the laptop, so sure this installation would be simple since the CD should work. NO . . the CD drive never even recognized the CD. It worked for Vince and the CD he had used in December is still in the drive. Why on earth won’t it work for me?
10:00 p.m. Still trying to get the driver to download. Not sure if it’s the computer or the internet connection but things would just freeze up somewhere in the download process. Finally got it downloaded and installed.
11:35 p.m. The laptop now prints via the wireless printer. Maybe my parents’ faith in my computer skills will be renewed. Or, maybe they will never ask me again to work on their computers! They’ve long since gone to bed so I just left them a nice little note telling them how smart I am and how lucky they are to have me for a daughter… just a little reminder! 🙂