How to change a printer ribbon.

When I got home from work this morning, I was feeling very bitter about my life and my job, mostly because ever since we had an 'upgrade' (it turned out to be more like a downgrade) to the switchboard at work a couple of years ago, there are things that don't work the way they should and you have to do them in a roundabout way, but since I work in the middle of the night, I hardly ever have to do those things.

Mostly I just transfer calls to the ER or one of the nursing floors, but this morning some guy wanted to make a collect call or two from his room, and this is one of the things that is all bass-akwards now and had to be done a special way instead of quick and straight-forward like it was before the 'upgrade', and Barb wasn't at work yet to remind me of how she does it during the busy day shift.

So the process wasn't working like it should, and I was trying to do it, but the guy misdialed and had to make the call again, and then he had to call someone else collect, so it was going on and on and was very frustrating for both of us! I have no idea why he wasn't just using his cell phone to make the call, like any other person on the face of the earth would have because even small children and my mother-in-law have cell phones now. Although my mother-in-law would probably have been calling me to help her make a collect call, too, because she has a cell phone, but she doesn't really know how to make a call on it. My father-in-law has written the instructions for her and taped them to the back of her phone, but he's hoping she never has to use it - and so is she.

Also, earlier in the night I had to change the ink cartridge on the big printer, a job that I hate because it goes wrong every damn time I have to do it! It's not just like slipping a toner cartridge into a tabletop printer. I have to put a giant ribbon cartridge into a large printer that stands alone and is about chest-high to me (or waist-high to a person of normal height).

Here's the thing - I have to put in the ribbon cartridge and jiggle it into position so it drops down onto two spindles and OMG, the stinking cartridge just will not drop down onto those two spindles! There is a knob on top of the cartridge that can be turned counter-clockwise until it all drops neatly into place, and I turn it and turn it, and jiggle it and jiggle it and jiggle it, and it just will not go and then finally it does!

And then I start the printer again, because I still have more reports to print and the printer runs a little and then it beeps and shows me a red light and I look at the little window and it says "Ribbon Fault", which means something is wrong with the ribbon! So I clear it by pushing the Clear button, and start it again and it prints a line or two and then BEEP, Ribbon Fault. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I can clear it and start it as many times as I want to, but I might as well not bother, because in the end, I just have to take out the ribbon, throw it away, and start over again with another ribbon cartridge. Last night I had to use two cartridges, and the third one worked the way it should, so that was good, and at least I didn't fall into a pit of rage like last time and slam the faulty ribbon against a cabinet, causing the plastic casing to break and release pleated ribbon all over the place. I cleaned it up (covering my hands with paper towels) and put it all into a plastic bag, and gave it to the midnight housekeeping guy to throw away so no one would see it sitting in the wastebasket. It is important to hide the bodies evidence.

So that was my night and by the time Barb came in this morning I was pretty cranky and tired and I was so glad to come home and just go to bed!