I grow weary

...of complaining about my computer. But I haven't had a printer for some months now, and it's making me crazy. The last thing I printed out was a plane ticket to New York back in January. After that, it's all a sadly image-less, undocumented blur.

It appears that sometime during one of the last of my multiple System Recovery operations, Vista decided that it would not work and play well with others, including the previously problem-free Epson printer. No one I contacted at HP or Epson tech support has any idea what to do about it and, in fact, ever since my warranty expired in April HP tech support has stopped taking my calls. I suspect that Trevor may have filed a stalking suit against me. Frankly, I don't blame him. (Oh, Trevor ~ how could you leave me after all we've been through? That fateful system recovery was all you, Trevor! I did it for you! Trev? TREVOR....??)

So, where was I? Oh, yeah ~ in any case, nothing I nor anyone else can think of has solved the issue. I get the same error message;



Yes. Thank you. No kidding. Especially for the terrifying exclamation point. I'll have you know that the printer works splendidly off line; it's just that after several uninstall/installs something went awry and it can't interface with the operating system anymore. I thought it might be the driver when I saw this on the MS website:

Windows Vista may stop responding when you install software that adds legacy network drivers

but a check of the system swears that everything is working as god and Bill Gates intended. I'm worn out and bleary-eyed from trying to find patches. I've downloaded all Microsoft's Vista updates and searched for fixes, but Vista won't allow me to make some downloads; I get an astonishing 'You are not authorized access...' message and refusal to comply.

I am, I assure you, duly authorized, deputized and canonized as Chief Administrator and Lord High Mayor of this little berg and have so instructed the computer; as far as access goes, if not me, then who? If not now, when? I don't need a system recovery, I need a system overthrow.

If anyone knows of a cure for what ails me and my HAL (outside of a new printer or a shotgun) I'd be grateful if you'd let me know. In the meantime, I'm off to clean the house in anticipation of visitors. If I can get the vacuum cleaner to interface with the dust cloth, that is, never an easy task on the best of days. As if housekeeping weren't torture enough, my MP3 player just broke. No pictures. No music. No Trevor. Cleaning.

I go to my doom. Pray for me.