Odds and Ends . . .
Once again, thank you all for your kind thoughts about Mister. Jan and I really appreciate your understanding words.
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Today’s another blog about a lot of little things going on, or that I’m working on.
First off, when I started to print off some more gate guard log sheets a couple of days ago, I found I was out of black ink. But Aha!, I remembered I had bought an extra cartridge when I bought the printer. And even more Aha!, I was able to find it.
So I tore the package open, installed the cartridge in the printer and . . . it didn’t work. Or at least it didn’t work very well. It actually didn’t look a lot better than the old cartridge that was running out of ink. Then I got to thinking.
I bought this printer, and the extra cartridge in the fall of 2013, when we were gate guarding down in south Texas. So this ‘new’ cartridge was 2 years old. Which explained the problem.
Even in the sealed foil packages, these things dry out. So, needing logs, I decided to try an old trick. I got a small plastic bowl and put a little bit of water in it, just enough to cover the bottom. I then set the cartridge in the water, print head side down.
You can see what I’m talking about in this photo.
Be sure you put the print head in the water and not the contact side.
Checking back in about 30 minutes, I saw that ink was spreading out into the water from the cartridge. So I took the cartridge out, set it on a piece of paper towel, print head down, and left it for about 10 minutes. Then I popped it back in the printer and it worked fine.
Ink cartridge ink is water soluble and it will dry out, clogging the print head if it’s not used for a while, even if it’s in the printer. Running the printer’s clean cycle will sometimes fix the problem, but if it won’t, try this trick. It might save an expensive cartridge.
I’ve got a heavy-duty 6 amp 13.6 volt power supply (actually I think my friend Nick Russell may have given it to me) that I use for a lot of things around the rig. Right now it’s being used to supply 12v to the LED light so we can see our clock at night while we’re on the gate.
But I’ve found several times recently when I want to use it to power something that used a 12v plug. So while I was at Wal-Mart yesterday I picked up a 12v socket in the auto department and mounted it on the power supply case.
Right now I’ve just got the leads hanging loose so I can hook it up when needed. But later when I get a chance I’ll take the case off and wire them in directly so it’s always hot.
Tonight, supposedly being even colder than last night, and not having any dogs, I have bumped things up to a three heater night. We’ll see how that works.
Finishing up, either WordPress still doubts my humanity, or my math skills, or the robot hacking scripts have gotten smarter, but now instead of single digit math problems on my WordPress blog login, I’m getting double digit addition problems.
I didn’t know there’d be math on the test.
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Password Security Questions for the Depressed:
What is the name of your least favorite child?
In what year did you abandon your dreams?
What is the maiden name of your father’s mistress?
At what age did your childhood pet run away?
What is your ex-wife’s newest last name?
On what street did you lose your childlike sense of wonder?
When did you stop trying?
vzcvzcvz
