In order to be fair I planned to post a positive story on technology. I'm studying architecture and there are so many technological resources available. I am in an online class and at first I was skeptical. After getting my first degree in the 80's I just couldn't see how I could get the benefits of live interaction with my classmates and instructor online but I've been very impressed. In some ways I actually get more guidance and help this way. I can also attend my class from anywhere that has an internet connection - the hospital, on vacation, my mom's house, my bed, Mcdonald's parking lot... The internet is a valuable resource for finding materials for class projects, rather than having to hoof it all over town, and I can scan and submit assignments from the comfort of my home office rather than sending them snail mail from the post office. Way to go technology!!
So this week I needed to make copies of some plans from a pdf file on 24x36 paper. First of all the connection was slow for some reason on the university's end and the system was getting ready to go down for maintenance so I downloaded my files the night before so I could still work while the system was down. It took 45 minutes to download a file - still faster than drawing it myself, or having it mailed to me. But at the end of the 45 minutes, all I had were partial files and I had to start over. But - oh yeah - the system was down. This put me a day behind schedule because I still had to download the files.
I finally got my files downloaded and stored on my handy little flash drive and drove the 30 minutes it takes to get to the print shop. This time I used office max because they are open late and I needed some office supplies as well. I stood in line at the counter for 30 minutes while the employee and the manager messed with an uncooperative copy machine in an attempt to help the person in front of me. Apparently only my presence in the room is necessary to cause a malfunction. Fortunately my two youngest daughters had full stomachs and were looking forward to a visit to the toy store so they were on their best behavior. They should put a bench near the copy counter, however. They made do with the wire shelf under my cart. Finally it was my turn. Yippee - everything went smoothly and I got my copies. Then I walk through the store and picked up several items and got in line at the register.
It was one of those snake lines with several people ahead of me and only one register was open. It was slowwwww moving. I shopped the clearance shelf by the line while I waited, adding two more items that I probably don't really need to my cart. Maybe a slow line is their marketing strategy. My girls were getting restless and starting to dance in the aisle but I still had the toy store as incentive so I was able to rein them in.
Finally it was my turn and I put everything on the counter for her to ring up. Then I scanned my debit card. Nothing. Tried again. Nothing. She did some kind of voodoo and moved my order to the register next door. I scanned my debit card. Nothing. We called the manager who rebooted both registers, but this meant I had to get everything out of my shopping bags and ring them up again. The guy behind me left, muttering something under his breath. My girls, too tired to dance, laid down on the floor by my feet sighing as loudly as possible. I made them get up. I scanned my debit card. Nothing. Just more evidence that computers hate me. Or that I'm cursed as I have suspected all along. We moved to a third register and the manager typed something in. We had to scan my items a third time. Finally it worked.
90 MINUTES!!! to make 12 copies and purchase 8 - make that 10 - items. Fortunately the girls were so tired of shopping that not even the toy store could engage them. We were in and out in 5 minutes. We paid cash.
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