Weirdest thing happened yesterday! It simply defies reason!
I went to print something off, but my printer just shut down with a message to check paper & ink cartridges. I could see the paper right there, and as for the printer, I had just put a new color cartridge in about three days ago, and the black one was still pretty new, so I just tried again. Same results. So, I figured, 'what the heck!' Maybe somehow one of the cartridges popped loose or something.

When I opened the printer, I nearly choked! There before me were two gaps where two cartridges should have been! I even went so far as to get a flashlight and look inside. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Nothing!

I had absolutely no idea where those cartridges had gotten to!

So what are the options?
1) My printer has suddenly developed an appetite for cartridges.
2) I removed them myself for no reason at all, and then completely forgot about it.
3) My wife, who is even more computer illiterate than I am and who doesn't want to know anything about computers and printers was possessed by the tech fairy, instantly and supernaturally gained the know-how to remove the cartridges, did so, and likewise forgot all about it.
4) We had a visitor whom we immediately forgot had visited, and--while ignoring everything else in the house, swiped the printer cartridges.
5) We were visited by the printer gremlins who sneak in during the night and steal computer and printer parts.
6) I've become a sleep walker and did it myself while fast asleep (and most likely made tea, had a snack, worked a crossword puzzle, and went back to bed after having lost track of the cartridges myself).
6) The dog did it.
7) My printer cartridges have become a matter of national security and either the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, or Homeland Security now has them (probably buried deep in Dick Cheney's desk).
8) Due to some obscure principle of quantum physics, the cartridges have been transported to the far end of the universe (or maybe to the planet of wayward socks).

It is so weird!! I have asked myself a number of times since the discovery of the errant cartridges, "Where the heck are my freakin' cartridges!?!?! How utterly bizarre!!

Ummmm, I'd vote for #8, just because this sort of stuff makes more sense to me these days than what passes for reality.

flow....

Hey! Two obvious (and classic!) choices I hadn't thought about to round this out to an even David Letterman Top Ten:
9) It was God's will.
10) It was a warning/message/punishment from God.

It's my considered opinion that 8,9,&10 are all about the same thing if you ask me, but if you feel compelled to choose...hey...go ahead.

It's also my opinion that we were originally designed to be meat machines that were/are forced to choose and then live with the outcomes so that we could, theoretically, learn from our mistakes and modify our behaviors over time when necessary.

I'm not so sure that system is working very well these days. Oh well !!

flow....

Learn from our mistakes?! Are you familiar with the Darwin Awards?

I work in the medical field as a hospital chaplain in a trauma hospital. It's pretty much accepted as gospel in the emergency room that stupidity = job security.

Flow, I looked at your profile and I see that you are also a fan of the blues. D'ja know that Charlie Musselwhite has a new cd out? Haven't heard it yet, but it ought ot be good stuff. Love that harmonica!

Luth:
Thanks for the heads up on Charlie's new CD, but I usually download old school stuff to my shuffle these days. CD's are just too expensive and you usually get some songs that you don't want to listen to very often. I'd rather spend the $ on single plays that I know I want to listen to often.
Thanks again !
Also notice that I wear shades, brother.

flow....

Yeah! You and Jake and Elwood!

LOL
Yeah the future's so bright, I gotta wear shades, and "I Do See The Light !"

flow....

It's definitely 8!!!
Where is Jean Luc Picard and Data when you need them to fix the rupture in the space time continuum??? (Not to mention Deanna Troi to tell you that you're hiding something?)

--des

Hi Luthitarian,

Just found your post, and couldn't help chortling, chuckling, and smiling. Your list was tooooo funny.

I have given up all hope of guessing what my guardian angel will choose to do to my printer. When I print something off in full colour, I never know what colour the colours will be. Black is always black (so far), but apple green has been turned into neon pink, and vice versa, and I'm such a technomoron myself that I know I don't know how to change the colours back and forth myself. (It would make my life easier if I did.)

Your cartridges probably aren't on the far end of the universe (though your socks may be). Keep an eye out for them to pop up in a weird place. Somewhere down the line, your guardian angel may decide to "un-disappear" them.

Stranger things have happened in the non-Newtonian universe we live in.

Best, Jen

Jen, I hate not to come up with a space time continuum problem for your printer, much as I like such things. But I think the problem of color is more something like this:
You are using an ink jet cartridge. Most color ink jet cartridges have a yellow, magenta and cyan blue "tank". I would guess you are out of yellow. Of course it doesn't explain the problem going the other way.
But I'm guessing black would stay black. It has it's own cartridge.

However, you might try the cleaner utility. If that doesn't work then you're just left with a guardian angel, space time continuum, etc. problem.


--des

Love Jen