Cupcake Brings Her Automotive Maintenance Philosophy Into the Workplace

The copier gave up the ghost yesterday at 6pm. Please don't ask what I was still doing in the office at 6pm, a full half hour after I am technically free from my committments here. The copier just stopped ... copying. No green lights, no reassuring humming noises. And yes, I checked the toner, it wasn't that. Since everything that breaks in the office is lain at my feet and since I do 90% of all copying it was clear that this was a problem for me. We only have one copier in the office and I only know so many ways to make copies. Remember in Girl Scouts when we would do grave rubbings? You would go into an old cemetary with some paper and a crayon and rub over the headstones? Cute, but not the way my boss wants to receive the 2006 1Q REIT Forecast, you know? Tell me Boss, how proficient are you with Braille?

I haven't had to do much with this copier in nine months and we don't have a manual on file for it anywhere. So I quickly called the 1-800 number and got a Customer Service Technician on the phone.

"Hi, our office copier stopped working. The little light came on and it just quit. Not the Toner light that looks like a pyramid, the other blinking light. Looks kinda like a log."

"The blinking red light that looks like a battery?"

"Sure, that's the one. Can you send one to fix it? As soon as possible?"

"That's the Toner Drum Cartridge. The light came on and it just stopped working?"

"Well, actually, and this is a little embarassing, but it has been blinking for about a month. Maybe longer. Okay a little longer. But it was working just fine, and I figured, you know, maybe it would just work itself out."

"That's a warning light. It's telling you that you need to replace the drum cartridge before it shuts down entirely. You must have just hit a multiple of 18,000 copies."

I feel like I should be on a commercial with my hand resting on my belt buckle earnestly telling the camera, "Yeah, me and the 1100-D just hit 18,000 copies, but I figure a new drum cartridge will see us to to 36k even through all the end of the year collating."

Cue "Like a Rock" ...