Printer Phobic

Everyone is afraid of something. I can't stand anything that has more than 6 legs. My grandma hates anything that has less than one. My sister is afraid of deep water. One of my buddies is achluophobic. He talked to his psychiatrist, but was told that there's not much anyone can do for someone who's 16 and still afraid of the dark. And my mom - she's printerphobic.

It all happened a few days ago. My mom had been trying to print on our Lexmark L51 Ink Jet, when she noticed the color cartridge was almost empty. She clicked the pause button and removed the ink canister. She extracted the new color cartridge of ink from its leak-proof protective covering and proceeded to click in into its place, when for no apparent reason, the machine came to life.

It is important to understand how a laser jet printer works. These printers consist of three main parts. The first is main unit or the outer-casing, which basically holds all the mechanics together. Then there are the electronics, which receive messages from the computer and tell the printer where to put the ink on the paper. Then there is the mechanics. On our printer, there are two ink canisters that slide back and forth on a track, spewing ink all over the page.

I remember little from the confusion that ensued. The two cartridges slide back into their printing positions. Because the color ink cartridge was not in place, it became stuck inside the printer. Unfortunately, the electronics was still telling the mechanics to print. Eventually, after much girly screaming on the part of my sister and mother (not mine by the way), my mom pressed the off button, shutting down the power.

After a few tests, my mother realized that the ink cartridge was stuck, and no amount of begging was going to get it to leave its hiding place. My mom took a screw driver and proceeded to tear the printer apart. The outer-casing separated pretty easily, splitting into two parts. Unfortunately, the ink cartridge had completely emptied its contents - all over the inside of the printer. My mom proceed to clean up the mess.

Almost three hours later, the printer was back and working. It makes a peculiar clicking noise whenever it prints, but my mom doesn't mind. She hasn't touched the printer since the incident. We don't know why the printer malfunctioned. I don't think we ever will. I can promise you that no one in our household is going to take apart the printer to find out why it makes that annoying clicking noise.

Everyone's afraid they'll become printerphobic too.