My husband calls me stubborn. I prefer to think of myself as determined. Technology, apparently, has decided to test both theories.
I have a question.
Does technology sense fear? Or frustration? Or perhaps it has some mysterious ability to identify a woman who simply wants to print a document and then make her life unnecessarily complicated?
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| Me according to ChatGPT when dealing with junk printers. |
Because I'm beginning to think my electronic devices are conspiring against me.
It started with a printer. Well, actually, several printers. And most recently, a simple little PDF about planting garlic.
Garlic, people.
I wasn't attempting to launch a spacecraft. I wasn't programming artificial intelligence or hacking into the Pentagon.
I just wanted to print a pretty handout for Garden Club.
Apparently, that was asking too much.
The Great Printer Wars
Let me tell you about my recent relationship with printers.
First, there was the HP printer.
We spent what felt like several geological eras trying to convince it to connect to Wi-Fi. We pressed buttons, reset connections, checked passwords, and watched little lights blink at us.
Blue lights. White lights. Red lights.
At one point, I was fairly certain the printer was communicating in Morse code, and whatever it was saying wasn't complimentary.
Eventually, I decided that life was too short to continue negotiating with a machine that had no intention of cooperating.
So I got another printer.
A Brother printer.
Surely, I thought, a Brother would treat me better.
And for a glorious moment, it did. It connected. It printed. I celebrated.
Then, without warning, it went offline.
OFFLINE.
Excuse me? We were just getting to know each other!
I also have a little photo printer that has developed its own unique personality. It claims to be connected through Bluetooth, but when I ask it to print something, it insists that no printer can be found.
I can practically hear it laughing.
At this point, I have begun to wonder whether the printers are holding secret meetings when I'm not around.
Enter the Garlic Incident
My latest technological adventure involved creating a handout for our Garden Club.
We had decided to learn about planting garlic in the fall. I wanted something informative, useful for beginners, interesting for experienced gardeners, and pretty enough that members might actually keep it.
My AI assistant helped me create a lovely botanical handout.
Success!
Or so I thought.
I clicked Download.
Nothing.
I clicked again.
Still nothing.
I opened Finder. I searched Downloads. I clicked little arrows. I opened sidebars. I right-clicked things that apparently didn't want to be right-clicked.
At one point, I was staring at a menu offering to let me “Ask Gemini” about the word handout.
I didn't want to ask Gemini anything.
I wanted my garlic.
Finally, after enough technological detective work to qualify for an honorary degree in computer science, we discovered the magic combination:
Command + S.
Two keys.
That's all it took.
I had spent all that time trying to accomplish something that required pressing two keys.
I laughed. Because what else can you do?
Bob Has a Theory
My husband, Bob, has an explanation for all of this.
He says I'm stubborn.
Not curious. Not persistent. Not tenacious.
Stubborn.
And, well, he might have a point.
When something doesn't work, I have a difficult time walking away from it. I want to know why. I want to understand what I'm missing. And most importantly, I want the darn thing to work.
Bob probably sees me sitting at my computer, muttering under my breath and clicking through yet another set of instructions, and wonders why I don't just give up.
But here's the thing.
I don't want to give up.
I spent decades as an educator, and I firmly believe that learning doesn't stop when we retire. I encouraged children to try again, ask questions, and work through challenges.
It seems only fair that I follow my own advice.
Even when the challenge is a printer that refuses to acknowledge my existence.
Curiosity and Stubbornness Might Be Cousins
My word for 2026 is Curiosity.
I chose it because I wanted to remain open to new experiences, new ideas, and new ways of seeing the world.
What I didn't realize was that curiosity might come with a side order of frustration.
Because sometimes curiosity looks like visiting a new place, trying an unfamiliar recipe, or learning to paint something beautiful.
And sometimes it looks like sitting in front of a computer for an hour because a PDF refuses to download.
I'm beginning to think curiosity and stubbornness are close relatives.
Curiosity asks, “I wonder how this works?”
Stubbornness answers, “Well, we're not leaving until we find out.”
Together, they make quite a team.
Possibly an exhausting team, but a team nonetheless.
Maybe Technology Isn't the Enemy
I will admit something.
As much as technology frustrates me, I also find it fascinating.
Think about what we can do today.
I can write a blog post and share it with readers across the country. I can create artwork, design a Garden Club handout, communicate with friends, and run a creative business from my computer.
I can even ask an AI assistant to help me figure out why my printer has decided to stop speaking to me.
That's pretty remarkable.
Of course, the irony of using sophisticated technology to troubleshoot less sophisticated technology is not lost on me.
And perhaps that's the real lesson here.
Technology isn't always intuitive. It isn't always reliable. And it certainly doesn't come with an instruction manual written for people who have other things they'd rather be doing.
But every time I figure something out, I learn a little more.
I may not remember every step the next time, but I know I can work through it.
Preferably with coffee.
And possibly bourbon.
Here's to the Stubborn Ones
I suspect I'm not alone in this.
Somewhere out there is another woman trying to connect her phone to her car, find a photograph she knows she took, cancel a subscription she never intended to purchase, or print a recipe before dinner.
She's probably pressing buttons, sighing dramatically, and wondering why everything has to be so complicated.
And maybe someone in her house is calling her stubborn, too.
Well, here's what I say.
There are worse things to be.
Stubborn people finish projects. They learn new skills. They ask questions when something doesn't make sense.
And sometimes, after an unreasonable amount of effort, they even manage to download a garlic handout.
So Bob can call it stubbornness.
I'll keep calling it curiosity.
And technology?
Technology can call me whatever it wants.
As long as it prints my document.
Let's Talk!
Please tell me I'm not the only one who has argued with a printer, threatened a computer, or spent an hour solving a problem that turned out to have a ridiculously simple answer.
What's your funniest technology disaster?
I'd love to hear it. Misery loves company, and I suspect we could all use a good laugh.
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