One Step Forward

I’m scanning again, yes, I’m scanning again. Sing it like a show tune! After a successful software download, I had the ever so gratifying experience of learning another new software program last night. Yeah, you only wish you could have spent Friday night in my shoes (slippers actually).

Let’s just say the journey from familiarity to feeling lost in space gave me an overwhelming urge to cry. I was completely unprepared for the new scanner to be such a pain and so time consuming. I was this close (thumb and forefinger held less than a millimeter apart) to crying because I had already removed all the blue securing tape, the super duper big yellow tape that apparently held some secret force, for they warned severely over and over in the directions that it not be removed until I was ordered to do so. I had peeled off all the protective covering, downloaded the software and started the system in order to begin scanning and figure it all out. There was no turning back. My (i.e. the visa company’s) $160.00 was gone and already collecting more interest than I’ll probably make this week. The last straw was that the new scanner was complicated and time consuming, and I have to be able to scan more than 30 pictures an hour. I don’t have time for frills. Yet, I had invested hours and hours on this new scanner; I had to remain committed to what I had started... I hate that.

Not wanting to face defeat and knowing there are several lifetimes of pictures waiting to be scanned here for a whole lot of projects, I had to buck the trend toward tears and keep going. Crying would only slow me down. I guess I got ticked instead. I couldn’t believe this scanner couldn’t do a simple scan and do it quickly! So I pressed on. Yes, it’s a good thing to get ticked and press on. After wasting several precious hours doing all the wrong things in my quest to learn, while fighting the constant, nagging urge to cry, I ended up scanning about 70 pictures during the next hour and a half. A huge record for me.

Personally I am quite attached to the familiar, but there is something to be said for speedy scanning too. I think I can get the new system figured out eventually, and I don’t remember what buttons I finally pushed in what order to finally do what I wanted, so I’ll most likely have to endure another lesson with myself. There is also an apparent glitch in the system that doesn’t let me do a really basic thing. But, if all goes well and I scan even 40 or so pictures an hour, how great will that be!

Hey, three steps forward, only two back. That beats two forward and three back, right? If I didn’t think so, I’d definitely be crying as I would be digging through the garbage, trying to carefully unwad and reattach the blue and yellow tape and protective covering, and repackage my scanner so as to look like new when I’d try to return it. Then I’d have to start the process all over again.

I decided to take the one step forward that I’m left with and call it a deal. Sometimes I have to do that. Ok, I pretty much always have to do that. But, once again, I’m familiar with that, and I do so love the familiar.