When the Printer Decides to Be the Boss - UPDATED 11-29-25

A Thanksgiving tale of patience and paper

Running a business that designs and prints paper goods means one thing: the printer is king. Every card, every keepsake, every little project depends on that machine doing its job. Someday I’ll splurge on a fancy graphics printer, but for now I’ve been working with an HP Smart Tank on their “All In” subscription. Basically, I lease the printer — and I’ll say this much, HP’s customer service has the patience of saints. Unlike other brands, I’ve never heard the dreaded “Sorry, we can’t help you.”

Earlier this week, though, my trusty printer decided everything should be red. No problem, I thought — pop out the print heads, clean them, and get back to work. That’s how it’s supposed to go. You open the top, the head slides to the center, you push the lever, and out it comes. Except this time, the printer head looked at me like it was laughing: “I’m not moving for you.”

I tried everything — opening and closing the lid, hunting for hidden buttons, even wondering if there was a secret “special way” to open the top. After thirty minutes of this dance, I called HP. The first rep told me to open the front door. I told them there was no front door. They asked, “Are you sure?” (Yes, I was sure.) They even connected to my phone to see for themselves. Then came the factory reset. I wasn’t sure what that would fix, but I trusted their process. Instead, the reset knocked my printer offline, and the rep couldn’t see it anymore. They tried to disconnect me — which turned out to be a blessing. The next person knew my printer inside and out, took lots of photos, and finally declared it broken. A replacement was on the way.

The new printer would take a few days to arrive. So I spent Thanksgiving week designing new things, planning menus, and cooking. But once the holiday passed, I ran out of projects that didn’t require printing. And that’s how I ended up here, waiting, laughing, and realizing that sometimes the printer really does run the show.

Waiting on a printer teaches patience. It reminds me that every card, every keepsake, is more than just paper — it’s a rhythm of design, print, and share. The printer sets the pace, whether I like it or not. And maybe that’s the lesson: in this shop, the printer isn’t just a tool, it’s the heartbeat that keeps everything moving.

Thanks for following along with this little behind‑the‑scenes story. Here’s to the heartbeat of handmade goods — and to every printer that decides when the porch‑paced magic finally makes it onto paper.

UPDATE!!!  Welp, the new printer arrived late yesterday (ll-28-25).  Because it was late in the day I chose to wait until today to set it up.  Guess what, the replacement printer doesn't work either.  So now I have two broken printers.  One boxed up ready to go to FedEx, one waiting for another new printer so it has a box to go into to go to FedEx.   

I am really trying to stay positive.  The next one will work.  It has to.  Right?