Q-Dental Story-Time.........

“Would you like to schedule your next six-month cleaning, Mr. Hughes?”
“Sure; why not?”
“Well, I can do that.”
She fired up her Dental-Soft appointment book, which I could see on her laptop display.
“Tuesday or Thursday, afternoon is better,” I said.
“How about Tuesday, January 8 at 2:00 p.m.?”
“Sounds all right to me.”
“Wait a minute,” she says. “That was 2008; I want 2009.”
She fiddles around and schedules Tuesday, January 6 at 2 p.m.
“NOW WHAT!” she says. “Conflict alert; will not compute. You have performed a grievous error.”
“Wassa-matter?” I asked. System throw up an alert about an undeleted appointment?”
“I don’t know, Mr. Hughes. Sometimes it does this.” (“Windoze is cogitating the value of Pi; please wait.”)
“STORY-TIME,” I said.
“A few years ago I worked at the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, and I learned all about unexplainable ‘pyooter hairballs.”
“Recently I was doing something with Excel, and I don’t have a manual, so I was winging it.”
“Somehow I got it to do what I wanted, so I did the old dance I learned at the Messenger: ‘just shut up and don’t ask questions. Ya got what ya wanted; ya don’t need to understand how.’”
“I related this all to the so-called ‘pyooter-guru at a party at the Messenger, and of course he understood.

Q-Dental is where I have my dentistry done. See earlier blog-post.

“Dental-Soft” is the Windows-XP software application they use.

The “Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper” is from where I retired over two years ago. Best job I ever had.

“‘Pyooter hairballs” are difficult computer glitches.