This past week, the company we contract with supplied us with an updated machine, for which we are grateful. The new machine reminded us of a humorous occurrence from a few years past.
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A certain Monday morning, maybe four years ago or so, if you happened to be walking past the main office here at St. Anne’s Guest Home, you might have heard the above exclamation from a insistent nurse.
This morning ‘happened’ to be April Fools Day. The night before, Sr. Elaine had been working at the reception desk until 10 p.m. At the request of Sr. Christina, who wished to be able to claim innocence, had asked her to tape a little notice to the copy machine in the back of our main office.
The notice read: “Liberty Business Solutions has recently provided us with a new update: This machine is now voice-activated. To have the machine perform a function, simply speak the command for the task you wish it to carry out. Chuck [an office employee here] has been trained in the proper use of this update. If you have any questions, please ask him.”
Let it be known that there was no such technologically advanced update given us. Sr. Christina had just found this idea when doing some research on harmless April Fools jokes.
Nonetheless, neither the nurse mentioned above nor any other staff were informed of the happenings.
Sr. Rebecca, on passing through the office early Monday morning, saw the note ant thought it strange, since Chuck had not been here all weekend and she (the administrator) knew nothing of it. She let it go, however, and proceeded on to chapel.
A little while later, when she had returned to the office, our nurse on duty came in. She stopped, read the notice, and said “Copy…” When the machine proved unresponsive, she re-read the notice and tried again: “Copy…copy.”
When the nurse’s repeated efforts proved fruitless, the other staff witnessing the events started laughing. So much for a voice-activated machine!