Coffee and Keyboards: Ne'er the Twain Shall Meet. . .

Not my own image, but you immediately grasp the point of today's post.

So there I was.  Saturday morning about 11am.  Still in my pajamas and back down here in Zum Stollenkeller after breakfast upstairs at the dining room table with the Young Master.  I returned to my chair here at the computer, second large mug of fresh French press coffee in hand, meaning to return to typing into my ever evolving mid-18th century rules a revised version of Mark Clayton's morale rules from Miniature Wargames issue #7.

I was about two minutes back into this activity when I reached for said mug of coffee, without really looking at what I was doing, and, of course, it slipped from my grasp.  The contents spilled all over my keyboard, some papers nearby, a box of paperclips, and my non-functioning Swiss pocket watch that I've been meaning to take to the jeweler for repairs.  Needless to say, I turned the air momentarily blue with muttered curses, took the steps upstairs two at a time to retrieve a roll of paper towels from the kitchen, so I could return asap to start my own version of The Pepsi Syndrome clean-up.  

Miraculously, the two old issues of Miniature Wargames sitting to my right (#6 and #7) managed to escape the caffeinated carnage inflicted on so much of the rest of my desktop.  I don't know how.

At any rate, shortly after mopping up everything, my keyboard, into which I had just installed a fresh battery earlier this morning, stopped responding.  Nothing.  Nada.  No way.  Now how.  Of course, that meant an unplanned trip out to find a replacement was called for.  Sigh.  Back upstairs to shower quickly, dress, brush my teeth, and head out

However, there are those rare days when the stars line up, and things go more rapidly that you fear they might.  I was in and out of Best Buy in under ten minutes with a new Logitec wireless keyboard-mouse combo, for a very reasonable price.  I even managed on the way home to fill the car with gas at a good price, drop a pair of pants off at the dry-cleaners, and pick up a few items at the supermarket (remarkably quite for late on a Saturday morning).  In under an hour, I was home again and setting up the new keyboard-mouse combo.  As Peggy Lee once sang, "Yes it's a good day. . ."

Now, if only I can get through a short stack of five or six student papers, I might actually be able to return to the painting table for some actual work on infantry standards for the first time in a couple of weeks.   Still cold, but we had a thaw midweek, so the remaining snow is icy, crunchy, and not, according to the Grand Duchess, good for skiing.  So, we're staying in today to combine a bit of work with a bit of leisure while the Young Master works on a Space Shuttle science fair project for school.

-- Stokes