The Pepsi Syndrome

Last night I did something stupid, even more so than usual: I had some red wine in a stem glass as I was reading my email. As I stood to go crank up the barbecue grill, I picked up the glass, managed to catch the stem in the phone chord next to my computer's keyboard, and, well ...


You see the image up there ...


Because the Kinesis Advantage I use has these scooped-out sections perfect for catching liquid, they did. I had a dish towel over my shoulder, as I usually do when grilling, and quickly flipped the keyboard, cursing loudly, drawing my spouse and dogs running to see what happened, and used the towel.


For future reference, wine is worse than water when it comes to bathing one's keyboard. This I know because this would be the second time I had to take the thing apart. 


After an hour of Q-tips and canned air and tweezers, I managed to get the sucker working again–except for one key: the Control key.


And this morning, after more time to dry out, I quote Dr. Leonard McCoy regarding the Control key:


"It's dead, Jim."


It doesn't take long to realize how often one uses keyboard shortcuts, Control-this or that to select text, open and close windows, quit files, format with italics, get info, or whatnot. All of these functions can be done using pulldown menus or, in some cases, the touchpad, but what a pain in the ass that is.


I've had the keyboard for seven or eight years, long enough so the palm supports are worn out, and the E-key's letter now looks like an F, from finger erosion. And I can use the workaround, but only until I can get a new keyboard delivered ...


Never a dull moment.