Saturday, February 2, 2008

Cat Puke and Keyboards: A Bad Match

I came home last night from work and sat down at the computer to surf the net. As is my usual habit, I didn't turn on the light, but surfed in the dark. Everything was normal until I went to leave a comment on someone's blog.

I reached my left little finger to hit the "w" key and encountered something wet and nasty. I discovered that the cat had horked her dinner up all over the top left portion of the keyboard some time before I'd arrived home from work.

Ugh.

I cleaned it off as best as I could, plus the puke in the area behind the keyboard. But it was too late. The caps lock no longer worked, nor did the w,r, f,and b keys.

Fucking hell. Knowing that the keyboard was a goner, I went to bed, resigned to a trip for a new keyboard this morning.

Around noon, I dragged my ass out of bed and went down to the store and picked up a Microsoft keyboard. When I got home, I put the installation disk into my computer and was promptly informed that this keyboard has compatibility issues with some programs on my computer, including Windows.

Fucking great.

However, it gave a link to check for solutions and, fortunately, the Microsoft website had an upgrade that would make this keyboard compatible.

I downloaded the program and thought my problems were over. But that was a silly notion on my part. When I rebooted the computer to complete the installation, the keyboard wouldn't respond for me to type my password in. And to top that off, the cursor was frozen in place.

Picture me ready to throw the new keyboard out the window at this point.

But I rebooted a second time, re-adjusted where the mouse was plugged into the computer and tried again.

This time it worked.

Tonight, before I go out, I'm going to wrap the keyboard up in plastic, so if the cat takes a notion to blow chunks again, the new keyboard won't be a casualty.

3 comments:

Lex Valentine said...

The ferals haven't gotten my keyboard yet, but for the most part they stay off my desk. I have, however, come home and sat down at my desk, stretched out my bare feet and landed my nicely manicured toes into cat puke. Ew! Major yuck.

Being in IT, I have a few keyboards around the house. One, because I know they can die for no apparent reason. Two, because all the ones that get tossed from my office because the President doesn't like it, have a home with me. I also know, being in IT, to stay away from the MS keyboard. Logitech is all I buy these days, for home and office. Less compatibility issues. Less likelihood of death from no apparent reason. Much better key action too.

My sympathies. Cat puke sucks no matter where it is.

eeore said...

a microsft keyboard that has issues with windows?

eh?

Patty said...

Oh wow, Chica had a problem earlier this week, her kids spilled some liquid on hers and she had to get a new one. Glad you got it to working, yes make sure you cover it, and stuck the whole key board into a plastic trash bag until you get home and also when you go to bed at night. We haven't had a cat for years and our dogs never got up onto our desk area where our computers are located.