Conceit and defeat

 

Conceit and defeat come before despair. I should know, my ego created a problem with my aged Apple keyboard. Imagine, thwarted by a simple space bar.

Tip tapping away

I use the large white original Apple wireless keyboard. You know, the one with the clear plastic bottom.
In this case, many years of filth gathered under the keys like grey fluff with a smattering of wood shavings and occasional hairs. Worse, sticky keys created extra typos. As a result, after delaying for months, yesterday, I decided on a clean. That meant removing 75 keys, clearing the dust and cleansing each key.

QWERTY anyone?

Okay, if you have a similar device, you’ll know that 75 keys mean I only focused on the QWERTY side. Yup, I ignored the 13 mid-keys and the 22 number and miscellaneous push buttons on the far right. These clusters, depending on your point of view offer a divine professional appearance or frightening complexity. In fact, their lack of frequent use means they work well.

A breeze with the keys

It’s easy to get the keys off, and this is where my conceit and defeat came into their own. Confident to the end, I took a photo of the keyboard (minus a test key) for orientation. Although this had a gap like a missing tooth, at a stroke, I knew where the keys went. Thus, suitably organised, I began. It was oh-so-good until, at the very end, the space bar awaited refitting. In contrast to the rest, it clicked in and then stayed loose like an ageing hippy.

Angst

So much for my ego, my this-is-a-breeze thinking went out the window. Try as I might, I couldn’t make it work as the spring wouldn’t seat properly. For this reason, I studied and schemed as my confidence in finding a solution crashed, time after time.
Paperclips, rubber bands, extreme tape and even Bluetack all let me down. Finally, a suppressed scream gurgling in my throat, I left for a meeting with a simple thought in mind, is my keyboard knackered or can it be fixed.

Happy Days

This morning at seven thirty, I solved the problem. You see, the space bar is the only key with no markings to orientate it. As a result, in my scientific study and energetic self-belief (conceit?), I overlooked how the space bar was the wrong way round. ON the upside, the benefits of my Olympic (and ineffective) earlier activity meant I knew how the spring located. Yippee! in less than ten seconds a stiction free pristine keyboard made my day.
How many easy solutions for (apparently) complex problems exist in plain sight? All we need is a simple change of viewpoint?

© Mac Logan