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 a clean was in order. That meant removing 75 keys, clearing the dust and cleaning 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.

A breeze with the keys

It’s easy to get the keys off, and this is where 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. All went to plan 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 a solution was dashed, time after time. Paperclips, rubberbands, 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 hadn’t realised the key was the wrong way round. However, the benefits of my crazed meant I knew how the spring located. Yippee! in less than ten seconds a stiction free pristine keyboard made my day.

How many simple solutions to (apparently) complex problems exist, if only for a simple change of viewpoint?