The Workaround :-)

I'm technologically challenged and odds are you are too. Let's face it, someone is keeping all those IT call centers in business and it's not me. I'm a do-it-yourselfer. When a gadget goes on the fritz I try to muddle through and hope I get lucky. I figure even a broken clock is right twice a day. Last week, my luck ran out. 

I'd parked myself in front of my computer to complete an online training course but the program refused to run. I was alarmed when the screen suddenly went blank so I switched browsers, which didn't help at all (thanks for nothing, Firefox). I then followed the troubleshooting instructions (trouble is my middle name) and tried to download a new version of Adobe Flash. That's when all hell broke loose and my keyboard became possessed by evil spirits. The shift key stopped responding as did the caps lock. I could have lived with typing in lower case letters like e.e. cummings, but there were more problems to come. When I touched the control button the calculator kept popping up and the keyboard lit up like Christmas. Had my car gone crazy like this while I was driving I would've been in full panic mode. I closed the program but that didn't stop the demonic possession so I shut down the computer and restarted it, which also didn't help. It didn't seem like a malware problem--more like a 'me' problem--so I started Googling all the reasons these things could be happening and how to fix them. I tried a few of them, typing my inquiries in lower case letters, of course, and avoiding the control button since it wasn't a complex math problem that required a dozen calculators. No luck. I finally arrived at my tried and true method, banging my head on the keyboard because it feels so right.

I forgot to mention how this was the last possible day to complete a training I desperately needed. Foiled by my procrastinating ways, I'd been hoisted by my own petard. Again.

I texted my husband for advice but he had none to offer, so I gave up. I drowned my sorrows in a bowl of chocolate ice cream and waited for my very own IT guy to get home. The first thing he did after he kicked off his shoes was switch out the keyboard for an old one in the closet. Problem solved. All the demons went back to hell and I finished my training before midnight. 

Whew! It's a good thing I'm so self-sufficient.