Monthly Archives: March 2024

March 11, 2024 · 2:36 pm

The Bedtime Keyboard

I had a horrible night last night. It all started when I was wrapping up the work I was doing on transferring photos from my camera’s SD card to my backup hard drive, which I had to do because while I was settling into the Stevie Nicks concert on Saturday night, my camera informed me that I was out of memory on my SD card. I KNOW! That was an emergency of epic proportions! There is no visible monitoring of space on the SD card that I can find in my camera, so… there I sat at the concert deleting videos from two years ago, hoping that I had already copied them somewhere, while the legend of Stevie Nicks sang. BUT WHAT WAS I GOING TO DO, WAIT UNTIL BILLY JOEL TOOK THE STAGE? Of course not!

Anyway, so last night, I had finished clearing the SD card and I looked down at my keyboard and spied a solitary cat hair in the crack peeking out from under one of the keys. I tried to reach it with my fingers, but it defied me, so I ran into the master bathroom and grabbed my tweezers and a couple Q-TIPS, just in case. I got back and gripped that solitary cat hair and pulled it out, and wouldn’t you know, a kitten came up with it, but left its tail behind. Aghast, I ran and grabbed an unused, subpar dental tool from the master bathroom, came back and slid that tool under the line of keys on the keyboard and was even more aghast (yet, also, more than a bit intrigued, kind of like watching the Dr. Pimple Popper show) to discover even more cat fur AND, apparently, bits of snacks and crumbs in there. WHAT IN THE WORLD?

I proceeded to slide the dental tool through a few more times, loosening all manner of items and moving them to the end of the keyboard where I was able to pull them out. Every time I thought I was done, I discovered more, because there are 105 keys on this keyboard, which means there are 105 different places cat fur and crumbs can hide. That is 73 more places than in a human adult mouth!

Then I got the idea to stand the keyboard up on end, which revealed even more stuff in there and a suspicious rattling noise that required further investigation. Because, what if there was a monkey with cymbals hiding in there, waiting to wake me up at 2 in the morning?

I glanced at the clock and realized it was already 1:30 in the morning, and I had been at this project now for 2 1/2 hours, and what was I thinking? The keyboard and all its secrets will still be there tomorrow… well, later today. Then, as I set the keyboard down, the tool I had wedged in there popped off one of the keys and I was delighted! LOOK AT HOW EASY IT IS TO CLEAN THIS NOW!! I popped 4 of the other keys off, cleaned underneath and inside of them, and then realized it was 2 in the morning, so I was safe from any cymbal crashing monkeys!

I turned off all the lights and crawled into bed and then I couldn’t sleep because my mind, in its overly-tired state, wanted to find something to worry about, either in the past or future. Because everyone knows the best time to make amends or decisions is at 2:15 AM! Then I got cold, so I rearranged my blankets for better warmth. After I snuggled in, I had to get back up to go to the bathroom. Once I got back in bed, I discovered a lump in my bedding, and I had to rearrange my bed covers again. Then I thought about an Item I used to carry in my purse, but no longer do, but couldn’t remember where I keep it now. So I got back up and I searched it down, found it, and sighed in relief.

I finally settled and fell asleep, and woke up 4 hours later, before my alarm went off, shaky and tired. Good grief.

The first thing I did this morning was to look online at keyboard cleaning vacuums (yes, such a thing does exist) and thought, no, I am not ordering a $30 miniature vacuum for my keyboard. But I can see that if I had thought about that at 2 AM, I might have. Hmph. If you think the time change affects kids in a rough way, you ought to see what it does to adults who stay up past their bedtime.

But, when I get done with this new project, I WILL HAVE A VERY CLEAN KEYBOARD!

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Filed under I Worry A lot, Sometimes I Sleep, Time Consumers

March 10, 2024 · 12:10 pm

Concert… Billy Joel/Stevie Nicks

We were given tickets about three weeks ago to attend the Billy Joel/Stevie Nicks concert that occurred last night. In preparation for the concert, I’ve been listening to music from both of them and delving into their biographies. Doesn’t everyone do that?? I came to realize that I have long enjoyed Billy Joel’s music, but really didn’t know much at all about Stevie Nicks, but knew a few of her songs. With that research done, I felt comfortable attending and observing. Yay – homework done!

Stevie Nicks performed first. She would introduce a song, a little history first, sing, and then disarmingly would say, “I need to go find another cape!” or “I need to go get another shawl!” and then disappear for a minute, come back onstage with a different shawl,and tell us about the shawl/cape she had changed into as part of her introduction to the next song she was planning to sing. It was rather like watching a show-and-tell or a child playing dress-up. She displayed warmth and delight in her sharing, and it was completely charming to me.

Billy Joel appeared on stage with little to no fanfare, and the audience went wild. Obviously, he was the fanfare, and had no need for a dramatic entrance. He, too, talked between songs and while I knew most of the script (I had watched some of his concert performances online), he did ad lib a little bit. His self-deprecating humor was endearing and witty. There also seemed to be a humility about him, as he shared the spotlight easily with others, and seemed as comfortable with playing the piano while someone else sang, as he did singing as the front man (piano man).

Of course, one of my favorite things to watch is the tear down, as it is marvelous to watch how expediently a giant venue can be transformed into a blank slate again, and we had opportunity to do that while we waited for everyone to depart the stadium. (You will never find us rushing to stand in the aisles with a bunch of butts in front of us.) When we finally arrived in the parking lot and departed, I beheld the Husband’s gift exploring alternative, lesser known routes out of a venue, and we were on the road home in short order. Given the lateness of the concert ending, I was extremely grateful for his gift, as that meant I was home and in my bed much sooner!

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Filed under Our Kid is Cute