Sticky Key Syndrome

What happens when your affectionate cat walks across your laptop keyboard, and then sits down on the control key to be petted? It freezes your keyboard!! That is the vital information I discovered today when I took my laptop to the doctor.

For the past two days I haven't been able to do anything on my computer that requires the use of the keyboard. It all started while I was working on an Excel spreadsheet. As I moved some data around, Licorice decided to jump onto my lap for a little visit. I scooted her off the keyboard, but she sat down on the left-hand edge and gave me a little meow. I gave her chin a little scratch, patted her down, and sent her on her way. When I returned to my work, nothing worked right. My mouse wouldn't scroll (it just increased and decreased the size of everything), alpha-numeric keys didn't work, and the control and alt keys in combination with other keys did crazy things.

I couldn't even go on line for help because I couldn't type anything. Today, knowing I couldn't write on my blog site, I thought I would try something on Microsoft Word. Maybe that would work. It didn't, but at least I got a message from Bill Gates. It said my control key was depressed. Well, I was getting depressed too, not to mention that after two days I was beginning to suffer from withdrawals.

So, off to town I went this morning. I got my hair trimmed, bought some all-juice Popsicles as a treat for a granddaughter who will be spending the night with me, bought a toy for Licorice, and visited the 'puter doc. The nice young man at Staples knew exactly what to do. He hollered back to another techie, "How do you fix Sticky Key Syndrome?"

"Push the control key five times, or restart the computer."

This is what the Staple's tech told me. When someone (Licorice) either pushes down the control key five times in a row, or holds it down for an extended period, the keyboard is frozen. Now I know what happened and how to fix it. What I don't know is what in the world Sticky Key is used for.

I will now digress.

My entire family, and most of Washington State as well, is geared up for the Seattle Seahawk-New Orleans Saints playoff game tomorrow afternoon. The wind will blow and gust, the rain will pour, and the 12th man (crowd) will roar through it all. Our family will cheer right along with them. Go Hawks.

Have a great weekend.

Jan and Licorice, who is napping. She has absolutely no sense of guilt over her control issue