I was on my computer, not doing much of anything other than avoiding the one thing I know I need to be doing. Writing my blog post for this week.
I finally, and
reluctantly, open Word and stare at the blank page. Nothing is coming.
One way to stimulate the
Muse is to do a stream of thought so I put my hands on the keys to start
typing, something, anything.
I press the keys but
nothing happens.
Where is the cursor?
I don’t know but the
mouse should be able to get it in the correct place.
I move my finger over the
mouse pad. No response. Usually, this means it’s somewhere off-screen and it
takes a minute or so for it to track on screen.
I do crazy-eights on the
mouse pad. Nothing.
I decide to close Word
and see if that helps.
Do you know how to close,
well any open app in Windows without clicking the X in the upper corner?
Because I sure don’t.
Alright. The escape
button should help. Still no response.
Okay, then
Ctrl+Alt+Delete.
That did something.
It went to the screen
with options to open the task manager. Now I have temporarily lost my mouse
before and getting this screen up usually does the trick. I navigate that
screen and go back to where I was only now I have the mouse back.
Normally.
This time. I get the screen.
Where is my mouse!?
I still don’t know how to
click on something without a mouse?
After several attempts on
my part, and without even being sure what worked, I get it back to my screen.
This time I tried the Window’s button.
I pulled the start screen
right up. However, still no mouse.
I still don’t know how to
navigate without a mouse? Oh, I also have a complete lack of knowledge of
command codes.
Ah! Arrow keys.
Okay, those work but how
do you get the mouse to go one column to the left to get the shutdown button.
At this point, I’m
getting rather frustrated. Then I remembered Royce, my resident tech guru,
often uses Google to find out how to fix problems.
One suggestion was
Ctrl+Alt+Delete. We already knew that wouldn’t work. So I tried the other suggestion.
There was no response.
Okay. Call in the big
guns.
I text Royce, hoping he’s
awake.
While waiting for a
response, I decided to try everything again, including closing my laptop for a
few minutes. Not that it was helping any.
I still could not shut it
down or reset it.
Lightbulb moment.
Disconnect the power source and it’ll shut off.
I close the lid, unplug
it, and flip it over to release the battery.
Problem.
There is no visible way
to take the battery out.
Okay, fine! Be that way!
I pick up the phone again
and this time call Royce.
He answers with a groggy,
“What?”
I explain the issue to
him twice. I think the first time he just wasn’t awake enough to understand
what I was saying. He eventually arrives in my room, takes my computer from me,
taps on the keys for a moment or two then turns it back to me.
My computer was already
shutting down.
“How did you do that?”
“Arrow and Tab keys.”
I had known to use the
arrow keys in the start menu, but it never occurred to me that the Tab key
could get over to the shutdown key.
Okay, it shut down, but
did it fix the problem?
Royce wants to go back to
bed but I convince him to stay long enough to see if the shutdown was enough to
reset it.
He agrees and I turn my
computer back on.
It boots back up the log-in
screen and at first, it looked no different, including no visible mouse. I’m
about ready to tell Royce it didn’t work when my mouse finally showed back up.
Whew! That worked.
It’s working again but
it’s already late enough I should be in bed, especially since I haven’t written
my post yet and will have to get up early to get it done. There wasn’t much
point in trying tonight since I’m, as usual, fresh out of ideas.
I start to close things.
Oh! Oh! Oh!
I open Word and start
furiously typing.
Apparently, a minor catastrophe
works great to stimulate your Muse.
Maybe now I’ll be able to
put some concentration into my school work. I have roughly a couple hundred
pages to read before Saturday.
Smile. Make the day a
brighter day.
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