Last night I was staring at my
screen, trying to decide what to write, when I decided I would think better if I
got something to eat. Now, around my place, it isn’t a good idea to leave your
laptop sitting open.
Leaving it open will result in a
certain someone pictured above walking all over or lying on the keyboard. I
learned this the hard way, one too many times, when I returned to a messed-up
manuscript because of Patches. The worst time was the one where he managed to
step on the enter key several times, dividing a single-syllable word in two and
adding about ten pages to my WIP. And that was just the beginning of the mess
he made. I long since learned it takes less time to “wake up” my “sleeping”
computer than it does to fix the errors he so carelessly added to my open project.
Hence, the reason I closed my laptop
as I stepped away, it led me to taking the picture above.
Not a problem, except just minutes
before, Konnie had called me for her biweekly reminder of my post deadline. I
answered, “I’m working on it, promise.”
Since that was why she was calling, she said goodbye and hung up.
Anyway, I took the above picture and
sent it to her, saying, “Well, I was working!”
So now you know the story behind today’s
picture.
I might add that one of his favorite
resting spots is on top of my laptop. Another one is the footstool in front of
my seat on the couch. He particularly likes that spot when I remove the table
that can hook over the arm of the couch from the footstool. That is, until I
make him move so I can put the table back on the footstool and get up from the
couch.
The last time I was working in the
living room with my laptop, he actually growled at me about the sixth or
seventh time I made him move so I could get up from the couch.
Well, I did keep interrupting his nap,
but I did try to tell him he should know better, since I can’t get up with that
table in front of me on the couch, and the table is always on the footstool when
not in use.
He was majorly not pleased with me
for several days after that, so last night, I didn’t try to move him. He could
have his nap; I could work later.
I’m not sure Konnie has to deal with
problems like that, since she has dogs and only one of them is small enough to
be considered in the same size range as a cat. (Please do not ask me how to
spell breed of Ivan, Konnie calls him a little yappy dog, because she can’t
spell it!)
At any rate, only one other dog in
that house could even remotely be considered a lapdog, but I doubt he could get up
on Konnie’s bed where her laptop is. That, and I’ve never heard her complain
about pets on her keyboard, while I’ve had to fight Patches off while I’m
trying to work. And occasionally I have to delay work because of, well, see
picture above.
That isn’t the first time I’ve
returned to my laptop to find him snoozing, it’s just the first time that it
happened when I had a deadline to meet! Though honestly, that isn’t hard since
my only deadline is this post every other Wednesday.
I wish I had other deadlines, but
the only one I’ve ever managed to stick to is the one for my post every other
Wednesday, and let me refer back to the point where I said Konnie called, and I
told her I was working instead of saying hello.
Yeah, I make that deadline because
of Konnie. I haven’t had anyone enforcing any other deadlines on me, unless you
count the annual NANO, but that’s where I get the most experience with fighting
Patches for my keyboard.
Of course, the only time Konnie ever
came close to doing NANO, she had her entire family fuming at her by the end of
November, and Konnie wasn’t officially enrolled; she was just on a major roll.
She still needs to finish editing
that story, but it seems like every time she does work on it, she makes major
upgrades to the storyline. That epic may take a while for her to polish up.
If you don’t know already, I am
talking about her epic sci-fi, which is a fantastic series, even with all the editing
it still needs.
Now I haven’t even gotten to the end
of writing my sci-fi, and I really need to work on that!
Anyway, happy writing, everyone!
