I go through keyboards like the Skywalker family goes through hands.
Thanks to a comedy of errors, I now have to fork out for another Apple Pro Keyboard. This time, the keyboard is less than a week old.
I was getting up from my desk when I tripped on the power cord of my iBook. This gave me my first scare because it sent the iBook crashing into my printer and my printer crashing to the floor.
As I was cursing my stupidity, picking up the printer and checking the iBook for damage, I noticed that there was water on the desk. I realised that the reason there was water on the desk was because I had, in my haste and stupidity, also knocked over a glass of water.
It was time for my next scare. I noticed that there were water droplets on my iMac’s keyboard. Remembering my last experience of spilled liquids on an Apple Pro Keyboard, I started frantically mopping up, turning the keyboard upside-down (in the process clicking some buttons that shut down the computer - probably a good thing).
I began to worry that mopping up wasn’t going to do the trick so I grabbed a hair-dryer, plugged it in and started drying the keyboard with that.
That’s when I looked around to see my empty glass on the floor and water splashed on my guitar and bouzouki. That was scare number three: the prospect of rusty strings and warped wood.
I left the hair-dryer on, close to the keyboard, so that it could continue to do its work while I took care of the instruments.
I managed to get both instruments cleaned and dried pretty easily.
That’s when I turned back to the keyboard and received my last and biggest scare:
The hair-dryer had melted some of the keys!
I had no idea that a hair-dryer could emit so much heat.
So, for now, I’m using the keyboard I had packed away with the Ruby G3 iMac. It’s a good thing that I didn’t ship it off to my mother straight away. Of course, that computer still needs a keyboard so there’s no avoiding the fact that I’ve got to cough up the cash for (yet another) new keyboard.
Mind you, I can see the funny side to all of this.