As isolation
enters its second month the small things of existence take on more importance,
or maybe they just get noticed. I just wrote about the postal service but an
adjunct to La Poste is Amazon.fr which is the local arm of the monopoly.
As I became aware
that I was going to be here for awhile, I decided I need a 32-inch monitor for my
Dell Laptop. That set-in motion my purchase of a keyboard and a printer. My
tech support and I discussed various options. Orders were placed and then
messages came telling me the progress in time and space of my purchases.
The monitor
arrived first. I was excited as I opened the box and extracted the curved
screen 32-inch monitor. I connected it and it worked. Belle picture which meant
I did not have to lean forward to work on my computer. Less back pain as I hunt and peck my way through
my ideas.
My eye hand
coordination has never been good. I got
my only D in High School in typing. I
memorized the keyboard but my brain, eyes and fingers were only able to do 25
WPM with 5 errors, enough to get a passing grade of D. My teacher was Bill Corr. I’ll tell you more
about him later. He nominated me to be
on the Wall of Fame in the foyer of my High School, Downers Grove North. But I digress.
The
next package to arrive from Amazon was the keyboard. Again excitement. Replace
the mouse dongle with the new dongle. It is all wireless.
As
I started my hunt and peck effort to log on, I realized that something was
wrong. My log-in contains an "a." All of you reading this know that the keyboard “a” is the furthest left
on the second row of letters. On my keyboard there sat “q”. “A” was above it at
the far left on the first row. OK, I guess I can handle that.
It also contains an “m” which had been promoted to second row next to “l” and replaced on the bottom row with the “?” and the “,” below it. I’m sure I don’t need to bore you with the myriad of changes. Look on google if you want to scramble your mind.
I
called my tech and she said, “I've never been abroad so it never occurred to me
to check. I'll see what the manuals say. You
know all those people at computer companies sit around all day trying to make
it easier but, in the end, us in the field are mystified.”
Turns
out my beloved Dell’s inner workings tell the keyboard to ignore the keys
lettering and work like an American keyboard. Good luck if you are a hunt and
peck typist. So, I press Q and expect an A. Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks?
I
still haven’t found the “delete” key. But my next excitement comes on Wednesday.
Amazon brings me my French printer. What
surprises await this poor lonely isolate?
