Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Being Brought To You By the Letter "A"

I have always prided myself on my ability to type.  Typing  85 cwpm is pretty good, and I have done that with no problems.  That is 85 correct words per minute for those who never had the pleasure of taking a typing class.  Typing class was always my favorite class.  My favorite birthday present was my first Underwood Portable typewriter.  I learned how to clean the keys, change the ribbon, use carbon paper correctly...I loved my little typewriter.  Of course, now it is called Keyboarding rather than typing.  I remember the first keyboard to my first computer.  I used it so much that I wore the letters off the keys. Mac was going to do a bit of maintenance on my computer and he noticed that where once letters had been on most of the keys (q, z, and u were still mostly there) there were only smudges.  He asked me how I knew which letters were which.   I explained that after we had learned the home row keys in Mrs. Campbell's typing class we had to cover the keys with little caps that totally hid the letters.  It was so that you could look at the work you intended to type without looking at the keys on the typewriter.  I don't know if the piano lessons I had taken since 4th grade had helped, but I suspect it did.  You could not read music and look at the keys of the piano at the same time, so it was the same theory.  My fingers still fly over the keyboard these days, despite arthritis, and I still wear the paint off the keyboard.  Mac, who uses the old standby "hunt and peck" two finger method, doesn't quite understand it. 

The other day as I was typing my article, the letter A came completely off the board. I couldn't believe it at first, it hit me right in the middle of a paragraph that something was wrong...I happened to look down to where once there was a small square piece of plastic with the remains of the letter A,  to see a little white nub staring back at me.    It only took me a few minutes to find the errant piece of plastic and I worked for over an hour trying to get it to stay on point.  No luck.  I thought about glue but was afraid that I would ruin the function, so decided against it.  So here I sit, typing yet another article wondering how often  the letter A could become a problem?  Looking over this piece of work I see that the Letter A could become a thorn in my side if not a pain in my little finger, left hand.

20 comments:

Maggie May said...

How I envy you people who can touch type. I only use 2 fingers on each hand and have to look at the keys or I go horribly wrong, so I'd be useless on your keyboard with invisible lettering. My mind can't quite get round as to how the letters could wear off!
It is a pity that it was an *A* that fell off completely. An *E* would have been worse but maybe a *Q* would have been less trouble.
Maybe you need a new keyboard?

Thanks for your prayers. Much appreciated.
Maggie x

Nuts in May

Pondside said...

Why does this happen? After reading your post I had to look at my keyboard, and sure enough, the letter 'n' is nearly worn off. Could that be because there are four 'n's' in my name?

Hilary said...

Wow.. you do some serious typing. I always feared that I would be left behind in the computer world because I'd never learned to type. We we got our first computer (1989), we also picked up a Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing disc and I learned the basics in just a few hours. Speed and comfort picked up from there. I have never worn out a key though. :)

Vee said...

Every time John uses the PC , he wants to know where N and M are. "Side by side" I call to him. He says, "Right, but which is which?" "You'll figure it out" I holler.

Oh well, I suppose that between the two of us, we could spring for a keyboard for one of us. I hear that they're really inexpensive. ;D

Eighty-five correct words a minute? That IS impressive!

Helen Devries said...

Eighty five correct words a minute...I'm stunned!

Carver said...

Oh no. I think I have it bad with the letters on my keyboard fading away but getting hit by an errant letter is the worse.

Jeni said...

I took typing too in high school and learned touch-typing. I was a whiz in the speed department -timed tests and I would be up there as high as 95-100 wpm. WOW. And then they would deduct for the errors and my speed would drop down considerably to about 60-65 wpm. Respectable speed yes, but accuracy is really very important too. (I was the typing teacher;s nemesis, in case your wondering but she and I are good friends now.) Once I started using computers though -and of course, keyboards -my typing improved to 75-78 cwpm. (Probably because on a keyboard you can also backspace and also, it helped that I worked for several years doing keypunch on the old type machines and had very good speed there. At least, when you clean your keyboard (or Mac does) you didn't do what a guy I worked with about 20 years back did. Something had apparently been spilled or it was extra dusty but his keyboard needed cleaning and he asked our supervisor how to go about doing that. Our supervisor -a wise cracker much of the time -told him to just take it and wash it down never thinking the other guy would do what he did. He took it to the breakroom/kitchen and put it in the sinks and scrubbed it then in the sink full of water! No, it didn't help it to operate better even though it was now "Clean"!

Merisi said...

Impressive, I never managed to hammer away a whole letter, even though I touch-type, and very fast at that (I made second place in a State-wide competition when I was 16 or so).

I lost a few letter, the cause of which still makes my children laugh themselves silly: I had spilled my tea over the keyboard and thought it was a clever idea to suck the liquid up with the vacuum cleaner. Oh well, off came whole rows of letters! ;-)

Sally said...

Aww, so glad you haven't lost the touch. Unfortunately, even though at one time (and yes I took a typing class in HS, my teacher was Mrs Anderson, funny how I can remember her name after 52 years) I could type really fast. The problem I'm finding with this computer keyboard is that it doesn't seem to be the same. Or, perhaps it's because I tend to type at night with the lights out. Oh yeah, that's it. :)

xoxo

Anonymous said...

I was so glad to have taken typing way back in the olden days :) in high school and like you, my fingers can fly over the keyboard. It irks the heck out of Bobby G. when I type and look at him, involved in a conversation, at the same time. While I haven't actually lost any keys, some of my keys on the desk top have no letters on them. Sandi, your post are always so humorous and fun to read. I just love them. Bobby G. had his 4th infusion last Tuesday and is so so much better now. Hope Mac and you are doing well. xoxo P.S. I was and still am a terrible typist! :)

Justabeachkat said...

I remember taking typing lessons too. Haven't thought about that in quite some time. Anyway, I never dreamed at that time how much it would come in handy. I'm not sure how fast I type, but it's pretty quick. Too quick sometimes :-)

So happy to be back blogging again.

Big hugs,
Kat

Anonymous said...
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Lee said...

I remember typing classes too. I wasn't very fast...could never do better than 35 at the time. Piano lessons in college improved that some. So did instant messaging. I now type 45 or 55 depending on how fast I try to go. Seems the slower I go the better my error free speed is.

I bet you have a new keyboard by now. What brand did you get? I like Logitech for their feel and additional features.

Love,
Lee

ancient one said...

I learned to type in HS also... One of my favorite classes...Haven't lost any keys yet though.. LOL

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Suldog said...

I'm a two fingers (and an occasional thumb) on each hand typist. Still, I'm pretty fast and mostly correct. I'd say it's time to invest a new keyboard, speedy!

SandyCarlson said...

You brought back some good memories of the very physical business of typing. I used to love it even though it was very frustrating!

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