Keyboards and Quilts

Posted on 10/18/2015 by Andrew Reynolds

A wise man would just stop now, go put the pizza in the oven, open a bottle and move on without trying to write today.

I am not a wise man.

Today was great and I was about to sit down for a little writing session when it seemed like I’d forgotten my password. I kept typing but the Mac did that little shaky dance telling me that I’d entered the password wrong.

I tried it again, and again, and again.  Little shaky dance kept going on like it was a computer party inside the CPU.  Then my troubleshooting brain started working and I wondered if I had changed my password.  Then I got afraid that someone had hacked in and changed my password.  Then I worried that the whole computer has melted down and lost all my files, which got me thinking about when was the last time I did a backup.

Then in a flash I wondered if my keyboard was bad so I went and found my backup keyboard (yes, I have a backup keyboard).  Plugged it in and like magic the password I just typed fifty times magically works.  No little shaky dance going on anymore.

A little testing showed that typing ‘f’ on the keyboard puts the characters, ‘f0’ on the screen.

and no, ‘f’ is not part of my password, just part of the word I was thinking while trying to get things working…

What’s really frustrating is that I just bought that keyboard a month ago to replace the one I’ve had for about four years.  I’ve had it for 33 days and bang, dead.  So now I’ve got this wacky little Mac keyboard that I hate typing on and a couple of million things I want to write about.

Sigh…

Other than my keyboard deciding to die and consuming an hour of my writing time, today was a great day.  Seriously.  Heather and I spent the day out at the quilt show.  I love to see all the quilts.  I say quilts, but fabric art would be a better term, as most of the quilts there are works of art, depicting everything from abstract art, to portraits, to landscapes, to – well anything you’d see in an art gallery.

I find viewing the quilts to be inspiring.  It’s part of that whole, “breathing in” thing and part of what might be my new motto, “Put yourself in the path of inspiration.”

The other reason to go was to support Heather as one of her quilts was in the show.  This one:

Heather in front of her "British Train"

Heather in front of her “British Train”

Yup, that’s a train coming out of a tunnel.  Both Heather and I have a love for old steam trains.  We’ve ridden on them, seen them in museums, read about them and Heather remembers them from her childhood in England.  This quilt started in our kitchen where we have a train theme for the decor.  The door to the hallway off the kitchen needed some kind of a curtain and Heather thought that it would be neat to have a train coming out of the normally dark hallway.

That’s when she started her research and spent many hours looking for pictures of British Steam trains and train tunnels.  This is the final design she came up with.  The curtain is in three long strips, each pieced together with blocks of fabric and then quilted.  The effect is impressive.  I love the way the steam comes out of the top.

I just knew this one was good enough to put in the show and the selection jury agreed with me and accepted it into the show.  Sadly, the judges didn’t completely agree with me and we didn’t take home a ribbon.

Finally, I’d like to followup on my little story from last week. Yes, I’ll write more on this since a number of you are interested in knowing if Miguel and company gets that deer for the Captain.  I was thinking of writing that tonight, but this whole keyboard thing has just left poor Miguel somewhere between the ship and shore waiting for his writer to get a replacement keyboard.

Till next week,
Andrew

About Andrew Reynolds

Born in California Did the school thing studying electronics, computers, release engineering and literary criticism. I worked in the high tech world doing software release engineering and am now retired. Then I got prostate cancer. Now I am a blogger and work in my wood shop doing scroll saw work and marquetry.
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41 Responses to Keyboards and Quilts

  1. kathryningrid says:
    11/09/2015 at 8:36 am

    Sorry you and your keyboard aren’t speaking to each other lately! I get so frustrated when that stuff happens.

    So glad that you two found a perfect way to counteract the frustration. The quilt show sounds inspiring and fantastic, and WOW, Heather’s piece is magnificent. Artistry, skill, patience, and more than a little magic, all wrapped up in one. I salute her!

    Kathryn

    Like

    • Andrew Reynolds says:
      11/09/2015 at 9:17 am

      My arm is healing so I am writing a bit more. Heather is a good artist and this quilt is one of her better pieces. She just finish an oil painting that I hope to post a picture of soon.

      Like

  2. davidprosser says:
    10/30/2015 at 8:52 am

    What a very talented wife Andrew, the quilt is excellent. I’ve never heard of a keyboard fault like that before but I know realise that I’m not mad after all.
    Hugs

    Liked by 1 person

  3. floridaborne says:
    10/24/2015 at 5:22 pm

    Heather is quite gifted.

    Doesn’t it seem that the newer products just don’t hold up? The keyboard I’m using is so old it’s PS-something-or-another instead of USB. The cats spill my tea with honey all over it, my husband washes it, dries it out and it goes back to work again. No longer are the more expensive products better, either.

    Like

  4. pommepal says:
    10/22/2015 at 2:24 am

    Heather’s quilt is certainly a work of art. I think it deserved an award

    Like

  5. Baydreamer says:
    10/21/2015 at 8:37 am

    The keyboard incident is frustrating, no doubt, Andrew. We rely on technology and when something goes wrong, it tries our patience. But I have to say that Heather’s quilt is amazing! Sewing was never my forte; I didn’t follow in my mom’s footsteps, so I admire others with that talent. 🙂

    Like

  6. nimi naren says:
    10/20/2015 at 8:52 pm

    Truly beautiful quilt

    Like

  7. koehlerjoni says:
    10/19/2015 at 2:18 pm

    I love the quilt. This one looks like a serious amount of work, and beautifully done. I laughed at “shaky dance,” and the “f” term that rolled around in your brain. Shaky dances usually prompt my brain to think of an “s” that makes the “sh,” sound.

    Like

  8. aginggracefullymyass says:
    10/19/2015 at 9:55 am

    Trains, quilts and swashbuckling history… You’re a man of many interests!

    I’m not really a quilt person, but I still admire the artistic and historical design, and all of the work that Heather mush have put into “birthing” this piece of fabric art. And I love that you both enjoy doing the quilt thing as a team. You’re a keeper Andrew!

    Like

    • Andrew Reynolds says:
      10/19/2015 at 10:05 am

      Lots of things interest me. Heather work hard on the design. My part in the process was a small consulting roll. Mostly I am her color consultant. I’ve got a good eye for what colors match and helped her pick out the basic colors she used. All the rest was her.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. Carrie Rubin says:
    10/19/2015 at 8:48 am

    It’s always so frustrating to lose time to technical issues. It happens a lot, and it rarely seems to be a quick fix. But your post reminds me I should make sure I have everything backed up well. Luckily it was just your keyboard!

    Like

  10. Jacqui Murray says:
    10/19/2015 at 8:01 am

    That is one of technology’s finer qualities: It forces us-all to be problem solvers. Never, does it work right all the time.

    Like

  11. laurieanichols says:
    10/19/2015 at 7:34 am

    How beautiful! Both Heather and the quilt. 😀

    Like

  12. dorannrule says:
    10/19/2015 at 5:38 am

    Heather’s train quilt is magnificent!

    Like

  13. jfwknifton says:
    10/19/2015 at 5:00 am

    That is a really lovely quilt with a very dramatic train, Heather is very kind, though, with just how colourful a British train tunnel might be. When they cut back all the uneconomic train networks in 1965 they failed to block off most of the tunnels. They were wonderful places to play as kids, so spooky, and great for space monster games!

    Like

    • Andrew Reynolds says:
      10/19/2015 at 9:53 am

      Thanks – Heather did a great job. Yes, she took a bit of artistic license on the bricks. We talked about that when she was picking the fabrics. In the end we decided that the tunnel was new and not covered in black shoot. Also you’ll note that the smoke is a nice light color rather than thick black coal smoke.

      And Heather remembers going out “train spotting” in the 50’s.

      Like

  14. Mirja says:
    10/19/2015 at 4:02 am

    What an exciting and beautiful quilt; praise to your wife Heather.
    You will find Miguel is happily doing some fishing whilst waiting for you to get
    him ashore hunting for deer.:)

    Like

  15. JoHanna Massey says:
    10/19/2015 at 3:02 am

    Gorgeous quilt.
    Life was so much simpler when it was just pen and paper!
    Good to know I’m not the only one with a backup keyboard….and I bet you have a back up mouse too! And last week I was glad I did!
    Happy your tendinitis is quieting.

    Like

  16. kritsayvonne says:
    10/19/2015 at 1:54 am

    Sorry about your keyboard but really my comment is for Heather…Wow! That is a fab quilt and I can see how it will work in your kitchen. I had no idea that quilts could be art. X

    Like

  17. 2015chronicles says:
    10/18/2015 at 9:20 pm

    Heather is very talented. What a beautiful piece of art.

    Liked by 1 person

  18. booguloo says:
    10/18/2015 at 9:19 pm

    Too bad about the ribbon. It’s nice work. My keyboard also started acting up. As of late my keyboard finally dumped… When I looked in the mirror I could read qwerty across my forehead. TIC.. My board finally decided it had enough punishment and wouldn’t do double leters (example). But I too found my backup and here I R…smile…Now I just have to turn the computer at a certain time so I don’t break this keyboard as well

    Like

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