Bewildered

I didn’t go out this morning to take any new photos – so I’ll use a few from earlier in the week. There are a number of chores to get done today because, at the risk of repeating myself, there is a big storm coming tonight and tomorrow. The winds are forecast to be high enough that the power could be a bit sketchy (I won’t even mention the snow, cold temps, and windchill).

Although I brought in plenty of firewood yesterday, I think I’ll top up the racks anyway. I should also make some bread and ensure there’s nothing loose outside which could fly around the neighbourhood.

I’m sure somewhere it is written that if you ever stop being surprised you should just give up on this life. Yesterday I was confronted with two mysteries guaranteeing that my world has not yet achieved that dreaded state of boredom.

The first occurred when I went out to get the aforementioned firewood. I knew there was some ice outside and (intelligently I felt) decided to wear my ice cleats for the first time this winter. I grabbed one of them off the shelf but couldn’t get my foot in the boot. Reaching inside I found a dog cookie … and then another, and another. The boot (and its companion) was stuffed to the toe with dog cookies. None of the animals did this. I have my suspicions but, certainly at the time, confused is the best way to describe my reaction.

The second time I was confounded was during a Twitter messaging conversation with my friend Ahuva. My keyboard suddenly started making weird sounds when I hit the keys, wouldn’t let me type any faster than slow motion, and refused to produce doubled letters (e.g., the word “keep” would appear as “kep”).

This took me quite a bit of time to solve. I was pretty sure I knew who had done it – the kitten. Ciaran had been chasing goldfish earlier on my screen using one of the Youtube cat games. I’m used to him hitting function keys so I kept punching them hoping my keyboard would go back to normal. It didn’t. Google to the rescue.

It turns out that if, as he apparently did, you hold down the right shift key for 8 seconds you have invoked the “filter key”. This is designed as an ability aid to assist those with difficulty typing and helps them avoid making unintended keystrokes. The little darling. I had to go into settings to turn it off. It was extremely frustrating and as much as I support these aids – typing is the one thing my hands will do. I don’t need this particular help.

I’ll share another recent surprise, one from this morning. When I was doing “post production” on these images I discovered that I had captured a tiny little bird’s nest in the midst of some frozen twigs and branches. I hope that family is in a much warmer place than this household. 🙂