Today we mourn the passing of an old friend.
A very rare sight: the accented letters of the Hungarian alphabet, in front of the palm trees of the Canary Islands. A result of a 3000 miles journey.
With this picture I would like to remember my best friend, my most reliable workmate, the sleek, curvy black panther tirelessly working with me during the past eight years. After trying many other keyboards he was the one who proved himself as the ideal workmate, the perfect match and the true companion.
He survived numerous coffee spills, cat hair floods and showers of bread crumbs. Thanks to his ergonomic design the constant pain in my wrist joint I was suffering from during the first years working with inferior keyboards as a freelance Hungarian translator, had totally gone away.
Without this gentlemen - or, looking at those attractive curvatures, perhaps I should rather call her a lady - I wouldn't be here with my family, so close to those palm trees, beautiful beaches and all the miracle Tenerife offers us all year round.
Two years ago, due to a coffee spill and the resulting circuit board damage, button 7 became a loose cannon, often trying my nerves. However, I remained patient and loyal to my old friend. Instead of simply just replacing her, I opted to learn the ASCII code for that character, and in her last months, as her health degraded, for several more keys.
Until that point there is really nothing I can tell about the years we spent together. She just worked. She was there. Each and every time. When I needed her, she was doing her work silently. I think this is what you expect from a tool, to do her job and not do any headache. But at a certain point your realize that your tool somehow became your friend.
Looks like we evaluate our friends only when we already lost or are about to lose them. Let this be a lesson for me that life is short and friends should be valued while we still can. I regret that you had to pay the ultimate price to make me learn this lesson.
One day every good thing comes to an end. On that very morning I woke up just to realize that the pain she felt became too much for her to bear.
Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 3000, S/N 03532000350678, product ID Nr. 03532-545-3506786-01136, I will never forget you.
Let this cheesy, over-filtered caption image be your tombstone until the end of days.
Please support me buying a new keyboard,
and I will promise that I will reduce my coffee consumption.
(Or at least I will not drink it in the vicinity of anything running on electricity)