I hadn't even been home 5 minutes when the landline rang. Without even bothering to find out who it was I answered, "Hi. Unless this is an emergency, can you call me back in 20? I'm having an 'I Love Lucy' moment. Thanks. Bye." I hung up and went back to pulling up the keyboard of the laptop in the kitchen. In my rush to let Stella outside (she'd been in all day due to incessant rain), I'd carelessly set down my travel mug on the desk. I heard it tip, but didn't worry, knowing it was empty. When Stella and I got back to the kitchen, I smelled coffee. Evidently, for once I hadn't consumed the entire contents before Dixon and coffee the color of a brown paper bag was seeping among the letters of the keyboard. I blotted up as much as I could before popping the keyboard out and was gently shaking it to express all the liquid while trying not to yank it out by the funny tape thing that connects it to the um...whatever that is under there. From my cell phone I heard the high-pitched "Wheeeeeeeeee, huh hee hee hee!" custom ringtone I'd made from "Winona's Big Brown Beaver". That would be "Ricky" calling and it's technically his computer. Keyboard dangling from my hand, I looked at Stella. "I'm not answering that." I said. She looked up at me and her expression said, in Ethel Mertz's voice, "Now, Lucy..." I answered. "Hey," he said, "I'm just leaving work. Do you want me to get anything on the way?" Sweet! That gave me at least 30 minutes to clean up and test the computer.
Sure enough, it still worked. This is the computer that has been dropped or slammed in or into something. It's been to more places than I have, including Burning Man where someone wrote a good portion of his MA thesis on it. Its case is bent and even before today's mishap you had to jiggle the screen back and forth to get the whole screen visible. But after the coffee infusion the jiggling is no longer necessary. LaLaLa. Lucy was never this lucky!
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