cONFESSIONS OF A (ONCE) GREAT TYPIST

I'll start with a little background so you will have some idea of what I'm trying to write in this post. About 5 or 6 years ago, I broke my right elbow.  It was not a bad fracture, and not displaced, just painful, as you can probably imagine if you've ever whacked your "funny bone." ( If you haven't whacked or broken it, my advice is DON'T!)  The elbow did a good job of healing - at least the Dr. and I thought so, until a few months later, I started to feel and hear some grating in my arm whenever I used it (yes, I'm right-handed...I used that arm a lot!).  The Dr. and I both felt that he should probably scope my elbow and see what he could do about trimming the bone edge before it sliced through a tendon or some such, so I took a couple of days from my job and had the surgery done. Unfortunately, when I awoke from the surgery I could no longer use my right hand.  The radial motor nerve to my wrist and hand had been severed, and I almost completely lost the use of them both.  What followed over the next few months were a series of "tendon transfers" to give me back some partial use of my hand.  I used to play the piano, was an excellent typist, and played other instruments that required the dexterity of both hands, but particularly my right, as that was the dominant hand; I could no longer do any of those, at least not well.

The hardest part for me, from an emotional standpoint, has been giving up the piano - I love playing and used it a great deal in my sosng-writing.  But from the standpoint of job usage (the real money kind!) muy typing is what sufgered most.  If you wonder sometimes why it takes me so long between posts, most of it is because I dread the idea of sitting down after writing to read through and corret the countless mistakes that have been made by my very awkward use of left hand, plus one roight finger.  As you can tell, the results can sometimes be quite humorous, but I stress that it is not very funny to me at the time, particularly since I hate to read what I write after it has sailed the stream of my consciousness...I write in the first place to clear my head of all that nonsense...why read it anonly toa bsorb it again?

Now I can hear you saying "Get yourself one of those speech translating pieces of software so all you have to do is dictate into ta microphone.  The computer will then record it for you!"  Well, folks, I have tried it, and yes it does work to a degree, but it is also etremely frustrating!  For one thing, it requires me to think, which of course, is generally anathema to me.  For another, I still have to go back and read it because i have to make sure it has been transcribed correctly, or to see if I've missed dictating some punctuation, etc.  What a poain! I am greatful for spell check, which will do the red squiggle underline on the misspellings, but it doesn't highlight usage and syntax erors - I suggest blue squiggles for them, as that is the color the air turns when I find I have to make another correction, or perhaps a rewrite! *SigH*

I have always been one for pointing out the errors of other people's typing an grammar ways...in my nature to be a corrector.  Never want to hear it myself, but HEY!  I don't usually have to!  Whioch means of course that  am either perfect (in that respect) or close enough that  people would be too afraid to point it out to me...I guess i can be pretty intimidating! Grrrrrr.....  While I realize that many would see that trait as a weakness, it is har for me to get away from the thought that "I'm only trying to help!"  Uh-huh! Tell it to the Marines!

So now you know the real truth about my keyboarding ways...I no longer have any - effective ones that is.  To give you an idea of the LABORIOUS task it is to post a blog entry, I have left all but the firt paragraph just as written.  I'm not even sure I could decipher it, but if you can, more' the pity, beause it's really not a very good one, (I being the best ccritic of my own work!).  THE THING ABOUT KEYBOARDING THAT BOTHERS ME THE MOST THESE DAYS IS HOW i CAN ACIDENTALLY HIT THE CAPS LOCK AND NOT KNOW IT UNTIL i'M DONE...DRIVES ME CRAZY!  bUT THAT'S A STORY FOR ANOTHER TIME...IF YOU ARE UNLUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE ME TELL IT!

nOW, don't you feel sorry for poor pitiful mne?  Better not - one thing I hate as much as correction is pity! aND ISN'T THIS A CLEVER WAY i'VE AVOIDED EXTRA WORK? It's a waste of time, so I think I'll close by saying that for me, FOR TODAY, this is also

enough...