My computer monitor died last night, a sudden and flickering death. Now when I turn it on I get 2 seconds of blackness, and then a vague flash of what's on the screen, and then two seconds of blackness, repeat forever. Not long enough to see or do anything. Not long enough to register the mouse. Just enough to make me want to whack it upside the head. Jiggling wired didn't help. Unplugging the computer from it and it still flashed away, idiotically. I whacked it. It didn't help.
This morning I did calculating and fiddling with numbers and my already desperately low bank accounts, and came up with a number that was acceptable to spend on a monitor. The alternative was going crazy. Imagine you have no internet. You can't even play a game. Or write in your journal. You can sit and look at your computer being ON and working perfectly and yet you can't see what it is doing. What IS it doing? Is everything okay? Is someone on Skype trying to call me? Did my last post on Facebook work?
So off I went to OroficeMax to see what they had. It's warm today, but there are rain clouds. Indeed, I had to use windshield wipers on and off all the way into town. So I'd brought my light jacket that had in one pocket, a plastic bag with Yummy Chummies, and in the other, a can Spray Shield.
If you have heard the story of how my poor, old '89 Toyota Camry became the Fishmobile, you know why Ole's middle name is Ginsu Mouth. Ever since that particular episode, the car has smelled like kippered herring. Oh yum. (If you haven't heard it, use your imagination or search this blog.)
In my hurry to relieve my computer withdrawal, I forgot about those treats in my pocket and I left my jacket in the car while I ran into the store. I wasn't going to be gone long.
I wasn't gone long, but a mystery presented itself as soon as I opened the car door and sat in my hairy driver's seat. Wow, what's that SMELL? It smells kind of industrial! I looked at Ole, who was curled up on the back seat looking pretty darn bug-eyed. I saw the torn plastic bag sticking out of my jacket pocket. Oh! I thought, darn, I forgot about those. Well, at least he didn't eat the plastic bag, I thought, as I picked up my jacket off the floor of the car.
Wait. Why is my jacket all sopping wet? And WHAT is that smell? OLE, WHAT DID YOU GET INTO! Then I checked my jacket pockets because the smell was kind of industrial/herby and I had no clue what it was and I sure didn't want Ole to have poisoned himself...and found this:
Except MY can of Spray Shield is all FULL of holes!
Spray Shield is citronella spray, which is toxic in high amounts ingested, but since my jacket seems to have taken most of the blast, and Ole doesn't even smell like it, I am sure he's okay. But hey, way to go Ole! He scared the heck out of himself with that wild thing that went PSSSSSSSTTTTTTT!!!!! all over the place! Hah! Maybe he trained himself not to go snooping in my stuff anymore, maybe?
And I'd rather have a car that smells like citronella than kippered herring!