Every Silver Lining Has A Cloud
By Jerry Hobbs
Optometrists say every cloud has a silver lining. Or maybe that’s ‘optimists’. The literal meaning, regardless of who says it, is still obscure. At least to me. Is it meant to indicate a silver fringe around a lone cloud due to the sun shining from above? In that case, wouldn’t the lining be gold or ‘yellowish-orange’ rather than silver? Of course, the saying was coined back when silver was actually used in some coins, so maybe it has something to do with dimes and quarters rather than common cents.
(*Please forgive that last sentence. Sometimes I just cannot help myself.)
So who cares about the literal explanation, anyway? It’s the moralistic meaning (as in the moral of a story, or should that be morale of a story?) that’s important. I think the bottom line means we should try to find something good in whatever bad things might happen to us. At least, I think that’s what it means. It’s hard to tell with some of those old time sayings. For example, "A stitch in time saves nine," yet, "Don’t cross the bridge until you come to it"? The first, of course, tells us to prepare for the future while the second conversely says we should wait for an event to occur before taking action. But back to the theme of this blog, i.e. finding good things in bad.
Since a stroke several years ago, my writing has been divided between periods of "go for it" and "this is really a pain." The "pain" phase is when my hand seems to take on a mind of its own, which may be a good thing when playing Texas Hold’em poker, but causes havoc while trying to use a word processor. The misspelled words that occur from the sudden movements are only minor annoyances, compared to what happens when a combination of keys end up getting pressed and create unexpected results. This happens for almost every line that’s typed when the sporadic movements are at their worst.
We’re talking some major, really weird things. Like when a window suddenly appears asking where I want to save the file currently being updated, or whether I want to maximize, minimize or restore the screen. Then there are the windows that pop up asking if I really want to delete my entire hard drive. Or the one recently that said to click "YES" for overnight delivery of a shipment of pigs to my living room since they’d already been charged to my credit card. Or to click "NO" to have them delivered to my next door neighbor.
I realize the computer’s software that’s designed to control several functions by pressing multiple keys on the keyboard at the same time is supposed to be a timesaving feature to enhance operation, though it still seems easier to use a $10 mouse with one hand rather than to require both hands on a $30 keyboard to do the same thing.
When the latter is performed unnoticed and at random times, it tends to affect a person’s concentration after spending twenty minutes typing an exciting scenario about how the hero saved the damsel in distress, only to glance up at the screen and see a window asking how many rows and columns you want in the table you requested. And, of course, the entire, fantastic rescue segment you just typed was lost in the wind.
Things like that also happen while browsing the Internet when entering search parameters or using FIND to locate a word or phrase within a web site. Tool bars move around or disappear completely, screen size changes and sometimes turn completely upside down. (Okay, that last hasn’t actually happened – yet.)
So where’s the silver lining? Or even the gold or yellowish-orange one I spoke of earlier? That stroke of good fortune came to my browser one day when I pressed a strange combination of keys that caused the screen to display the web site without any tool bars at all or even the X in the upper right corner. The first time that happened, I almost panicked, but then realized there was a method to the madness when by accident I learned how the proximity of the mouse brought necessary elements into temporary view. When I noticed that, I decided it was a good thing.
My monitor isn’t very large anyway, and the entire screen displayed only the web site data without all the other stuff. I liked it. Of course, I also realized it was only a matter of time before inadvertently pressing a combination of keys would return the screen back to its original crowded display. And that did happen. Unfortunately, since I have absolutely no idea of the combination of keys pressed in either case, there’s no way for me to control whichever display mode I want. I guess you could say this is a case where "Every silver lining has cloud." But not to worry, the odds are good the right combination of keys will be repeated and it’ll eventually return. Maybe at the next twitchy cycle my hand experiences.
Oops, gotta go. Just hit some keys and a screen came up telling me I had entered the voice recognition program. That one causes all sorts of problems and usually requires a reboot to correct.
Incidentally, all the windows mentioned above have popped up multiple times while typing this, along with one that just asked if I wanted my data automatically formatted(?). Of course the ones about deleting my hard drive and the pigs may have been slightly exaggerated.
Hey, a writer is entitled to show a little imagination, now and then.