Ew! My keyboard is disgusting!

I sat down to post and made the mistake of looking at my keyboard. With my new glasses I can now see every speck of dirt and debris on every key. Ewwwww! It is soooo gross. I don't even really eat at my keyboard and it's still disgusting. It's dusty and there are little crusty spots on some of the keys. I can only imagine what germs I'm infesting myself with every day. But then, they are my germs, so maybe it's not so bad. I really need to take every key off and clean this thing thoroughly. I could just go get a brand new keyboard from my supply closet and avoid the ordeal of cleaning this one, but there's a problem. This keyboard is special. It is a wave keyboard, for one thing, and it has a touchpad in the keyboard, for another.

I love this keyboard. Most keyboards with touchpads - well every one except this one - have the touchpad in the middle under where your two thumbs go, like laptops. I hate that location. It's too easy to accidentally hit the touchpad with your palm or your thumbs. This keyboard has the touchpad under the arrow keys. It's the perfect spot. I scoured the internet for every keyboard with a touchpad that was available and none of them had the touchpad in this location. My keys were wearing out - the letters were worn off of at least half the keys - and I needed a replacement. So, I contacted Cirque, the makers of this keyboard, to see if I could get another one. They had 2 left in stock - that was it. They were no longer making this keyboard. So, I did the logical thing and ordered both of them. I put one of the new ones in place of my existing keyboard and was dismayed to find that they had changed the texture of the touchpad on the new keyboards so it wasn't as slick and didn't seem to be as responsive as my old keyboard. So I took all the old keys off my old keyboard, took all the new keys off the new keyboard, and switched them. Voila! My keyboard had great new keys and my old favorite touchpad. I just hope the touchpad doesn't wear out. Anyway, it's been a while since I did that, and now that I can see, I see that it's time to clean the keys. How do the sides of keys, the part you don't ever touch, get so dirty? It's mind boggling.

Guess I'd better start pulling keys off.....