My own damn fault

Fortunately I was always nice and understanding when some old person would bring in their computer and monitor or whatever peripheral and they'd say 'it doesn't work' and I'd look at it and say 'did you push this button' or 'why is this plug loose, let's push it in a bit' and it would work and they'd feel dumb and I'd say 'naah, it happens to us all the time' (which it actually did.   And they'd try to pay me and I'd say 'pay us twice next time'.

The monitor I have is really nice but has the power button not really a button but just a flat place on the bottom of the monitor.  Right next to the config button where you can change the input.  Which I clearly did one night when I was turning it off.

The message I was getting was something to the effect  of "no HDMI cable" and something about powering off in five minutes.  Of course the fact that I don't use HDMI and do use Display Port (DP) is something I know well and could clearly see when I took it apart to look.  You'd think that those two anomalies would click.  But my technically calcified brain blocked the connection, so to speak.

Is all fine now.  Same cable, same monitor and they work fine when configured properly.

I now know what I already suspected - I need two monitors.  Even thinking about doing taxes without the ability to put my forms on one side and entry in front of me makes me twitchy.

I'm recovered from having four monitors but less than two is a view too far.

I've got stuff to do now.