Of Mice and Dice

I was in the hotel when my mouse died. It began with an intermittent inability to move the cursor on my laptop screen and gradually degraded to gnerate double clicks only if when thrown against wall. At home, I have a back-up mouse. On the road, my dexterity is challenged by a trackpad. The latter device mandates, at least in my case, coordinated action from my right (move the cursor) and left (click or doubleclick) thumbs. Worse, obscure software, buried in the voluminous bowels of the Windows™ Operating System, is easily confused: I often found myself in ‘click and drag’ mode.

Fortunately, it was a quick trip. Back home, I used my wireless with carefree abandon, forgetting for the moment that I had another trip scheduled.

Because the mouseless experience had been so devastating and difficult, I was prepared when I landed in Frankfurt. I stopped at the electronics shop and purchased a wireless mouse.

Installation was simple and trouble free. But… the left click didn’t work. The cursor moved, the right click functioned, but the left click was dead. I eventually discovered a workaround: If I double (left) clicked (with vigor), I generated a single left click – and a lot of noise. After a bit of practice, I got the ‘hang’, actually the ‘throw’, of it.

All was right in the world. And then the iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii key began to stick.

The photo is from Valentine Day.