I have written about field mice hiding from wildfires, about mice winning and losing attacks from raptors, and about what a mouse (or rat) can do aboard a boat. But never have I told a story about a computer mouse … or two. So, pop a cold one and read on.
I’m a writer, and I need my computer mouse to pull its share of the workload. Recently, mine began costing me considerable time by misbehaving.
I would move the mouse and cursor activity onscreen would be delayed and show jerky movements. Trying to highlight text that spanned lines was frustrating because the mouse would forget where it was. I felt kinda like a framer with a hammer that couldn’t hit a nail square on.
I called my friend Ron who is an IT guru and he came to lay hands on my PC. After some much-needed upgrades, cleaning and fine-tuning I got it back. I did the required restart and gave it a try. My mouse was still sad and misbehaving. I was sad, too, and felt like misbehaving, but I managed to maintain my adulthood and sobriety.
Ron is a wise man and he left me a loaner mouse and keyboard just in case. So, I grabbed his mouse to test it. I have plenty of USB ports on this PC, so I plugged his into another port. I gave it a try and Ron’s mouse worked well. Okay, I figured that meant it was a problem with my mouse.
My mouse was sitting right there, and its dongle was still plugged in, so I moved it around to see what would happen. Now my mouse was working fine. Hmmm … was it just lonesome?
Next, I unplugged Ron’s mouse and my mouse immediately began misbehaving again. I went through the process twice with the same results.
I plugged Ron’s mouse back in and sent him an e-mail explaining the situation; telling him I was going to have to rent his mouse long-term to keep my mouse company. I don’t mind a strange workaround, as long as it is an effective workaround.
That situation is what I still have, as I write you this story. These two mouses (doesn’t seem right to call them “mice”) are co-existing and both work fine. Hey, I’m good with it. But I suppose Ron may get to missing his mouse sooner or later.
Actually, Ron later found a release from HP about this problem potentially being caused by close proximity to electrical interference. Maybe I’ll have to move my router so the pair of “mouses” don’t have to work in tandem. On the other hand, it is all working fine right now. Think I should I fix what is working?
— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
