Of Mice and Men

For those who came in late… I present, the mouse saga. Some time ago my mouse at work decided to have a conniption fit and move all over the screen on its own. Since it was a rather cheap-ish laser mouse, I assumed that the laser was dying and sensing movement when I was technically, in the bathroom. OK, no big. I’ll just call my good buddy Theodore in IT to come and replace it with a sparkly new mouse with a sparkly new laser. UM… yeah. Wanted: one optic mouse with scroll wheel. Received: one rollerball mouse without scroll wheel.

Complained after one day to Theodore. OK, so maybe I’m mouse spoiled. But really, the scroll wheel is essential to me. The one day I spent without it made me a little batty. My fingers kept reaching between the mouse buttons only to find… nothing. So I begged Theodore for a scroll wheel and after a healthy dose of teasing, he delivered. A rollerball with scroll wheel. Seems OK, except that my mouse pad is pretty much designed for optic (bought at the Globe theater in London with the quote “Though is Free” from the Tempest, end of mouse pad description). SO, rollerball doesn’t always recognize that its moving. So, flip mousepad over, use cushy side which roller ball recognizes but needs two hands to operate, one to move mouse, one to hold mousepad steady. Ugh.

Eventually I gave up and went to Target. Shelled out $7 and got an optical mouse with rollerball. But kept rollerball with scrollwheel in desk, Just In Case.

Fast forward to two days ago. I got an assignment from my Über-boss to work on a spreadsheet for the next month. No probs, in fact less probs since I could do it from home and save driving 60 miles a day. Niice. But remembered that I have a laptop at home, and the projects involves lots of mouse action. O….k. So, no extra mice at home (I know this because during the aforementioned mouse saga I tore my old computer stuff apart, but my old mouse seems to have run away to freedom). So email to mom, “can you score me an extra mouse from your overly well supplied office?” mom agrees begrudgingly. But, just to be on the safe side I grabbed the one from my desk (for those of you who are lost, the one on my desk two days ago was the $7 Target Optic scrollwheel). SO, work from home, everything is hunky dorey. Until this morning.

When I got to work, reach for the mouse to click on something, and hand scrabbles in midair. No mouse. Left it at home. BUT, still have rollerball scrollwheel hiding in desk, Just In Case. Well, Case.

So here I sit, another day of holding the mouse pad with one hand whilst moving the mouse with the other. I’d better remember my real one on Monday, that’s all I gotta say. Plus the mouse annoyance adds to other current workplace annoyances to make today something of a downer.