With Tears in my Eyes

(C)With tears in my eyes, dear, I begged you to (F)stay

You couldn't for(G7)give me, so you went a-(C)way

I made a mistake, dear, by tellin' you (F)lies

Now I lay a(G7)wake, dear, with tears in my (C)eyes

 This is not a paean to Hank Williams—though that would make me extremely popular in this household.

It is a paean to this rather grubby looking object. It has been quite a while since I got this laptop, and as I fumbled around with the trackpad, using one, two or three fingers and getting totally confused, I realized that I could connect this old mouse and achieve my goal much more efficiently, "Just for the time being . . . I'll switch soon." Weeks became years and I never got around to it.

The other day I put the mouse in a bag together with the laptop to take it so my contacts could be transferred to our new iPhones (and that is all a topic for another post. Or two) and must have dislodged the little ball-thingy. Anyway, the mouse no longer works and I have been forced into using the trackpad. That explains the tears in my eyes. It is a nightmare. I think it took me about two hours to post my last entry. It is not only hard to achieve what I want to achieve, it is difficult not to perform some functions I most certainly do not want to achieve. I know it will get easier (won't it?) I will stop automatically reaching for this small, grey object. I will no longer look like a dork when I take my laptop out in public. Though I will look like a dork as I perform digital gymnastics.

By coincidence, an article appeared in today's Wall Street Journal which indicates there is a different solution:

 A race to liberate computer users from the mouse is kicking into high gear, inspired by the potential of turning hands and other body parts into digital controllers. 

The goal: to manage computers and other devices with gestures rather than pointing and clicking a mouse or touching a display directly. Backers believe that the approach can make it not only easier to carry out many existing chores but also take on trickier tasks such as creating 3-D models, verifying whether clothes fit, training athletes and browsing medical imagery during surgery without touching anything.

Until then, I have a perfectly good gesture for my laptop.