Category: Daily

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Day 49: Laser Mouse Needs a Nap

Was going to be: “Day 49: Monowheel Specs”

Against my better judgment I am going to do this without appraising myself of similar real world examples.  Let’s say for now that I promise to compare mine with theirs and do an edit.

And then better judgment kicked in.  It just wouldn’t be fun unless I tracked the genre properly.

Let’s see if this has legs instead…

I swapped out my cordless laser mouse for an older corded one–the one I swapped it in for in the first place six months ago.  The semi-retired laser version is half of a desktop suite including, unsurprisingly, a keyboard.  At this moment it’s nestled into my electronic junk drawer with a voltmeter and a Nyko Xbox battery charger.  They all seem fine with the arrangement.  I’d say the mouse is doing a better job being their companion than it was doing being mine.  At least for the past week anyway.

What went wrong is unclear.  The laser receptor did not appear smudged or marred in anyway.  Occasionally I blew dog hairs out of it, but that trouble was intermittent and temporary.  We went rounds with the old-school and rechargeable batteries, hence the proximity of the voltmeter.  Fresh batteries helped, but not for as long as I’d have thought they should.  The keyboard is still on the second set it’s ever used.  I don’t think the trouble was batterarian (that’s ‘electrical’ for those unfamiliar with my penchant for word make-uppery).

So what was the problem you ask?  Computer mice are supposed to be invisible, this one was not.  Invisible in the man-machine interface aspect not in the I can’t see my mouse aspect.  I shouldn’t have to worry that I was clicking and releasing the mouse button when I wasn’t doing either.  One click shouldn’t have doubled.  Double clicks shouldn’t have tripled.  Moving a window or object on the screen shouldn’t have randomly dropped only to pick up something new and more often than not detrimental.  Selecting text shouldn’t have selected inappropriate bits, then picked them up, and dropped them in unexpected locations.  But it did, they all did.  The mouse made my brain feel disconnected.  My expectation that mice are invisible lead me to ignore these erratic behaviors longer than I was prudent.

At first I was worried the mismatched pair residing comfortably together would not…reside comfortably together.  But they do.

[place ending here]

Word count: 392

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Day 48: Ids, Ids Everywhere

I’ve turned the monitor on its side this morning.  Mostly because I can.  But partly because I wanted to see if DarkRoom would work in portrait.  Not sure what I was expecting to go wrong.  Nothing has.

Yesterday I took the two week old hedge trimmer out of its box and mounted the handle.  In three weeks time I expect I’ll be able to get the extension cord plugged in to make sure it fires up.  Sparks up?  At this rate, by February I might be looking forward to using it for the first time.

I don’t recall if my housekeeping post of a few days ago shared that I was going to be watching the kids all weekend without Carrie, but I did.  Late Friday to dinner time on Sunday.  I think we all had a good time and things went well.  It’s alot of work but not complicated.  I am not sure I could do it everyday for as long as she has without getting a little nutty.  Taking care of children this age makes you feel a little like you are tamping down the various parts of your brain that need things except on the outside.

Internally I can quickly handle the near simultaneous desires to pee, eat, watch TV, and be confused and angry.  Externally, as those disparate needs are continuously shuffled and dealt amongst the four of us it becomes a little tougher to manage.  With all your ids inside you they can communicate via back channel chatter.  “I know you said you had to pee, but is it really bad enough not to wait till a commercial?”.  “Wait, commercial time’s already set aside for getting a cookie.”.  “Hello?  Peeing is at the top of the list no matter how you work it out.  I can wait till the commercial but no longer.  Cookie needs will either have to wait till the next one or potentially conflict with watching all that show.  What is it anyway?”.  “‘Friends’.”.  “Jeezus! That’s a rerun you ass.  We’re all waiting on a rerun?”.  “It’s the one where Ross and Rachel hook-up.”  “Oh, why didn’t you say that earlier.  Let’s get popcorn.”

Waiting on others is not an easy skill to teach to a child.  For them now is quite tangible.  They can count on a glass of juice being poured now finishing successfully because it’s already begun.  The idea of prioritizing needs isn’t useful because they really only have one at a time and in order; all of them are critical.  Thus, later, next, soon, and when I am done with your sister are all times equivalent to no, never, not on your life, because they aren’t right now.  But that’s what parenting is about–one of the things.  Teaching your children to understand what is happening around them.  To appreciate and understand the plot of their days.  “Did you just see what happened there, Sweetie?  I asked you to wait till I was done with your sister and, now, here I am helping you.  I didn’t forget.”.  “Can I have some water now?”

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I gotta look up punctuation on dialogue.  I seem to use it in a way that makes me stretch my understanding of what I already thought I new about it.  I thought that ending a statement with dialogue punctuation; closing quote; then sentence punctuation was correct, but it looks like crap.

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Day 47: The Burlington Northern Santa Fe

I hear the train’s whistle. Distance blends the wail with the depth of night sounds. And the crickets nearer.

My directions to visitors state that I am three miles from where the tracks cross Elm. All ten East/West streets in Crowell are named after trees making four more trees than we have in the city park.

Trains used to stop here. There is a eroded concrete and railroad tie platform as a testament to that bit of Americana. All we get now is the whistle. At two in the morning, the sound is a warning to get out while you still can. All the cars in Crowell and nearly all in Johnsman county have been parked so long the engines are cool. No one is idling at Elm or Oak or Cottonwood waiting for the BNSF.

I try not to imagine that she is though. The top of her once-red Monte Carlo down, June bugs gathering in the headlamps because it’s a long one, her counting graffitied coal cars, and being hypnotized by the gaps between each.

I try not to imagine her putting it back in drive.

[a whole series of stuff not to imagine]

I do try to imagine she’s not dead.

Word count: 198