The first thing I noticed was that my monitor was showing my computer desktop. That fact alone is not unusual, as typically, that's what monitors are supposed to do. But this was right when I got home after being in the computer lab for a couple of hours. The monitor should have been off, as it's set to shut down after about twenty minutes of inactivity. Not only was it on, it had windows up of tasks I hadn't started. But most suspicious of all was the cursor.
It was moving. Independently of the mouse which supposedly controls it.
I stared, fascinated at the phenomena. My cursor was moving around the screen, checking boxes, clicking around at things that were not there. The movement was deliberate, the kind of movement you'd see with normal mouse use, not just random jerks here and there. I feared somehow that I had a Trojan horse on my computer, a program that allows someone to control the computer of someone else. I immediately tried to start my ant-virus and spyware detection programs, but found that every time I tried to select a program in the start menu, my possessed mouse would click somewhere else and I'd have to start all over again.
So I started trying to use the keyboard. Navigating with the keyboard is a lost art, and I was having a hard time finding it again. Even if I did manage to get something selected, again the mouse would click somewhere else and screw it all up. It was time to pull the plug.
Unplugging the mouse solved the problem of the moving and clicking I wasn't controlling, but it didn't make it any easier to start and manage programs using the keyboard. I tried to find the option where you can control the mouse cursor with the numeric keypad, but oddly enough, it wasn't under mouse options. (I later found it under "Accessability" with the assistance of someone else.)
Running the spyware and anti-virus programs revealed nothing. My computer was clean. Restarting the computer, the eternal answer to any computer problem, didn't help either. Plugging the mouse back in, but removing the batteries still gave me the same problem. I even changed the batteries. I was frustrated and confused. I thought of searching the web for some clue on how to exorcise a mouse, but navigating through a website with only the keyboard is a nightmare I did not want to endure.
Finally, I looked at my mouse, now lifeless beside me, and the solution came. My mouse has no tail, i.e. it's wireless. I have a sensor hooked up to the computer. What if someone close by had the same kind of mouse and was using it, but my sensor was also detecting it? It was a thought worth pondering. I pondered the fact that someone had just moved in upstairs as well.
I dug out my old mouse, my old, wired, non-optical mouse and plugged her in. It worked. No demon possession, no erratic movement, nothing but what I was doing. I both hated and loved this result, as it solved the problem, but meant going back to my old mouse. I figure I'll have to use it at least until I move, in which case whatever demon is controlling my wireless mouse will not be packed up in a box and moving with me. I considered trying to use it anyway, with the idea that whoever else had the other mouse would pick up my movement as well. Maybe I could make them back down by not letting them get anything down either. But then I looked at my WWJD bracelet and realized that there was no guarantee that sort of plan would work.
So now she sits on my desk, her double A entrails sticking out of her body. I miss her. I miss the freedom of using something that isn't on a leash.
What does not kill us makes us stronger.
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