I have a new mouse. After several months of blaming my computer, Microsoft updates and a dirty screen (I grasp at straws) it occurred to me that the problem might be my mouse. A look at the mouse, with its top worn smooth by my fingers as I performed thousands of scrolls and clicks, revealed that I have had it quite a long time.
Green Woodpecker – this an adult on the farm some years ago
The final test, after months of problems with random menus, failures to cut and paste, and an increasing tendency to rearrange text, came when I realised I could use the panel on my laptop that serves as a mouse. Everything worked perfectly when I used that. It’s also working perfectly with the replacement mouse. I assume something just wore out with constant use.
It’s one of those boiling frog moments, when you suddenly realise that a succession of tiny changes has crept up on you and combined into a serious fault without you noticing. Now I have a new mouse everything works better, and using the computer is so much easier.
I’m sure there is more to report than that. Something important happened earlier in the week but I forget what it is. I’m sure it’s important though.
We have had the sparrowhawk in the garden again, and an immature Green Woodpecker visited the front lawn in pursuit of ants. That’s now three sightings for the sparrowhawk (a female) and one for the Green Woodpecker. I did see an adult in the trees next to the house before, but this is the first time we’ve seen one in the garden.
Great Tit – or “lunch” as sparrowhawks think of them
Bad news for the garden Great Tit population is that their size and eating habits make them ideal prey for the sparrowhawk.
I’m sure there was something else I meant to write about, but I can’t bring it to mind. I’m sure it will come back to me. Or maybe not.
PS – forgot title and tags before publishing. Bah!
“boiling frog moment” is a great expression. When you said you had a new mouse, at first I worried about an actual rodent in your house. You see, I have not had an actual computer in a long time.
I presume you use a smartphone. I need something where I can see the screen and where my fingers are a practical size. And where I can pile up loads of books and papers and mutter if people disturb me. 🙂
Oh no, I have a Chromebook, which I fortunately won in a basket raffle. For a while I pecked in one letter at a time with a stylus on my Tablet, and I have made a few sad posts on my smarter-than-me phone, but I greatly prefer ten-finger typing.
That sounds better than a phone. I never got further than using four fingers. 🙂
Oh I took typing in summer school one year. I love it!
It’s a useful skill to have. My mother tried to teach me in the days of manual typewriters but I never really mastered it.
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It is quite pleasing when a problem is solved, but it is quite annoying when you realized you could have solved it earlier. It’s a common occurrence for me. I am very envious of your green woodpecker,
Yes – the time between pleasure at solving the problem and realising I could have solved it months earlier was less than a second. 🙂
We don’t have chaffinches and have only seen one sparrow in the garden, so in general, we are far from enviable. 🙂
We have also acquired a mixed blessing in the form of regular visits from a female sparrowhawk.
I would like a regular visit by sparrowhawk to scare off the birds that continue to crap on our solar panels. Jackdaws have disgusting diets.
Have you thought of trying aplastic owl?
Your dead mouse diagnosis concurs with my recent experience
I should pay more attention. 🙂
I presume you’d switched it off and back on again too? 😂
My fat balls are under attack from flocks of Starlings at the moment.
I tried to word that differently but nothing worked 😂
Yes. on and off, restart, unplug – all the variations on the theme.
I had a woodpecker on my fat balls a few weeks ago. Now it’s mainly Great Tits.
Ornithology is a minefield for the unpure of thought, isn’t it?
Oh, yes. A world of fun out there, if you’re inclined 😂