trapping the mouse

One of the little death items I wrote about yesterday was my Bluetooth mouse.

When I returned from The States with my new light laptop, there was one thing I really needed.  A small mouse.

The Sony Z series is extremely well-engineered.  With one exception.  The mouse pad.  It has one of those infernal touch pads.  I know it is not just me because I  have talked to other people with the same complaint.

Somehow the touch pad makes gibberish out of my drafts.  All of a sudden a line that should be at the bottom of a piece has migrated into the second paragraph.

The solution was simple.  A small wireless mouse.  Small because I need to use it while traveling or doing my walk about.  Wireless because I do not need another cord getting in my way.

But that was the problem.  My laptop has only two USB ports.  So, a Bluetooth device would be perfect.

And that is what I found when I went to Office Depot in Manzanillo in late January.  With the seemingly-appropriate brand name of Perfect Choice.

I used it on the Copper Canyon Trip.  In Melaque.  In China.  In San Francisco.  In Salem.  In Bend.

Nary a problem.  Even though I had my misgivings.

When I bought the mouse, it had been opened and re-taped.  In Mexico, that usually means it was returned.  But it was the last one on the rack.  And I wanted it then.

When I took off the tape, the right button was stuck down.  Great, I thought.  But it popped back up.

And, as I said, it worked perfectly.  Until the electronic plagues hit me.  All of a sudden, the left mouse button simply had no click.  I tried everything.  Nada.

So, I off I went to Manzanillo with the dead mouse.  And that is exactly how the clerks and manager at Office Depot handled it.  As if it were a dead rodent. 

I showed the manager the package on his display that clearly stated the device was warrantied for two years.  He shrugged.  I felt as if I had stepped into the Monte Python dead parrot skit.

But I was not going to be saluted off so easily.  I told him I had bought it less than two months before.  That was not two years.

He then fell back on his bureaucratic Maginot Line.  "Where is your receipt?"  Said he.  "Where is the packaging?"

I may be a bit anal, but I do not keep receipts and packaging.  He merely smiled and said there was nothing he could do without them.

So, I bought another Perfect Choice Bluetooth mouse.  Just like the other one.  Except it is still working.

And I have kept the receipt and the packaging.  Now stored in an Office Depot bag along with the dead mouse.

I suspect I may have need of the whole thing.  Say, in a week or two.