Looking for Number Three

Bad things seem to happen in threes. Mr. Fudd’s father in law passed away. He had had surgery for bladder cancer a couple years ago. It had returned but he kept that a secret from his family and especially his wife. He had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital where the truth came out. He died just a few days later. This is a tragic event as his wife is in poor health with declining mental acuity. Mr. Fudd’s wife and her siblings are trying to figure it all out – how to navigate the legal stuff and what to do with their mother who needs assistance now that their father is gone. I will be finishing up part of a study in his place.

The wife of a friend of a friend (only 59 years old) died tragically and suddenly. She and her husband were scuba diving in the Florida Keys. They were exploring a ship wreck about 100 feet down when she started experiencing “distress” according to the news accounts. They were able to get her to the surface but she was pronounced dead at the hospital. They had gone to school with my husband and his siblings. Sparky’s next younger sister was hit hard by the news. She had dated the widower before he dated his wife. They knew each other and the fact that she was so young really took her aback.

I was waiting for the third tragedy. And I didn’t have to wait long. I am talking about events that occur in my sphere – not the national stage so Kobe Bryant, Kirk Douglas, and Robert Conrad’s untimely deaths don’t count in my count-down. It really made me nervous. But as it turns out my third death was not as tragic as it could have been. In fact it isn’t really a tragic death at all. It was my computer and the mouse. I was having issues where my mouse froze. I was sure it was the computer being glitchy and kept rebooting it. Finally I discovered that even a reboot wouldn’t make the cursor move. If I used the pad on the laptop I could move the cursor no problem. It was then that I examined the mouse. The red light had gone out. There was no life left. I was very very distraught. I couldn’t comment on WordPress, I couldn’t do my daily crossword, I couldn’t play Panda Mahjong! With the help of son#1 I went in search of a replacement for the nearly 11 year old dead mouse. I was a tad attached to it since it had out lived 3 computers and fit my hand perfectly. However I found a beauty. It was on sale and has many features the old one didn’t – it has a scroll wheel, it lights up in sync with my keyboard, and has several programmable buttons on the side. It is also ergonomically designed which makes it even more comfortable to use. Seems only fitting that I should get a “gaming mouse” to go with my gaming keyboard…

However it took less than a week to discover that the computer was ill. Not terminal. It was stuck in an endless loop that prevented me from doing anything including turning it off. After a trip to the tech guru and a 2 day “hospital” stay, my computer is back to health. A resurrection of sorts. The mouse was a goner but the laptop pulled through.