What Happened to the Old Mouse Ball Ring?

Do you remember once upon a time when we all used those mice with the ball inside, and the ring covering the whole that you put it in, which you locked by twisting? Do you remember how dirt and dust used to get lodged in there and make the mouse so sluggish that you had to open up the mouse, clean it out and then out it all back together?

Nowadays we’ve all moved on to using optical mice and wireless desktops and all that, so it’s been a while since those days. I don’t think I’ve used one of those “analogue” mice in at least 5 or 6 years. And I’m thankful for it, believe me. I’ve looked for one I might have used at one time, but I think I donated it to a museum or something. Or else I just tossed it in the bin.

But whatever happened to my old nemesis, the mouse ball ring thing? I’ve broken at least a couple over the years by slamming the mouse down when it became unresponsive, either because of the dust or because the cable got caught under the keyboard or the tower. There were times when it just came undone all by itself, and the mouse ball rolled off the desk and crossed the room, never to be found again, until it was nearly sucked up by the vacuum cleaner.

Well, I think I found out the answer. It’s been sitting on top of my DVD spindles for the last few years. I just opened up a new spindle of DVDs to make a backup the other day, and there it was- the ring thing fell on the ground and just sat there. That image of the old bugger when it was at the bottom of my mouse just flashed in to my mind right then and there. It looked exactly the same except for the fact that it had lost its legs- those things that helped lock the ball inside the mouse. Besides that, nothing much had changed.

Its new purpose was to stop the DVDs from falling off the spindle. And it fails miserably at this too, just like it did at everything else in life.


There you are! *STOMP*

By the way, is it correct to say "mice"? I mean, it’s one mouse, two mice? Surely the same rules apply? I once heard a woman call the plural of mouse “mices”. Right…

What Happened to the Old Mouse Ball Ring?