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Rob Dempster
'Allo 'Allo Gardens! (AAG) Howick (uMngeni) AAG Blog The Mouse Lamp 18 September 2025 |
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I mostly get up in the morning before the sun rises. That means I get to see some spectacular sunrises. It also means that once I have dealt with the dogs and made my coffee, I settle down at my desk in front of my PC.
The only light that is on is the lamp that is on the left of my screen. It illuminates my keyboard. It does not do a good job of illuminating my mouse, a mouse that is to the right of my keyboard and a lower level. The mouse mostly behaves badly, and has been doing so since we moved into our Protea Gardens home almost four years ago.
So I recently I thought it would be a good idea to buy a small desk lamp that could then be used to illuminate the mouse/mouse-pad. Finding what I was looking for in Howick proved more difficult than I thought it would. So, the next best thing, construct one. The first row of photographs illustrates the process and the product and that is where this story should have ended.
It wasn't to be. Edith pointed out that the bowl that I had used, and that had held odd bits in my garage, was Patch's food bowl. Patch joined the family when Cheryl started walking, and was with us for eighteen years. He also lost one of his back legs (another story) and soldiered on magnificently. He has also been the only dog that we have had that could hunt and occasionally catch a mole.
So now Patch's food bowl is on my desk and it will probably stay there.
Now, given that I spent 30 years working as a Computer Science academic, and taught a second level hardware course, you would think that I would have known that an optical mouse has it's own light source. Well I did ultimately remember, and I guess and now I have a lamp on my desk that I probably do not need there.
Finally, (i) the sunrise pics were taken on different mornings this week. The pic that shows the moon is worth popping up, as it shows quite a lot of stars that one does not see usually see in the Howick night sky. That would either be because the mist (visible in the uMngeni River Valley) , is on our doorstep, or because the air is full of smoke from fires set to burn Forestry and Farm Firebreaks and/or Forestry ???.
Finally, (ii) the dog pics include Patch, first with all his legs, and then minus one back leg. The second dog is Stripey, a Wired Haired Fox Terrier.
Finally, (iii) I used a soft brush to CLEAN the apeture in the base pf the mouse that houses the light source and light detector that is responsible for the detection of the movement of the mouse.
The mouse is now as good as new, and all is well that ends well!
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If you have any comments, corrections, suggestions or plain criticism,
I would appreciate it if you would communicate the same to me.
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