Mice

No, this isn't about a rodent infestation, which I have seen in my house in the past. This is about the way I currently have my desk set up. Work laptop and wireless mouse on the left, home laptop and mouse on the right, big screen monitor and ergonomic keyboard in the middle, daily dongle swap.

What I didn't mention about this before is that I mouse with my left hand at "work" and with my right at "home."

This has actually been true for years. When I got severe tendinitis in, and eventually had surgery on, y right shoulder, I wasn't able to mouse with my right hand at all-- I could barely move my arm, and even using a trackball mouse was unendurably painful. I switched to left-hand mousing, and I kind of stayed in the habit. I also gave up the trackball, because I couldn't find a decent left-hand trackball.

After the surgery, I stayed with the left-hand mousing at work, for no real reason that I can think of. But also about that time, I finally got a home computer and a good right-handed trackball. So I was using a laser mouse left-handed at work, and a trackball right-handed at home.

Eventually I gave up on the trackball and went to a laser mouse at home as well. Now I have effectively identical mice: they're both Microsoft wireless one-wheel mice, the work one has a shiny black top panel and the home one has a matte silver top. And I'm finding that the physical transfer of dongles and the transfer of mousing action from one hand to the other makes a satisfactory demarcation between work and home life.

As it seems likely we'll be under a shelter in place order soon, the mental use of space that is physically denied to us becomes more and more important.

Available! High-Voltage Lines, Knocking from Inside