Weekly Update 08/01/26 – 08/07/26 (25 Years, Wildfire Smoke, and a Better Mouse)

This week's Weekly Update covers a mixture of memories and projects, from an anniversary that still brings complicated feelings and memories of wildfire smoke when I was young, to the work I've been doing on my office and an unexpectedly useful new computer mouse.

25 years?

Well, this week marked both a very happy and an extremely sad anniversary for me. Tuesday was the 25th anniversary of my wedding to Linda. I still miss her very much, and at the same time I’m still angry about what happened. I have mostly happy memories of that day, peppered with remembering how worried I was about her ability to get through the day because of her various problems. Her psychiatrist had given us extra medication to help her hold it together.

She did extremely well on the big day, and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. It was not until the next day that things started to unwind, and I got to learn what bipolar disorder and rapid cycling were really all about.

We spent a week on a cruise in the Caribbean, and her mood kept shifting from suicidal to exuberant in the wink of an eye.

If you'd like to learn more about that time, you can read about it here.

Or you can get a copy of the book I have written about it, From Crack to Kitty Litter, by clicking here.

This week has also been a very hazy week, literally. Smoke from various wildfires has filled the air and affected my area. I've even seen pictures like this one, taken near my house, showing the sun blazing through the haze.

Actually, I'm amazed at how differently we handle a little smoke than we used to when I was young. This week I heard many warnings about people needing to stay indoors or wear a mask if they had to go outdoors. One of Dawn's doctors' offices even called to let her know that if the smoke caused breathing problems, she could come into the office for help.

This is so different from the way it was back when I lived in Sherman Oaks. Back then, September through November was fire season, the time of year when the Santa Ana winds would be causing fires that we could see, or at least see the plumes of smoke from, in every direction. I had to clean the pool frequently to clean out the ash that was being deposited in it.

I think the smoke episode I remember the most was during Thanksgiving week in November 1974, during the Big Tujunga Fire. Big Tujunga Canyon is in the mountains north of Sherman Oaks, roughly 13 to 17 miles away.

I remember walking to Van Nuys Jr. High with my sister, as we usually did, passing through the Van Nuys Sherman Oaks Park. The smoke was very thick, and I'd guess that the visibility was down to less than 1/8 of a mile.

When we got to the middle of the park, we realized that we were lost. We could not see anything but grass surrounding us and had no sense of direction. It was a creepy feeling and a little scary, but we kept walking, and eventually we could see Van Nuys Boulevard and made our way to school.

I have spent a good deal of time working on my office this week. Over last weekend, I removed a good deal of the wood trim and started the process of stripping the paint off the door jambs and window sills. I also worked a lot on choosing the colors that I will paint it.

After a lot of work with Astra (ChatGPT), using samples from various pictures of sunrises and sunsets, I have chosen a morning blue for the three main walls and a burnt orange that looks like the sky as twilight ends. I hope to get at least two of the walls painted this coming week.

A couple of weeks ago, my mouse (computer mouse) died, or at least the right-side button on the mouse stopped working, and so I needed a new mouse. For years, I have been using basically the cheapest mouse I could find, but I decided to upgrade this time.

A few years ago, when I broke my wrist, I had to move to an ergonomic keyboard. Now I wanted to check out an ergonomic mouse. I wanted something that would be better for my arm and hand while using it, not because I was having a problem, but to help prevent problems in the future.

I looked at what I would call tower mice, ones where you hold the mouse more like a joystick. Astra told me they were the most ergonomic, but they also took more time to learn to use than I'd like.

Next I looked at the Logitech MX Master 4 mouse. It is more traditional in shape but helps position my hand a little better than my old mouse. It also comes with quite a few more buttons. Apart from the normal left and right buttons and a scroll wheel, this mouse has several controls around my thumb, including three small buttons and an extra scroll wheel that my thumb can manipulate. I’ve also moved to a wireless mouse. I have avoided using wireless in the past, but since this has a built-in rechargeable battery that can last up to 70 days on a charge, I decided to upgrade that as well.

Frankly, I had no idea how useful this mouse would turn out to be.

It does feel better, with less strain than my old mouse, and the extra buttons have opened up a world of options. The first option I used was to program the large button under my thumb to read text that I had highlighted.

I had to change the reading software I use, but the new software is standard with Windows 11. Windows Magnifier can read text to me, and I can highlight the text I want to hear and press Ctrl+Alt+Enter to have Magnifier read it. I programmed the large thumb button to do just that.

Another advantage I wasn't expecting was the quality of the voices. The voices available with the new reading software are far superior to the ones I could get with Read Aloud, the software I used before. I can also use the same voice across my computer now, instead of having different voices reading to me in different applications. It may sound like a small thing, but having one consistent voice makes a big difference when you have your computer reading to you throughout the day.

Next, for some time I have wanted to use the dictation function that Windows now provides, but it has been a hassle having to remember how to turn it on and off. With the new mouse, I have three small buttons by my thumb. The first one I programmed to turn dictation on and off. The one behind it is programmed to copy, and the one behind that is programmed to paste.

Finally, the new scroll wheel next to my thumb I've set to control the volume.

With these buttons, I can now leave my hand on the mouse for longer stretches and do not have to move from the keyboard to the mouse as often.

And after writing all of this, I discovered there is still another button on the mouse that I haven't programmed yet.

Well I hope you all have a great week. I’m off to the paint store.

— Odell Sneeden Hathaway III

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Weekly Update 07/25/26 – 07/31/26 (Eagle One)