The mouse has died

on my computer. I am not happy. 
We had a power cut last night and the mouse seems to have departed with the power. I am currently on the lap top. The lap top is strictly "back up". It is nowhere as easy to use.
I know. I know. I am a conservative cat. I like my working tools to stay the same. I like them to go on working as they always have. I don't like change. I have to think about it.
This morning, instead of doing what I planned to do, I will need to prowl into the city and catch a new mouse. It means taking the old mouse and saying to one of those boys - they never seem to be girls - in the shop, "I want another one like this please" and hoping that they have it or that they can provide a substitute which will actually work.
My problem is that I do not know a great deal about computers. I tend to chase the mouse around the screen rather than have the mouse obey me...well, sometimes it feels like that. 
A friend called in yesterday and complained that the hard drive had gone on her computer. It was, she told me, like being without her handbag. I don't carry a handbag but I could still understand what she meant.
Twenty something years ago I was relying on entirely different means to do my work. Everyone had to wait much longer. We thought the fax machine was an amazing invention. It saved a lot of time - even though I had to travel in and out of the university each day to use their facilities. Now I seem to have more work and less time.
But there is an "up" side to all of this. I can do a little Christmas shopping.