Yeah, the mouse is a wireless mouse that is perched upon a small platform that I have on the ride side of the keyboard. The weight of the keyboard actually holds the platform in place and no one in the audience can see it. It's very convenient.

Now, I can have the lyrics in the laptop, but even after the cataract surgery, the letters are just too small on the keyboard's display for me to easily see. It would be a neat feature if the manufacturers had a small mouse platform area built into the keyboard, somewhere on the right side. But, I don't think that will ever happen, at least not in my lifetime.

Tony, don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing instrumentals, but I rarely have the opportunity to do so. Most of the dance tunes I do have great lyrics, most but not all. I didn't even know Moonlight Serenade had lyrics until about a decade ago. I used to do all my polkas as instrumentals until about 5 years ago, when someone came up to me and said "Hey, you know Beer Barrel Polka has words to the song." Since then, I've been singing it, and the audiences love to sing the chorus. I don't sing the Too Fat Polka, but the audiences sing it while I play it as in instrumental. Probably a good thing I do it that way, too.

When I perform Floyd Cramer's Last Date, I do it strictly as an instrumental. Not sure it has words either. Well, I got curious, and damned, the song does have lyrics - I've just never heard them.

Now, Carol tells me I'm deaf as a post because I frequently cannot understand what she says. I have a hearing aid, but I never wear it, mainly because it is primarily tuned for high frequencies. Consequently, when I'm playing and wearing the hearing aid, those high frequency sounds are almost deafening to me. And, the hearing aid ignores the lower frequencies, therefore it's almost like wearing a weird kind of ear plug. I've never had a problem staying on key, with at least one exception, when I did Merry Christmas Darling and nothing went right. Dave pointed out my flaws, I think you did too, and after redoing the song, it came out just fine. So, maybe Carol is right! (Damned, did I say that?)

Cheers,

Gary