Thanks Schrullenhaft...  I found it in the mouse defaults, duhhh! I had reset everything to the default settings, except pointer trails and I had addressed that.  Only thing is, I had dragged the slider all the way to short trails, but not un-checking the box.  For some silly reason I must have been thinking this was turning off trails instead of just making them, well,  short. User error, WAD.  Thanks again!