If you are of a "certain age", you begin to worry more when you forget things or lose track of things. I know perfectly well that I have forgotten things or lost track of things all my life, but I WORRY about it more these days. So the last 24 hours were annoying.
First, I lost track of a kitchen timer over the weekend. I use it as a sleep timer actually. My hours are irregular, so its easier to just click up 9 hours of the timer than fuss with a real alarm clock. So I hadn't been able to find it for days. I looked around the bed. I looked in all my pockets. Because I have a waterbed, I had to dig down between the waterbed mattress and the frame (find cat toys that way all the time. I even looked in the kitchen in case I had actually used it as a kitchen timer for real
Last night, I finally remembered where it was. I hadn't found it because I hadn't gone outside, because it had been raining for 4 days. I had used it to time the flowerbed watering before the rains came. So it sat out there. In the rain. For 4 days! I've disassembled it and set it to dry for a week, and I'll hope it works again someday.
Second, I bought one of those small coiled hoses to water the container plants up on the deck. The attachment points didn't match the ballisters so I decided to mount it to a piece of plywood and attach THAT to the ballisters. But the only right-size piece I had was unfinished so I wanted to stain and varnish it today.
Now, rather than use a brush that needs to be cleaned afterwards, I like to use a soft cloth (held in a disposable latex glove) for work like that. I have a box full of nice soft worn-out cotton undershirts that as just perfect for that (not a speck of lint left). I just cut off a piece from one and use it once. So I did that and went to get my can of varnish. I haven't seen the piece of t-shirt since!
I spent 15 minutes this afternoon searching for that damn little piece of cloth this afternoon. Not because the bit of cloth was valuable, but I really needed to know where I had lost it. I know absolutely that I did cut it off the old t-shirt. And I couldn't find it. When I got to the point where I was checking completely illogical places like the M/W oven, I stopped. I decided that if it was in the refrigerator or someplace like that, I really didn't WANT to know.
So when I drove off on an errand at dusk, I completely LOST it! Backing out of the garage, I slowed down to put on my regular prescription driving glasses. I don't need them legally but it's close enough that I wear them voluntarily. It was a deal between the optometrist and I. He signed off on my eye test and I would wear the glasses voluntarily.
I also I also have prescription sunglasses for the same purpose. As I stopped to put on the regular glasses, I heard (but did not see) the sunglasses slide of the dashboard. So, I stopped at the end of the driveway to retrieve them.
Couldn't find them. OK, they got under the front seat. I felt around under there. No sunglasses. I checked on the top of the front seat, the sides, and underneath again. No sunglasses. So I turned of the car to search more thoroughly. I checked above, below, around the front passenger seat. No luck. The little compartment between the seats was open, so I checked around in there. No luck.
I felt around the back floor. Now admittedly, I have a cluttered car. I'm the only one ever in it these days, so I stack the back floor with the containers of useful car stuff (its an SUV so there is no trunk for stuff like that). And I've had battery problems so I even have an extra battery in the back.
I removed all the containers from the back floor and felt around VERY carefully. No luck. OK, weird stuff happens on the bounce, so I felt carefully up into the seat springs. No luck. At that point, I was out of places to look and some slight concern that I had imagined hearing the sunglasses slide of the dashboard. And lest you suspect the obvious, I had carefully checked the dashboard, the glasses-holder above the rear-view mirror and all my pockets; everywhere glasses OUGHT to be.
I was reluctant to drive, because I just KNEW they would slide underfoot and get crushed. But I had to give up. I drove off to do my errand. Upon returning home, I of course had to open the drivers door in order to get out. The drivers door has an open pocket for maps and "stuff". I looked at the door pocket with an "oh damn" feeling, closed my eyes, and reached in.
There they were. Sunglasses found...
Why didn't I look there while searching the car so carefully, you ask? Because the open car door was BEHIND me! ARGGH!!! You don't look where you can't see...
Now the only current mystery left is where that damned little piece of cloth is... I can't WAIT to come across THAT someday.
