When some sort of misplacing happens, you start to wonder if you might be losing it. I often have trouble remembering what I did yesterday and when. But then, I can recall searching for my glasses when I was six years old. I don't know if I have lost more things than most people but I do know I have spotty records of what was lost and when and why. I am confident that my overall record extends from my grade school days. Oh yes, I am the guy who carried two shoes to the shoemaker and found I had only one to give him to be repaired when I got there. I was a 4th grader then. I don't think I am losing it. I might have been born without it!
You know how it is. When you can't find what's missing, there doesn't seem to be much that can be done except retracing your steps and looking over and over for them. Did I look carefully in those pants? Really carefully? Maybe I missed a pocket? I'll try again.
The only reason I was looking for them at that hour was that today is a recycling day. I can't get the recycling bin out of the garage unless I move one of the cars out first. I didn't want to admit defeat and get the spare key to move my car but after several repetitious rounds of looking in about the same places, I went to the spare key drawer. These days there is some notable expense to have a spare key for a car, what with the special computer chips and all. But this was one of those times when I was glad I had a spare. The instant i pushed the spare into the ignition, I remembered placing my keys in the bag on my bike yesterday afternoon. Until that moment, I could not think of any place or activity that had been part of yesterday that could explain how those keys could have gotten away.
Putting my keys in the zippered bag was good handling. I put them in a place where they were likely to be ok even if I had some minor accident. I have taken tumbles on a moving bike and I know mishaps occur. But after the ride was over and I was ready for something else, I didn't think of those keys still safely zipped in that seat bag.
When I am going around and around, looking in the same places and making zero progress in finding them, feelings of stupidity, negligence, unreliability, carelessness and their cousins are buzzing around me like flies. I have some good records of achievement and I don't qualify as too careless most of the time. I am old and experienced enough with those flies that I can keep them mostly at bay. When I do find the damned missing keys, I am glad that I didn't yell at myself too much.
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