I am I said...

[Plymouthy Adams]

the world's best at losing an item within one minute of having it in my hand...bet that 40% of my shop time is looking for that bolt nut or wrench I JUST had in my hands....this is NOT A CHALLENGE...please do not copy or try to best me...venting frustration....lol

[greg g]

I am a charter member of that club.  Yesterday, I lost a utility knife in my trunk.  This AM I found it in the screwdriver drawer of the tool box.  But I never had my hand on a screwdriver yesterday.  Good thing I needed one this AM for a bird feeder install.

Edited September 11, 2021 by greg g

[Dave72dt]

I've been developing that skill for quite a while now and unfortunately, have gotten quite good at it.  I expect I'll get even better at it.

[JBNeal]

"oh hey I was looking for that the other day"  gets said a lot in my neck of the woods 

[Tooljunkie]

A pipe fitting, took 3 days to find, was sitting on my bench. 
10mm wrench i misplaced, and of course its from a brand new wrench set, i bought the week before. 
has nothing do do with old age, as i mastered this talent many years ago. 

[plymouthcranbrook]

5 hours ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

the world's best at losing an item within one minute of having it in my hand...bet that 40% of my shop time is looking for that bolt nut or wrench I JUST had in my hands....this is NOT A CHALLENGE...please do not copy or try to best me...venting frustration....lol

Don’t even expect to be in the club until the only thing you can hold onto is something you want to drop.

[Worden18]

I looked for my dremel tool (in the gray plastic) case for more than 6 months.  I was certain someone broke into my garage and took only the dremel.  Found it finally... right where I left it, on the shelf right in front of my face. ? 

[Ulu]

This is just a symptom of us all having too many toys. . . Err. . . Tools.

[Kilgore47]

I buy extra wrenches and sockets from the pawn shop.  5, 10, 15 cents each.  That way when I can't find the one I just laid down I can go to the tool box and get another one.  Until the ones in the tool box are all gone

[DonaldSmith]

Pens and pencils work somewhat like Kilgore47's wrenches.  One minute a pocketful, next minute none to be found. 

[Dan Hiebert]

Yep, when I retired a mere 3 years ago, I came home with at least 60 various pens.  Couldn't find one to save my life yesterday.  Not trying to best PA here, just a show of solidarity; for three days I couldn't find the hatchet I was using to limb a tree I had cut down last week.  Found it yesterday in the stump of the tree I had cut down...right where I had been looking for three days, and where I left it so I was sure to find it when I put the tools away.   

[Eneto-55]

Sometimes I see where I've put a certain tool, maybe for months or years it has "belonged" there.  Then I get some hair-brained idea that it should REALLY be some place else.  Bad idea.  Then I can never find it again, until I just happen to find it by accident, while looking for something else I've misplaced.  But it has one big advantage - I've stopped accusing family members of having taken the tool (or whatever) that I'm currently looking for.  (Only rarely anymore do I find that it really was someone else who "didn't put it back where it belongs, for crying out loud.")

[Sniper]

1 hour ago, Eneto-55 said:

Then I can never find it again, until I just happen to find it by accident, while looking for something else I've misplaced.

 

Oh, that sounds so familiar.  So much so that when I can't find a tool I need I move on to another project under the theory that I will find it when I am looking for a different tool needed on the second project.  lol

[TodFitch]

4 minutes ago, Sniper said:

 

Oh, that sounds so familiar.  So much so that when I can't find a tool I need I move on to another project under the theory that I will find it when I am looking for a different tool needed on the second project.  lol

Sounds like a good hypothesis. I have more than a few personal data points that support that concept.

[Ulu]

It’s a very good method of operation,  and my main modification is that as soon as I can’t find what I need to continue with my current project I start cleaning up the shop I get the vacuum and the brush and a shovel and whatever and before I know it I found six things.

 

Right now though I’m just having a brain block on exactly how I want to do some reinforcement in my fiberglass car. This is causing some stress because every day it sits in my wife’s parking spot she will hold that against me.

 

To combat the stress I am cleaning up the worst part of my outdoor boat yard. I have generated a full 92 gallon container of leaves and twigs, Moved my welding table & lots of iron for access. This has turned into majority of my physical effort for two days and it is satisfying to have done it.

 

In the process of all that mindless pruning and sweeping I managed to come up with a better philosophy of construction that I think will be OK, as long as I don’t have chemical problems between polyurethane adhesive and cured polyester & epoxy.

 

 

 

 

[Sniper]

16 minutes ago, Ulu said:

In the process of all that mindless pruning and sweeping I managed to come up with a better philosophy of construction that I think will be OK, as long as I don’t have chemical problems between polyurethane adhesive and cured polyester & epoxy.

 

I've used that method to solve issues too.  My job entails a lot of driving, 5+ hours each way is not uncommon.  So I use that time to let my brain free float and solve this kind of stuff, lol.

[Los_Control]

Just now, Sniper said:

I've used that method to solve issues too.

For me it is the 2:00 am wake up call. No idea what it is ... you run into a problem at work as a remodel carpenter. You open a exterior wall on a 100 year old house. You see some of the craziest framing you ever saw. You wake up at 2:00 am in the morning next day and by 6:00 am you have the completion of the job all figured out.

Kind of amazing how our minds work, just need to get completely away from the issue and our minds never stop & slowly work it out.

 

This loosing stuff is a whole different story. I dont get it. Couple years ago I had a few adult beverages and while out in the shop I dropped my keys to my daily driver.

I think I put them in my T-shirt pocket, or had them in my hands ... they dropped into a awkward spot, and I just thought to myself ... not tonight buddy, I'll get those tomorrow.

 

That was 3 or 4 years ago, I have ripped apart the garage looking for them. Never have found them ... replaced the locks on my truck and new keys and spares.

I have a lost set of keys in my garage, someday will find them. I knew when I lost them would be a challenge, my mind has just shut it out and can not remember exactly where I dropped them

[Ulu]

LOL. . . . I have been cleaning on the boat yard for a couple days now, and I found all kinds of things I forgot I even had. 

[Dan Hiebert]

When I was working, we moved every 5 or 6 years.  Never fail, every time I unpacked I'd find stuff I'd lost 3 or 4 years ago and completely forgot I had.  Technically, I didn't find it, the movers did when they packed.  Of course, they didn't know I'd lost it.  Heck, this last move to Maine I found stuff my wife "lost" in New Mexico...3 houses ago!

[Eneto-55]

Speaking of boats, some friends of ours from Brazil recently bought a place in the country somewhere in Florida.  The wife tried to pick up a piece of metal in the yard, and it was stuck fast.  They started digging, and discovered a boat had been buried there.  (I don't think they have found any bodies, but it can make you wonder.)

[Eneto-55]

3 minutes ago, Dan Hiebert said:

When I was working, we moved every 5 or 6 years.  Never fail, every time I unpacked I'd find stuff I'd lost 3 or 4 years ago and completely forgot I had.  Technically, I didn't find it, the movers did when they packed.  Of course, they didn't know I'd lost it.  Heck, this last move to Maine I found stuff my wife "lost" in New Mexico...3 houses ago!

I have the additional problem that I sometimes take the tools (or whatever) that i think is here in the house up to my (rented) shop, and then I look in both places, but never know where I used it last.  (I've stopped "accusing" family members of taking stuff - too often when it DOES finally show up again, I realize that it was "yours truly" who left it there.)  We also still have stuff stored in two different places in Brazil, in two different states, actually.  AND, I've also lost stuff in my parents' house back in Oklahoma where I grew up, but the house has now been sold, so unless it got mixed in with my brother's stuff, it's gone forever.  But what really gets me is when I set something down, and just a few minutes later cannot find it for the life of me.  Once I was looking all over for my glasses, then realized that if I could still see, they must be on my face, which they were.....

[T120]

This topic brought to mind an incident that happened when I was younger. I was totally focused on a piece of equipment I was working on and didn't realize an older employee had stopped by and was talking to me - Until, suddenly he was loudly cursing me (basically, in milder language the message was, "you can tell me to get lost but don't ignore me!")...Now I've been retired for a number of years, there's no more deadlines and commitments and I find I'm easily distracted, that mixed with a bit of clutter and I frequently misplace tools and other stuff consequently some I have duplicates.? 

[Tooljunkie]

Still looking for my new 10mm wrench…

found my coil of 1/4” nylon tubing i knew i had.been missing for 3-4 years. 

[DonaldSmith]

We have found, that when we find something, it's in the last place we look, and it's right where we left it.  Go figure. 

[Kilgore47]

It's in the last place you look because you stop looking after you find it !!