Lost and Found (often)

(Photo--hearing aid and the candle where it had been in hiding)

There's two ways most people deal with a person who loses something. Berate them or help them find it.

Over the past few years my housemate and I've lost many things. We are the gold medalists of misplaced items.

Some examples:

The day of a Celine Dion concert I asked her if she had the tickets ordered many months before. "Of course," she said, before NOT being able to find them. Had I been the one to have ordered them, we'd never have had a solution, but with her spectacular record keeping, she contacted the ticket sale company. They sent us a fax which got us in the gate--no sweat. 

Years later the tickets reappeared but Dion was long gone.

As we were about to leave for a trip our trip fund was no where to be found. We regularly put money in it when we don't go to lunch, don't go to coffee, can't decide who owes what so it goes into the pot. It adds up and has paid for several great adventures including a week of research in the North of Germany, an overnight trip within Switzerland or a day of train hopping.

Since we hide the pouch when we go out in case our house is once again burgled and neither of us weren't sure which one of us was the guilty party we tore the rooms where it might be. No recriminations but also no money was found. We went away anyway. 

A few weeks later, it reappeared. 

The sad part...both of us had agreed to the hiding place. No mention of the A-heimer word please.

I will credit my housemate with great finding skills. After I've tried everything, she usually hones on the missing item with rapidity.

Rick and I are forever misplacing things. The most serious was his hearing aid. We looked and looked. He'd just gone through tons of papers and each one had to be examined before being thrown out. Even the wet garbage was searched. 

Nothing.

We do not have my housemate's hunting skill.

Then tonight he came into the kitchen where I was emptying the dishwasher, he said "You'll never guess . . ."

I did. For some reason he'd put it in the candle jar next to the bed.

Criticism of the loser by the non loser makes no sense. The loser feels badly enough and the non loser may be the loser of this or that the next day or week. 

Better to work on hunting skills.