What have you "lost" today...?

[Accipiter]

...

So... I returned from a week away in Cornwall on Saturday (15th) and managed to get in the workshop this afternoon... Bit more on that 15 pane interior door, cut out for the hinges. Mallet and chisel...

Something niggled though... I noticed on,y one claw hammer where there should have been two... ... "Never mind, must be somewhere on the bench or in the 'shop - I'll look further after doing the hinges"... " can't be too far away..."

Well.... I looked all over... under the benches, shelves, cupboards... zilch. Looked in the house, upstairs, down... around the garden... zilch.

Then a little glimmer of memory... *did I lend it to my daughter when I let her use the nail gun to repair the grandson's little play shop?* ... I'll WhatsApp her and see (16:00)... Reply back "hi dad, I don't think so but I'll check in a bit" (16:04)... 17:30 still waiting... twiddling fingers and thumbs... racking the brain box as to where *I* may have last used it... Nope, nothing... Just that niggle of loaning it to daughter... I brought back the nail gun... but the hammer...

Can't see I'd forget using it... and then NOT putting it back on the rack with the others... 16oz claw... had it since 1969?~71? This one was my father's

 

[fuse]

It's in our utility room and you can't have it back.

 

[Accipiter]

Daughter just responded... after a nudge message... to say she hasn't got it... ...

That one's not mine Martin... even if you are located in the UK I know I didn't lend it to you

 

[duke]

One thing that befuddles me is where do all the pencils go.

 

[Cabinetman]

One thing that befuddles me is where do all the pencils go.

Dozens of them, I think they run away with the tape measures.
The hammer will be somewhere blindingly obvious and at that point you will remember using it to do ……..!

 

[Accipiter]

Dozens of them, I think they run away with the tape measures.
The hammer will be somewhere blindingly obvious and at that point you will remember using it to do ……..!

I hope so Ian... I know of one sure fire way of it showing up... AFTER I go buy another...

Pencils... tape measures... they just creep away and hide under anything that is around... honest - seen it in my nightmares Scott

 

[AndyP]

What you really need is a hammerfor.

 

[Lons]

What you really, really need is a bungee lanyard attached or, a tracker on each tool or, go and buy half a dozen of each from boot sales or, simply refuse to lend them out.

The last two are my approach.

 

[SamQ aka Ah! Q!]

I sympathise hugely with all here reporting migrating tools, in multiplicity, with knobs on.
I too have this problem, especially twice a week when my tool boxes drag me to a heritage railyard nearby to carry out wood transplants on ailing carriages and occasionally, 80 miles away north or 125 miles away west: "Daaad? Can you just fix...?"
I have a rigid rule: no tool is ever laid down casually; no matter where, no matter why. In the workshop, it's back on the hook, shelf, or drawer. If its going to be needed again in two mins, into the bench trough, then back in its place.
At remote locations, I use a small tool tray or, zealously declare one end of our heavy bench: "MINE" and the router, spanner, clamps, cordless, accutriments galore, go there. "Paws off!". Bob (Lons) is right; neither a borrower nor a lender be.

Yes! It's O.C.D.! Yes, its that kind of retentive! But, it works. I subscribe fully, to the sad fact that, as we grow older, our available short-term memory...atrophies. At 70, this is my workaround, my way of retaining the tattered remnants of my sanity.

I am no saint or skilled practitioner in this endeavour. I forget to be meticulous in observing the "stow it" philosophy. I have just 'lost' a beautiful Aven Trimatool, a router collet and a rotary file I swear I put into the cordless box....but against the potential (worse) list of frustration and projects unable to proceed with, I'm calling my coping mechanism "good".

 

[Accipiter]

What you really, really need is a bungee lanyard attached or, a tracker on each tool or, go and buy half a dozen of each from boot sales or, simply refuse to lend them out.

The last two are my approach.

Yep Bob... see... the last one is my approach, learned a lesson with a Ryobi circ saw - but... but... *family*... close family like daughter... but she says she hasn't got it . I shouldn't have had the week away... Just can't recall where I may have used that one last ....

 

[Accipiter]

Thanks Sam... I feel for you in respect of the journeys mentioned and the distance travelled. I'd be as vigilant, in fact, even if I'm doing a job for the daughter (3 miles away tops) I'll make sure I keep all the tools I've taken over in a group together - and then double check before loading back in the car...

The annoying thing is that the rack for the hammers in the workshop is so close by that, at end of day or use, I'd pop it back in the rack... So... I'm having an OCD moment over this thing...

 

[DaveL]

Do you chaps not remember that there are rips in the space time continuum that tools fall in to while you are not looking?
They will reappear when the need to use them has passed because you have bought a replacement. I have a good selection of tape measures, pencils, crimp tools, spirit levels and chisels due to this happening.

 

[Accipiter]

Well...

Uh hum...

Looked again today... all round the 'shop... even in the house... under a settee...

Last look in the 'shop... walked out and up the path... turned round and something nudged me to look up...




Only been walking past the bl%$dy thing yesterday and today... . Absolutely no idea how it got put there... or what I'd used it for... or why I left it there... . Must have done it sometime before 8th August...

... Now back in the rack


Anyone done something similar... or *better*... ... Apologised to daughter...

What's that?... Should have gone to SpecSavers - already do but maybe I should go somewhere else

 

[Lons]

The cat probably borrowed it. Good for killing pigeons.

 

[duke]

It could be we are all getting old and forgetfull, no it's we have too much on the go.

 

[SamQ aka Ah! Q!]

no it's we have too much on the go.

Word!

 

[Accipiter]

Now... I was expecting lots of these or or ...

I appreciate your "kindness" so far

I still can't believe I've been such a dumbo

 

[duke]

Your in good company.

 

[fuse]

In sure one of those hammers is mine.

 

[AndyP]

Now... I was expecting lots of these or or ...

I appreciate your "kindness" so far

I still can't believe I've been such a dumbo

Now you are on a roll Frank; my daughter is distraught over a lost necklace earlier today; not seen it she put it on this morning. Do you work on a no find no fee basis?

 

[Accipiter]

In sure one of those hammers is mine.

Sorry... definitely not. One is mine the was my father's which I inherited in August 1992...

 

[Accipiter]

Now you are on a roll Frank;

Thank you Andy

my daughter is distraught over a lost necklace earlier today; not seen it she put it on this morning. Do you work on a no find no fee basis?

Im sorry to hear this I know how distraught she must be - having suffered the recent grave loss of this hammer.

I'd need to insist on "all out of pocket" expenses to be paid such as travel (hire car as no longer insured for business use in my vehicle), flights, hotels and food before committing to a 'No find no fees' contract.

If you'd like to DM me we can discuss further