Hi Everybody,
This isn’t really a very important post but I had fun laughing at myself for a while today. I was working at the mitersaw when suddenly out of the blue some mysterious elf stole the pencil I was using. Of course I assume it must have been some kind of elf or gremlin because I was in the shop alone. then as we’ve all done before I’m sure the standard search ritual begins.
1) check left ear (I’m left handed)
2) search immediate area around saw and bench
3)scan the floor in immediate area, oops floor is too far away to see clearly begin search for glasses,
4)repeat step 2, glasses found!!, first victory.
5)get down on all fours and calculate using my best understanding of physics to calculate the approximate trajectory of a falling pencil. Taking into account that it could have launched itself up to 30 feet away because of the eraser.
6)complete search of floor done, begin checking under the bench is all the tools and stuff that has accumulated there. While I’m down here I may as well clean things up a little.
7)no pencil, start searching through shavings under the bench and saws nearby, may as well sweep up and throw out the shavings while I’m at it.
8)repeat steps one through four (I took my glasses of because they were getting sweaty, this has now become an involved project)
9)Go over to shelving where the stationary and books are and search for another pencil, no luck, need some coffee.
10)Head into the house to make coffee, while I’m at it search through all the junk drawers in the kitchen for a pencil, no luck.
11)Back to the shop for another go round.
12)Lean up against the bench completely puzzled as to where my pencil has gone and take a sip of coffee (mmmm starbucks)
13)Scratch my head with my right hand (left one is busy with the coffee) and there she is behind the right ear.
14)Laugh at myself for several minutes while I enjoy my coffee.
15)Well, let’s get back to work. Go over to the saw and resume what I was doing.
Crap, where’s my glasses.
Total time lost, hour and a half.
I hope this has happened to everyone else at least once.
Brian
Replies
Brian,
Yep, a familiar scenario. My gremlin is in the form of those small components like parts of magnetic switches that will drop, and despite you having swept the floor in anticipation of impending buggeration factor, will run and hide in the most unlikely places.
Then there is that sanding block that becomes invisible an instant before you focus on it-but I can explain that one-it is because it knows that I don't like sanding .
On a more serious note-I don't carry pencils behind ears or in top pockets-I once saw a pencil drop from ear and connect with spinning jointer knife, then attack former wearer in the nose. If it had been more accurate it could have resulted in eye loss.
Yup, I was fixin the nose pad on my wifes glasses the other day and I dropped the screw. I don't think they should be aloud to use screws that small, use snap joints that fit together under pressure or glue or maybe velcro. There I was feeling the whole floor of my wifes office until I found the thing. Of course she couldn't resist the sweet temptation of saying "I told you to be careful". I probably wouldn't have resisted either come to think of it.
Maybe it's Murphy's Law that does us in, whenever something can go wrong it will. Let's search the internet for this Murphy guy, one of us must live near him, and tell him to lay off for a decade or so.
Brian
Having spent countless hours crawling around searching for small parts that seem to always bounce into the most obscure place possible, I've made it a "rule" to work over a towel or cloth. I suspect that this is only a temporary solution while the parts learn to bounce on a soft surface. - lol
Despite the fact that I wear a shop apron, I am guilty of leaving my tape measure/pencils on whatever surface I'm working at.I'm constantly walking back to pick up my tape or pencil when I move to the next bench...And I have tried to re-train myself. I'm a hopeless student :-)Mark
Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, cut it with an ax.
I've worked a lot of places, including a jewelry store (apprentice repairman). I was at my bench one day and the stone setter is obviously searching for something and getting more upset by the minute. I ask him what he's looking for. He dropped a 2 carot diamond and can't find it. Since they're worth a bit of money, even at the prices we were getting them, I thought it would be good to help him find it. We looked in places it couldn't possibly have gone--around corners, on top of shelves and so on. Finally, I open a cupboard door and there was the diamond, sitting on a shelf, minding its own business like someone placed it there. The cupboard door was beveled and I figure the stone just hit the bevel of the closed door and dropped onto the shelf. Figured I earned my $8/hr for the time I spent looking for it.
My hand tools are really tricky. They have the supernatural ability to move about my shop at will, often disappearing and reappearing exactly where I last remember leaving them. Prior to that moment, totally invisible to the naked eye. The power tools largely stay put; who can fathom the mysteries of the universe?
I knew it was going to be behind the right ear as I was reading #1.
A friend of mine calls this "Male pattern Blindness", it usually hits about the same time as male pattern baldness.
Geee.. I was looking all over for my glasses in the shop... I had them ON!
A speedometer mechanic told me a way to minimize loosingsmall part Go into the bath room put the stopper in the sink & tub, & the toilet seat down. It sure makes looking for bouncing parts easyer, if you use a bright flashlight in a sweeping motion low to the floor.
Richard
I thought that any dropped object immeditlyheaded for under the center of the largest object. The more out of reach the better.
I have duplicates of lots of things, because I have been known to run to the store and buy another, just to bring it back and put it down on the bench right next to the one I couldn't find earlier.
Brian - thanks for a great laugh, I think we've all been there.
Two things...
1) I always wear a hat when doing trim work (which is pencil intensive) and the pencil is always in my hat, tucked in above my right ear. Haven't lost it since adopting this rule.
2) If something falls from the table or my hands, DON'T try to catch it - LET IT FALL. Watch it while it's going down and follow it. You will always find it this way.
My 2 cents...
Joe
I bet it's happened to all of us, more than once. I now keep a pencil holder with a dozen disposable mechanical pencils in it on my bench. Also, I put the pencil I'm using into my shop apron when I'm done using it, and had to train myself to do this religiously.
Now if the darn tape measure wouldn't run off...
GeneralKael
Slacker Extraordinaire
I fixed the missing pencil problem. I bought a box of pencils (144). I now keep about 20 sharpened pencils laying around. Always one at hand.
Paul
Just went down and bought the jumbo box of pencils at the Costco we have down here in Cabo, I'll toss some into the junk drawers in the kitchen too for when the gremlins steal all the ones that I have in the shop.
Another strange thing that seems to happen to me all the time (This may be Murphy or one of his relatives at work) is that whenever I start going through my pockets to find something it's almost always in the last pocket I check in. I've tried to train myself to do this sequence the other way around so that I'll always find it in the first pocket I search, but invariably the subconscious mind wins and it's always in the last darn pocket.
All is not lost however, I may not remember peoples names all that well and phone numbers and addresses don't stick at all but I can proudly remember the measurements of just about everything I've ever built. Maybe that's why the rest of my memory is shot!!, no more room for anything else.
Brian
Mark Twain was once asked if he ever got lost while exploring the west. He replied "No, but I did get turned around once for several days!"
No, I've never lost anything but more than once it took several weeks to find it.
A bad day woodworking is better than a good day working -- yes, I'm retired!
Brian,
Great story! Been there -- done that! It's usually LOML who walks up and says, "Is this what you're looking for???"
On the pencil thing, I have a box of standard #2 pencils in the shop, but I started using mechanical pencils a few years ago. With a 0.5mm lead, I get a crisp, clear line from a pencil that never needs sharpening.
Regards,
Bill Arnold - Custom Woodcrafting
Mensa Member
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Food for Thought: The Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
Here's one for a good laugh...Friday night we had a power failure, no air, no lights, and no TV! I need to watch some TV before I go to bed, for relaxation. Considering there was no power, I decided to go rent a DVD. I made it four blocks before I realized what I was doing!
GO CUBS!!!
Great thread. As for everyone who has found "solutions", I stubbornly remain skeptical. One of Murphy's buddies said - "The difficulty in making something foolproof is that the fools are so damn clever."
DR
Brian, been there, done that. a million times .Somewhere in another universe is a repository of mislaid pencils/lost gloves and orphaned sox.
How is it that all my lost gloves were left handed?
Sox, (on the other hand),being ambi-pedal? have no special preference.
The pencil conundrum is that, when they are finally located, they are worn down to the nub???
I'm sure I've lost a few neckties too, but having no matching witnesses about as reminders,their absences go unnoticed
Getting back to errant pencils.....
Being totally lost without a means to jot down a thought,
a size,a reminder,I considered a Velcro ear lobe transplant.
Right this minute, as I gaze at the monitor, I see six pens/pencils
hanging from Velcro patches all around the screen
The pencils having been wrapped at the top with the
mating fuzzy stuff,hang there in strange orientations as if beckoning me to choose one or the other.
Even entertained the idea of 'Velcroing' my remote to my forehead, but considering I have bushy eyebrows,the earlobe route seems less life threatening.
Steinmetz.
Edited 6/27/2005 2:53 am ET by steinmetz
How about inventing a pencil that is actually attached to your firger in some way. I've done a few experiments with rubber bands that work well, the only problem being the eventual loss of circulation in the tip of your finger. Maybe some kind of plastic sleeve with the pencil attached, almost like a thimble for the index finger. I'm going to have to start experimenting in the shop!
Brian
Brian, If you must write with your pimky attached to a pencil, best to use your opposite one for picking your nose. In either case avoid the middle finger at any cost! L O L STEIN.
I know someone who has an ear piercing big enough to stick a pen or pencil through. That's a solution you might think about. :-)(Yes, I have some weird friends. He's not even the weirdest of the lot.)
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