Lost and found
Im generally a pretty organized guy. My office and shop are often cluttered, but I still have places for my stuff where I can reasonably expect to find it when…
Im generally a pretty organized guy. My office and shop are often cluttered, but I still have places for my stuff where I can reasonably expect to find it when needed.
Unfortunately, I am also a misplacer. I do this most often in the shop when I stop in the middle of what Im doing and walk over to get something I need. However, when going to fetch that item I invariably carry with me whatever was already in my hand and in use at the time pencil, tape measure, screwdriver, utility knife, flare gun, whatever and I unfailingly set this down when I pick up whatever it was I was going after. Then, a few seconds or a few minutes later Im mystified as to what happened to that original thing. It may take several minutes, or several weeks, to stumble over that original item with an oh-here-it-is as I pick it up and put it back where it belongs.
I also tend to put things temporarily in places where I can easily find them later, only to have no idea the next day where that was. Often, I not only dont remember where that was, but I dont even remember putting it there, temporarily or otherwise. On the one hand, losing stuff like this is incredibly annoying when it happens in the middle of a project and you immediately miss it. But on the other hand, its exciting in a you-never-no-what-youll-find sort of way.
Last Friday I told you about my good fortune to send all those birdhouses Id made for a recent book to a local shop to be sold. Well, yesterday I found two more in my office closet while looking for something else. I hadnt recalled stashing them there, and hadnt even realized they were missing from the carload of birdhouses I took over to that shop last week. But I can now take those over to the shop to add to the others hes selling to the benefit of my wallet.
Being a misplacer can be annoying while youre working, but sometimes its like slipping your hands into the pockets of a jacket you havent worn for a while and finding a five-dollar bill you forgot you stuck in there.
Till next time,
A.J.
A.J. Hamler is the former editor of Woodshop News and Woodcraft Magazine. He's currently a freelance woodworking writer/editor, which is another way of stating self-employed. When he's not writing or in the shop, he enjoys science fiction, gourmet cooking and Civil War reenacting, but not at the same time.