When is lost stuff gone for good?
For about 10 or 15 years when our girls were younger, they had a traditional Christmas gift for the mister.
Every year they would buy him 10 pair of fingernail clippers at Don's Drugs. The reason for their annual purchase was the disappearance — poof! — of all clippers on the place. The mister said it was because the kids "borrowed" them and never put them back. They, of course, denied ever touching them. Do the math on this one.
Somewhere under this roof there are 100 to 150 pair of fingernail clippers. You would think we would just be tripping over the darn things, wouldn't you? But we aren't. It is time to reinstate that gift idea with the daughters.
Another product that meets the same fate is Chapstick. I buy tons of the stuff every winter because I like to have it handy, it does the trick, and it is cheap. I try to have a tube in each work place, vehicle, coat pocket, and purse.
Just about the time I get it all situated where I want it, warm weather arrives and I don't need it anymore. All summer long it rolls off of every horizontal surface as soon as a dish, book, or candle is moved. Every drawer seems to have enough to supply an army platoon. It gets oozy in the consoles of all the cars.
But with the first cold blast of winter all the tubes go missing. I can only assume they are hiding with the clippers.
The other thing we can't seem to keep track of are socks.
We never seem to lose a pair, just one-half of a pair. I never know where they go. I have seen enough references about this phenomenon in women's magazines to know that I am not alone with this problem.
Usually washers and dryers are blamed for sock abductions. But I don't know
In the grand scheme of things these are minor irritations. But wouldn't you think that over the years someone in this family would have devised a system for taking care of these problems? Maybe that is a New Year's resolution in the making.
— SUSAN MARSHALL
