Happy New Years

I spent about an hour right before dinner looking for some labels that I last saw last weekend.  As I've gotten older, I have come to realize that my memory isn't what it used to be.  To complicate this, there are 5 other people in my household who are just as likely to move things around from where I last saw them, as I am to accidentally mislay them.  My general policy in dealing with all things missing is to blame others first, since the odds are 1 in 6 that I'm the culprit.  This time, the missing labels were on me, though, because I'm really the only one who uses them. 

With that in mind, I retraced my steps.  They usually sit by my basket of miscellaneous on top of my dresser in the bedroom.  I generally use them in either the garage or the shop.  Sometimes, I put them in a coat pocket when my hands are full.  Occasionally, I'll be distracted by something else while I have them, and they'll wind up getting packed into one of the vehicles, where I realize I still have them when I go to crank the motor.

Since today is New Years Eve, it's one of the two days a year that the Beaubiens don't change out of their pajamas.  So it was that I found myself outside in the cold in a pair of pajama pants and a T-shirt, looking in the shop, garage, and under the seats of our vehicles.  It took about 15 minutes, and I was too stubborn to go back in to put on a coat because it was only going to take a few minutes and I was determined not to let Mother Nature win.  I almost instantly regretted not putting a coat on after sitting by a warm fireplace all day and we're at that time of the year in Western Kentucky where the weather fluctuates between the cool Monsoon rains, and hard freezes.  This morning the ground was in a state of partial thaw in places where the sun could reach.   

On the return trip in, I checked the pocket of the coat that I neglected to wear with no results, and then began to look through the house in a manner that was reminiscent of the Warden in Shawshank Redemption Andy Dufresne's cell.  Now, every step of the way, I was saying, "I wonder where those labels are."  My wife claimed not to hear me say it the hundred or so times that I repeated it. 

So, in a last ditch effort to find what I was looking for before dinner was on the table, I opted to enlist help and asked her directly if she had seen them.  Her reply, "I think they might have fallen behind the dresser."  This translates loosely to "I was doing something on the dresser, the labels fell behind the dresser, and I decided to just leave them there."  I located them about 8 inches from where I had left them, exactly where she said they would be.  I don't know whether to be upset that she let me look for an hour, or glad that I remembered where I had left them in the first place.  Since it was home made pizza night (she cooked and it was delicious), all transgressions are forgiven.  I'm in a pretty happy place right now.  Happy New Years!