Tools that hide from you

          I have a side cutter tool I bought in 1975. It is not a chrome finished steel tool so it does not stand out as chrome finished tools do in a tool box. The problem is the tool can disappear in a tool box, a bag or on the floor of a truck. In the last 26 years it has been lost as often as it has been found. There was a 3 year period when I could not find it at all. Joyce bought me a new cutter with nice red cushion handles for Christmas after that third year and I promptly lost it for a while. This year I found both of them and had them available until last week. I used the red handled one and left it where I had used it. This morning I needed a cutter and could not find either in my tool box. I remembered where I had left the red handled one and used it to get the job done. Then I went looking for the other. It was hidden in my big tool box. That made me wonder how I could make it more visible. It turned out I had some white Teflon tape used in plumbing jobs so I cut a strip and wrapped tightly around the handle of the older non-chrome cutter. It does make the tool stand out more than before. Hopefully I can find it next time I need it.

          Hand trowels used in the garden are also a problem for me and Joyce. I think we have 5 or 6 of them, but have to go on a search every time we need one. One of them showed up this spring when I removed a Rose of Sharon shrub I had planted as a stick back in 2004. It was used in the planting and remained hidden for 11 years until a month ago.

          Now this may seem like nothing more than a case of old age senility, but I have and can lay hands on tools that I bought 53 years ago, a socket set that in all 53 years I have never misplaced a single piece. I do not know what it is with the side cutters or hand trowels, but they truly hide from me. Could it just be that those two types of tools are just being lazy?