Bright Ideas

 My neighborhood requires that each home have a dusk to dawn light in front of the house. (Our HOA is pretty innocuous, so I don't mind the requirement.)  Since I moved in just over a year ago, my outdoor light has been on 24/7. I realized that the sensor was no longer working and needed to be replaced, but it wasn't high on my list of priorities. But, a few days ago I got around to making the repair. I'll have to say I was a bit proud of my ability to tackle this job alone, although to be honest it entailed only unclipping a plastic coupler and plugging in one attached to the new sensor. 

I thought at the same time I would replace the light bulb and came into the house to find one of the long life bulbs I had purchased about a week ago. I remembered buying them and looked in the pantry where I keep light bulbs. No new bulbs. Hmm, maybe I put them in the cupboard with cleaning supplies. No bulbs. In the garage? No. In the linen closet? No. Under the sink? No. No. No. (I have 3 sinks). I had purchased bird seed at the same time, so maybe I put them on the sun porch. No. 

I put the old bulb back in.    

                                                     

I have two laptops. I usually keep one at my office on campus and one at home. For the summer, I brought my school laptop home. I sometimes use it at home at my dining room table if I don't feel like sitting in my home office. However, my home laptop has the Adobe Pro software and my school one does not. About a month ago I was working at the dining room on my school laptop and realized I needed to edit a .pdf document. I grabbed my other laptop, put it on the table, and completed the edit. The next day, I came home from the gym and decided to do some work. I saw my home laptop on the table, but not my school laptop. I had the mouse. I had the power cord. I did not have the laptop. I looked in my home office. No laptop. I looked in my bedroom. No laptop. I looked on the sun porch. No laptop. My sinking feeling was that it had been stolen. The dining room opens to the sun porch and I'm not always careful to lock that door. Would someone actually come in and take the laptop but not the power cord and not the second laptop? Seemed odd, but I was resigned to the loss due to my own stupidity. I sat down at the other laptop, then realized...the second laptop was under it. I had merely put one on top of the other. The school laptop is pretty slim and exactly the same dimensions.  Now, I was amazed by my own stupidity.

Today, I decided to take a hike in the 90 degree weather. I pulled out my convertible hiking pants to wear because they have lots of pockets. As I was zipping off the lower leg pieces to make shorts I thought, "Every time I put these back together I fumble to get the legs on the correct side. I should mark these pieces so that it will be easier." Impressed with my thinking I turned over one of the lower leg pieces and noticed an "R" on the zipper pull.  I picked up the other piece, an "L" on the zipper pull....Who knew?? It reminded me of the time I realized my sheets had tags for "side" and "top."  Will the world ever cease to amaze me?? Does my stupidity have no bounds?

Shaking my head, dressed for my hike, I walked back into the dining room with a smile. I glanced over to the corner where the 5 gallon bucket I had purchased at the hardware store sat. Guess what was in it? 

A box of light bulbs.

In my studies of gerontology the mantra was, don't worry if you forget where you put your keys, worry if you don't remember what they are for. Or, if you find them in the freezer.

 Luckily, the light bulbs were not in the freezer.

(I need to point out, for some readers, that I had relayed the laptop story to my niece and her daughter when they stopped for a visit. The laptops were still on the table in the exact position I had left them. Before I reached the revelation, Ruby, without a beat, pointed out that they were on top of each other. I should have called her to look for my light bulbs! The difference nearly 60 years can make...)