Lost And Found

     Still in recovery from the awful cold, I have been taking allergy pills and using cough syrup as needed.  This has had exactly the effect you might expect on my mental acuity.

     So the early the day before yesterday, I went shambling around the North Campus, inspecting some of the outdoor infrastructure, a job I can do just fine even if I'm not a hundred percent.  I walked six hundred feet down a once-mown and slightly-grown path to inspect a couple of big gadgets, keeping my eye open for wildflowers (we've got a wide variety) and toadstools (ditto, including some genuine red-capped don't-touch-'ems) along the way, and at some point, dropped my car key without noting it.

     Comes time to go home, after coffee and routine have worked their magic and I'm way more alert.  I hit the door, reach for my car key, and...nothing.  No key.  Searched the building.  Nothing.  Retraced all my steps, including outdoors, very carefully.  Nothing,  Did it all again.  Nothing.  I finally gave up, called Tam and had her bring my spare key.

     Yesterday, I bought a spring rake on my way to work, figuring on walking my path again, dragging it behind me.  It was worth a try.  Arrived at work to find the lawn mowing guy had hit the place early before the heat (smart move, it's been in the upper eighties before noon the last few days).  But my key might have been destroyed or flung, or--

     I walked the path anyway, rake bouncing along behind.  At nearly the farthest extreme, I walked into a cleared area around one of the gadgets and there it was, sparkling in the sunlight, right in front of me, untouched: my car key.   Never needed the rake.  The lawn mowing had taken away just enough grass to make it obvious.

     And, hey, I've got a new rake for Fall.  A good thing.  The old ones had plastic tines and the bent ends were worn almost away.