There's a Black Hole in my shop.

[Chaz]

Yes, that's right. There's a black hole in my shop. It has an appetite for measuring devices, and pencils. The Black Hole follows me around the shop and gobbles up a tape measure, or pencil. Gone. Poof! Of course, I look high and low and can't find it. I finally give up looking and buy a replacement. Guess what. A day or two later, the lost item appears in the shop. The damn Black Hole, coughs it up, leaving it right where I'll find it. Bastard.

 

[ScottM]

Pencils and tapes are both herd animals. Where you find one you usually find most of the others. They are also very shy creatures hanging out in the furthest corner of your shop from where you need them.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

I've had similar occurrences in my shop. I believe it is the work of the Gremlins that hide in the crawl space under the shop. I've tried several methods to catch them, eradicate them, punish them, all to no avail. I've also noticed they seem to be at their worst right after I clean the shop. That's when they really move things around in the dark of night. And that, friends, is why I no longer clean my shop. Blame it on the Gremlins!

 

[kserdar]

On average, people spend about 55 minutes a day looking for things they can't find. This adds up to over 6.5 months of our lives, or almost 5,000 hours spent looking for things.


The most common items that go missing are:
Glasses, Pens, Mobile phones, Keys, Phone chargers, Tops, Bed and bath linen, and Underwear.


The living room and bedroom are the rooms most in need of storage and where people spend the most time looking for things.


People also spend a lot of time searching for information online. On average, people spend 1.8 hours per day searching for information from the internet.

 

[bowman]

People also spend a lot of time searching for information online. On average, people spend 1.8 hours per day searching for information from the internet.

Cool, I've spent 4 hours looking for that stat...

 

[Howie]

Black Hole, ridiculous, obviously a poltergeist.

 

[Craptastic]

Are you sure you don't live in Bermuda and have been looking for a triangular square?

 

[Bill Clemmons]

Cool, I've spent 4 hours looking for that stat...

Did you know that 69.8% of all statistics are made up? Or maybe it was 47.3%. I can't remember what I used last time.

 

[Chaz]

Hell, my lighter went missing yesterday at a crucial time in my daily calendar (420).

Guess what showed up around 420 today?

It's not gremlins. I don't have a crawl space under my shop.

It can't be a poltergeist. They don't have that kind of twisted sense of humor.

 

[Chaz]

And now I can't find my damned pipe!

 

[drw]

I, too, have experienced the "black hole"... the best way I have found to reverse the effects of the black hole is to buy replacements (tape meausres, pencils, etc.)...as soon as the replacements are in the shop the black hole releases its hoard of stuff! Unfortunately, the the process is a big cycle, soon the black hole will reclaim the old and the new!

 

[JNCarr]

I, too, have experienced the "black hole"... the best way I have found to reverse the effects of the black hole is to buy replacements (tape meausres, pencils, etc.)...as soon as the replacements are in the shop the black hole releases its hoard of stuff! Unfortunately, the the process is a big cycle, soon the black hole will reclaim the old and the new!

I think you are experiencing firsthand Hawking radiation. This is Nobel prize level stuff, so keep accurate notes - that is unless your pencil has disappeared again

 

[Chaz]

I think you are experiencing firsthand Hawking radiation. This is Nobel prize level stuff, so keep accurate notes - that is unless your pencil has disappeared again

Dammit - I was afraid it might be Hawking Radiation :-(

 

[drw]

I think you are experiencing firsthand Hawking radiation. This is Nobel prize level stuff, so keep accurate notes - that is unless your pencil has disappeared again

Joe, I think you are right...sometimes my shop seems to be an "event horizon".

 

[DSWalker]

Couple years ago I broke down and bought a new tape measure. I have a 30' one I got back in the 80's but the 15' ones always disappear.

The new 15 footer then disappeared again. Last week my daughter was over and I was helping her clean some trash out of her car. LO and BEHOLD there it was in the door pocket of her back seat!

I looked at her and said you have no idea the despair this has caused me over the last year. At least it "wasn't me" this time!

She just laughed and said "whoops".

 

[RobS.]

I'm pretty sure in my shop/barn it's camel crickets, but I have wondered about the cats.

 

[Oka]

My last deep clean of my shop rendered 15 tape measures.......... Nice ! now I don't have to buy that 16th one

 

[mighty_fine_sawdust]

My experience is that what you're looking for is always in the last place you look. I said that to my wife and she said "go there first."

 

[Luke]

I stop looking for things after a few minutes. My ADHD brain latches onto something else and I am off to the races on another project. What I have noticed is that while looking for the next thing the Gremlins/Event Horizon/Poltergeists/My Daughter/Cat/Dog have wandered off with, I find the thing I was looking for earlier.

My advice is to stop looking for whatever it is, and look for something else!

 

[Mike Davis]

I have to take responsibility for my own failures. my brain gets busy thinking of the next steps I need to make and I lay my tape/pencil/tool down where ever I used it. I go on to the next thing and forget where I was because I don't need to be there next. I'm always trying to think of the next thing, not the last. My solution is to buy a dozen pencils at a time and place them all around the shop. I have 5-10 tapes, several rulers, over 40 calipers/compasses. But certain tools that are rather pricy and required for certain operations I have learned to make a space for just that tool and to always put it back in that space.