busker

Lost & Lost

Somewhere between enjoying last Friday's Emily Groff concert at Bagels & Beans and walking home, I misplaced my sole pair of glasses.

Being a belt 'n' braces type, once I had sprung clean my entire working quarters, I set about visiting every trader I frequent just in case the lunettes had transported themselves there in homing pigoen mode.

Do you know what people leave on the counter, and in what quantities?

• Dark glasses by the tonnage.
  • In fact, this was the first bit of Seattle lore I learned: so unaccustomed are we to donning shades that, once put down, there is very little instinct to remember to retrieve them
• Car keys galore: Ford, BMW, Mini Coopers, you name it.
• Keys galore, period.
• Mini-brollies (which shoots down my dark glasses theory)
• ID badges
• Purses
• Wrist watches (cheapo variety)
• Lighters
• Baby knick knacks such as pacifiers
• Assorted tools of the burglary trade posing as mini-DIY items and innocently shaped prongs
• And so forth.

And while I'm on lost and foundless, at 1758hrs today, having crafted a job-winning letter and résumé with such skill and attention that I forgot to save every third second, there was a thunder clap, a literally momentary power cut, and my whole chef-d'oeuvre was consigned to the ether.

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