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Unlocking A Mystery (Vanishing Keys)

MercuryCrest said:
Well, since one of mine didn't involve keys, I might as well put it here....

We were having a meeting of 20-30 people in a small office and someone had 3d-printed a heart gear (one of these....)
and we were passing it around, marveling at how smooth and bloody neat it was.

Someone next to me was rotating the gears and a larger one popped off. It hit the floor (we all heard it) and we all immediately looked. We looked behind us, backed up our chairs, looked again...nothing.

By sound, I estimate that it landed pretty close to me (within 5 feet, probably under the tables), but it was nowhere to be found. The area under the tables was pretty clear. The heart pieces were bright red (as in the link), the floor was mottled white tile.

After the meeting several of us got down on all fours and scanned everywhere. Apart from the tables, there was nothing it could have rolled under.

Fast forward a year later and we moved out of that building. I, personally, was one of the ones to clear out that office and it never did show itself. I'm still waiting to be poking around in the ceiling of our new place and have it randomly drop out of the rafters....

Yes, I considered that someone might have nicked it, but I seriously doubt anyone in that group would have done so; also, when I say we immediately looked, I mean it. Promptly, right that second. I doubt anyone would have had time to bend down and grab it.
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A trouser turn-up? That happens in The Sopranos, where the Boss kerb-stomps someone. He later glances down and spots a tooth complete with root.
 
escargot said:
We have to carry a vital tool at work that we'd be stuffed without, and I tell new recruits 'Don't put it down! If you need two hands, put the tool in your pocket!'
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Ugh, vital tools are a pain at work. A colleague once spent a whole day searching for a VT and brought it up at a meeting only for the boss to airily declare that she had dropped it and it had rolled under the instrument. She didn't pick it up because of being too important for that sort of nonsense or somesuch. Fortunately she has now left!

I have never managed to get round the problem of really wanting a pen light at work. I can't keep it in my lab coat or anywhere in the lab as it will be "borrowed" before I can turn round and never be seen again. I don't really want to have it in any clothes pocket as I will just carry it home and leave it there. Maybe I could get it strung onto my security pass? :thought: Or perhaps embedded into my forehead, like a Cyberman?
 
Maybe stick the pen light behind your ear ? (you'd have to remove your fag first).
 
Min Bannister said:
Ugh, vital tools are a pain at work. A colleague once spent a whole day searching for a VT and brought it up at a meeting only for the boss to airily declare that she had dropped it and it had rolled under the instrument. She didn't pick it up because of being too important for that sort of nonsense or somesuch. Fortunately she has now left!

I have never managed to get round the problem of really wanting a pen light at work. I can't keep it in my lab coat or anywhere in the lab as it will be "borrowed" before I can turn round and never be seen again. I don't really want to have it in any clothes pocket as I will just carry it home and leave it there. Maybe I could get it strung onto my security pass? :thought: Or perhaps embedded into my forehead, like a Cyberman?
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I once had a job where I found a lanyard that kept a pen around my neck. The cap was on the lanyard and the bottom had to fit back in . Wore it for years. This is why professional craftsmen that I know etch their names onto every tool.
 
The mystery to me is why every time I put a pen away in my coat or clip it to my top pocket, the barrel is almost completely unscrewed when I next come to use it ?
 
Bad Bungle said:
The mystery to me is why every time I put a pen away in my coat or clip it to my top pocket, the barrel is almost completely unscrewed when I next come to use it ?
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nipple-jiffle :twothumbs:
 
Iris said:
If it's a pen light does it have a clip? If it does could it be clipped onto your top?
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Ooh that's a good point. I think it might. I will check tomorrow. I think I would be less likely to carry it home that way. And if I did, I would surely find and chuck it into my work bag rather than into the washing machine? :twothumbs:
 
I've done the thing with keys where you put them in your pocket (or think you have), and then you put your hand in - no key. Key later turns up somewhere completely stupid - because it never went into the pocket. It went into the space around the pocket (I have work trousers where the pockets aren't completely sewn in but sit as little...well, pockets, with a gap down the side. The keys caught on my socks and subsquently fell off somewhere unbelievable (under the desk was a favourite), causing many cries of 'how did they get THERE?'
 
catseye said:
(I have work trousers where the pockets aren't completely sewn in but sit as little...well, pockets, with a gap down the side. The keys caught on my socks and subsquently fell off somewhere unbelievable (under the desk was a favourite), causing many cries of 'how did they get THERE?'
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Pockets with a gap down the side sounds like a terrible design. What’s wrong with trousers with normal pockets? Have you had a word with your trouser buyer?
 
hunck said:
Pockets with a gap down the side sounds like a terrible design. What’s wrong with trousers with normal pockets? Have you had a word with your trouser buyer?
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Work uniform. It's designed that way so that you can clip things onto the inside of the 'pocket' (where the pocket isn't, if you see what I mean), like box cutters and such. So they are inside against your leg, but not in the pocket part. Thus ensuring that when you aim for the actual pocket, you miss and everything slides down your leg.
 
catseye said:
Work uniform. It's designed that way so that you can clip things onto the inside of the 'pocket' (where the pocket isn't, if you see what I mean), like box cutters and such. So they are inside against your leg, but not in the pocket part. Thus ensuring that when you aim for the actual pocket, you miss and everything slides down your leg.
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I get that it’s a work uniform, doesn’t detract that it’s a naff design though - what’s the point of it? I’m having difficulty visualising

the inside of the 'pocket' (where the pocket isn't, if you see what I mean)
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Surely a pocket which is a pocket is better than a pocket with a gap inside..
 
I don't know how to best illustrate my trousers (and there's a sentence I never thought I'd have to say...)

Basically, there's a pocket opening as per normal trousers. But when you put your hand in the opening, there's two 'sides', one side is just an open gap (for clipping things too big for the actual pocket, we bend down a lot and a box cutter will dig in if you've tried to put it in your pocket, so you clip it in the 'gap' bit so it hangs down inside, is easy to grab but doesn't take up pocket space). The other side is the actual pocket.
 
Min Bannister said:
Ugh, vital tools are a pain at work. A colleague once spent a whole day searching for a VT and brought it up at a meeting only for the boss to airily declare that she had dropped it and it had rolled under the instrument. She didn't pick it up because of being too important for that sort of nonsense or somesuch. Fortunately she has now left!

I have never managed to get round the problem of really wanting a pen light at work. I can't keep it in my lab coat or anywhere in the lab as it will be "borrowed" before I can turn round and never be seen again. I don't really want to have it in any clothes pocket as I will just carry it home and leave it there. Maybe I could get it strung onto my security pass? :thought: Or perhaps embedded into my forehead, like a Cyberman?
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Try a Photon Freedom. Expensive for a coin-sized torch, but readily attachable to your ID necklace badge, for example.

l can also personally recommend Olight products. l have one of their tiny AAA-sized Eos models permanently attached to the keyring on my Swiss Army Knife. lt’s used multiple times per day.

maximus otter
 
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catseye said:
I don't know how to best illustrate my trousers (and there's a sentence I never thought I'd have to say...)

Basically, there's a pocket opening as per normal trousers. But when you put your hand in the opening, there's two 'sides', one side is just an open gap (for clipping things too big for the actual pocket, we bend down a lot and a box cutter will dig in if you've tried to put it in your pocket, so you clip it in the 'gap' bit so it hangs down inside, is easy to grab but doesn't take up pocket space). The other side is the actual pocket.
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OK, got it now! Still sounds a bad design.

Do you really want a tool brushing against your leg? [fnaarr]
 
maximus otter said:
Try a Photon Freedom. Expensive for a coin-sized torch, but readily attachable to your ID necklace badge, for example.

l can also personally recommend Olight products. l have one of their tiny AAA-sized Eos models permanently attached to the keyring on my Swiss Army Knife. lt’s used multiple times per day.

maximus otter
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Do you have one on each of your many, ahem, 'leathermans' too?
 
Iris said:
If it's a pen light does it have a clip? If it does could it be clipped onto your top?
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I tried clipping it to my lanyard. It sprang off the first time but I think I have it clamped down in amongst the knot on my lanyard so it stays. I think I might have to declare you a genius. :cool:

maximus otter said:
Try a Photon Freedom. Expensive for a coin-sized torch, but readily attachable to your ID necklace badge, for example.

l can also personally recommend Olight products. l have one of their tiny AAA-sized Eos models permanently attached to the keyring on my Swiss Army Knife. lt’s used multiple times per day.

maximus otter
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Looks smashing. If the penlight clamping doesn't work I may look into that idea. I love a good torch. :twothumbs:
 
escargot said:
We have to carry a vital tool at work that we'd be stuffed without, and I tell new recruits 'Don't put it down! If you need two hands, put the tool in your pocket!'
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You and your hip flask...
 
Last page, but: Nthing keys on a carabiner. Never had any lost keys that didn't coincide with the lever getting pushed open in my pocket. I've got some friends who can 'never find things'; one puts keys and cards and things in a bag without even using a wallet or keychain. The other will put things down because "they know where they put it" and don't. I'm a wizard at finding the latter's things soley because I don't make the assumption that I know where it has to be.
I would enjoy some mysterious disappearances (so I say) but I just don't think that's part of my local strangeness. Fortuitous found objects, on the other hand...
 
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