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ncproperties | Posted in General Discussion on May 5, 2009 03:44am

What’s the longest you’ve looked for a router bit, apex, pencil, drill bit, etc… that’s right in the corner of your mouth?

Found my self yesterday looking for a pilot router bit I’d stuck in the corner of my mouth to free both hands to change out bit. Didn’t find it until I decided to pause and light a smoke to think about it. About 20 minutes later.

I found it funnier that it’s not like I set it down to do something else it was part of the immediate task at had. Bit to mouth, pick up wrench/router, pull out other bit, insert — It’s gone.

Funny too, my search pattern extends further and further the longer I look, into places I never was that day. Hmmm, just maybe it’s in the kitchen, and then return to places to look I’d all ready looked thinking it might have come back.

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Replies

  1. User avater
    Sphere | May 05, 2009 03:51pm | #1

    If you have ever spent a day working with "Ruby Fluid" Flux, (zinc chloride) and got some anywhere near your face, I can assure you, you'd break that habit of putting things in your mouth real quick.

    Looks harmless, like pink gatorade, but man-o-man is it nasty stuff.

    Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks

    Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations

    "If Brains was lard, you couldn't grease much of a pan"
    Jed Clampitt

    View Image

  2. jet | May 05, 2009 03:55pm | #2

    I was on the roof of my FIL house re-doing his roof. He was on the ground cutting plywood.

    I looked down to find him looking all over the place. Looked up at me and said....."HA OU theen i henthil????"

    Darn near fell off the roof laughing.

    1. rez | May 05, 2009 07:00pm | #4

      Congratulations!

      jet receives the 'Good Story' Award.

      Saaalute!  View Image View Image 

      1. jet | May 05, 2009 07:06pm | #5

        why thank you

      2. Shep | May 05, 2009 11:46pm | #10

        You understood that?

    2. maverick | May 06, 2009 01:55am | #11

      wtf???

       

      1. jet | May 06, 2009 02:07am | #13

        Do I need to translate???
        Or just take the pencil out of my mouth?????"Ha ou theen i henthile?"Translation "Have you seen my pencil?"

        1. Shep | May 06, 2009 04:11am | #19

          thank you for that translation.

          My gibberish to english dictionary burned out after some of sphere's posts <G>

        2. maverick | May 06, 2009 02:05pm | #24

          OK, I get it

          my first though was "those french have a different word for everything"

      2. oldbeachbum | May 06, 2009 02:30am | #16

        ...just ask a dentist 

        I'm not flippin' you off.........just counting cubits

        1. User avater
          Sphere | May 06, 2009 02:37am | #17

          Or the doctor who tried to write a prescription with a rectal thermometer..he said, "Dammit, some ##### hole has my pen"Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks

          Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations

          "If Brains was lard, you couldn't grease much of a pan"Jed Clampitt

          View Image

    3. CardiacPaul | May 06, 2009 04:43am | #22

      Ith n ohr  thucken motfh!!

       

        No one should regard themselve as "God's gift to man." But rather a mere man whos gifts are from God.

      1. jet | May 06, 2009 04:02pm | #27

        BWAAAA

  3. oops | May 05, 2009 06:44pm | #3

    The older you get the less humorous it become.

  4. spike999250 | May 05, 2009 09:57pm | #6

    I was getting out truck one day talking to a buddy on my cellphone, gather up my keys and wallet and then spent the next 5 minutes  searching the truck looking for my CELLPHONE while still on it. Talk about a bad day .

    1. shtrum | May 05, 2009 10:12pm | #7

      the only thing worse would've been if you told your buddy to call so you could locate the phone when it rang

       

  5. User avater
    ToolFreakBlue | May 05, 2009 10:47pm | #8

    15 minutes tops, give up get another pencil out of the truck. Then find first pencil when I try to stick second pencil in my mouth.

    Had a mess of carp pencils I picked up at Harbor Freight. Threw them all out when some pointed out the "Made in China" imprint on them. Maybe that's why I could not find the pencils, lead paint making me stupid. (or more stupid)

    TFB (Bill)
    1. gotcha | May 07, 2009 04:12pm | #35

      TFB
      Yeah...
      I thought the same thing about lead poisoning since the only way I can keep track of a pencil is to clamp it in my teeth.Pete

  6. craigf | May 05, 2009 11:44pm | #9

    I have my socks in my hand and go to grab my shoes.
    I sat in the chair.
    No socks.
    I rant and rave for a while while the wife laughs.
    I had stuck the stocks in my back pocket while grabbing the shoes.
    I had stomped around the house with a white "tail" flopping behind me.

  7. User avater
    BossHog | May 06, 2009 01:59am | #12

    I think my personal best was spending 5 minutes looking for my safety glasses while they were stuck on the top of my hat.

    Finding an honest politician is difficult. Not nearly as difficult, however, as finding a black NASCAR driver

  8. Dan612 | May 06, 2009 02:18am | #14

    I lose stuff in plain sight far more often than I should admit.

    I look for longer than I should.

    I find a lot of missing stuff the next time I do laundry. 

     

     

     

    I meditate, I burn candles, I drink green tea, and still I want to smack someone.

  9. Dan612 | May 06, 2009 02:26am | #15

    Oh Yeah,

    Wife just reminded me of the time I walked around the site yelling for my dog.  I called her at work to tell her that I couldn't find Riley when she said "You left her at home next to the woodstove because it was so cold this morning, remember?"

    I meditate, I burn candles, I drink green tea, and still I want to smack someone.

  10. MSA1 | May 06, 2009 03:55am | #18

    I once spent 45 minutes searching for a screw driver that was in my pocket.

     

    Family.....They're always there when they need you.

  11. cut50 | May 06, 2009 04:29am | #20

    I`am at reading glasses stage for finish work,have 1.5 up 2.5. Long day in shop, can`t see so good any more.

    And can`t find my glasses no how, nowhere.
    Ok I`ll upgrade to the 2.5,
    Well after I take off the 1.5 I was looking for.lol

    MILLER TIME!!!!

  12. CardiacPaul | May 06, 2009 04:40am | #21

    We were outside getting ready to leave for the day & when my wife came out of the house & I heard that door close and the sudden feeling of oh-####, my keys are in the house.

    Of all the times she comes out without her keys, sure enough, locked out.

    Now my truck is open & all my tools are available, question is whats the cheapest & easiest thing to break, Went for the lockset in the garage to the house 5-6 minutes we are in.

    Now where the hell are my keys, IN MY LEFT PANTS POCKET, I always put them in my right pocket

    Explain that to the wife & save face, now its a deadbolt & you have to use a key to lock it

     No one should regard themselve as "God's gift to man." But rather a mere man whos gifts are from God.

  13. susiekitchen | May 06, 2009 05:22am | #23

    Not tools, but I spent 10 minutes looking thru the house for my car keys that were where I'd put them....in the ignition of the car that was in the driveway warming up.

    My husband, who had seen me go out to start the car, joined in the search.

    Apparently, some mornings the lunacy is contagious! 

    1. Piffin | May 06, 2009 02:50pm | #25

      Now wait just a durn minute there!I know you made that up, because you are in Fl - no need to warm up a car there! You just wanted to play the game here right? Good one though anyways. 

       

      Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

      1. User avater
        Sphere | May 06, 2009 03:05pm | #26

        Profile says N. Alabama. cold there is 65.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks

        Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations

        "If Brains was lard, you couldn't grease much of a pan"Jed Clampitt

        View Image

      2. jimAKAblue | May 06, 2009 04:40pm | #28

        There were many days this past winter when I would have warmed my truck up. It got down to 30 once!

        1. john_carroll | May 06, 2009 05:40pm | #30

          Many years ago, I started making certain adjustments to compensate for my propensity to lose or lock up keys. My first adjustment is that I have several copies of all my keys. My second adjustment is that I keep a house key hidden outside my house. My third is that I keep a hide-a-key (a magnetic box that holds a key) under both of my trucks.

          One day, I went into a store; when I came out I discovered that my keys were locked in the truck. No big deal; I've been through this before. I've got a hide-a-key! I slide under the truck, which happened to be in a very oily part of the parking lot and start looking for the hide-a-key. It's about 100 degrees and I'm getting filthy. After looking for about 15 minutes, I disgustedly conclude that my trusted hide-a-key must have fallen off the truck--perhaps when I hit a pothole or something.

          I call a buddy, who carries me home. There, I retrieve my key hidden outside the house. In the house, of course, I have extra keys for the truck. We go back to the store and I get my truck back.

          I thank my friend and head directly to the hardware store, where I buy a new hide-a-key and have a new key made. Although it had failed me this time, the hide-a-key had saved me on several prior occasions.

          Back home, I decide to immediately crawl under my truck and put the new hide-a-key in place. This time I want it to be in a secure spot, where it'll be out-of-sight and unlikely to fall. After squirming in the grassy gravel under the truck for several minutes (in the 100-degree heat) and trying and then nixing several possible locations, I see the perfect spot. Sweating, covered in dry grass which has stuck to the filthy oil that I picked up at the parking lot, I reach up to place the box in an opening in the beam of the frame. There, I feel the hide-a-key I had so carefully placed a couple of years prior! 

          Edited 5/6/2009 10:43 am ET by Mudslinger

          1. User avater
            ToolFreakBlue | May 07, 2009 01:18am | #33

            Maybe you should write on a piece of paper where you put the key and keep it in your glove box.TFB (Bill)

          2. john_carroll | May 07, 2009 04:29pm | #36

            Lol!

          3. Hudson Valley Carpenter | May 08, 2009 03:45am | #42

            I was about fifty miles from home when I got distracted and locked my keys inside my truck, on the seat.  After some thought, I remembered how I'd replaced the rear glass a few years earlier.   So I found a wire coat hanger, then partially slipped the window gasket out with it until I could hook the keys.  Lots cheaper than a locksmith and probably about as fast.

            Now I've got a Hide-a-Key stuck under the truck.  My memory ain't gettin' any better so I may find myself in the same position as you did, a few years from now.  

            I used to keep a one hundred dollar bill in between a couple of photos in my wallet, for emergencies, but I soon forgot it was there.  It wasn't until years later, when I bought a new wallet, that I found that hundred.

          4. GregGibson | May 08, 2009 04:54am | #43

            OK, I have the solution for both of you. Put the $100 bill in the Hide-a-Key box WITH the key, and you'll keep up with both of them better ! !Greg

          5. Dan612 | May 09, 2009 12:11am | #44

            Maybe I drive too fast on back roads, or I had a cheap hide-a-key box.  Either way, I locked the keys in the truck in Boston.  I thought, "Ha, no problem.  I have a hide-a-key!"  I went to look for it and it was gone. 

             

            What a pain.....I meditate, I burn candles, I drink green tea, and still I want to smack someone.

          6. AitchKay | May 11, 2009 04:27pm | #53

            I'm a big Hide-A-Key fan, too. I call it No-Thought Insurance.As for the mouth-for-storage technique, I can keep a Apex bit in my cheek for hours before noticing it. The secret then is to transfer it to your watch pocket -- you'll remember it when you hear it clanking around in the dryer.AitchKay

      3. susiekitchen | May 06, 2009 05:13pm | #29

        Sorry, Pif, but as little as 3 1/2 weeks ago I had to scrape ice off the truck windows here in north AL and the frost killed off all the blooms on my wisteria.

        Granted, it doesn't get as cold here as other places I've lived, but it's nowhere near like Florida!

        And, while I might resort to fibbing to play with the boys,  I really did spend that time looking for my keys...

        1. Piffin | May 06, 2009 11:26pm | #31

          LOL, I had it in mind that you were in central FL 

           

          Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

  14. DaveRicheson | May 06, 2009 11:45pm | #32

    After grinning through this whole thread I feel much better.

    I've worried that my frivilously spent youth in the sixties was paying me back.

    It I didn't spend so much time here ,.... I would almost feel normal.

    1. ncproperties | May 07, 2009 03:00am | #34

      Just another observation on this topic I had.Theory or law, not sure, but I do know the more you have of something, has nothing to do with how long you can keep it or increase the chances of finding it when lost.I got tired of tracking and hauling tools, so for all my basic hand tools, hammer,speed sq., 10-1 screw, knife, tape, etc. I went out and bought 3 of everything. One set for in my shop, truck, and job site, leave each to their own designation. It doesn't work at all. More often than not, I don't have what I need where I need it, didn't grab it since I should be safe with the 1-in-3 chance, and than there's three of whatever together someplace. On top of that, for items like pencils never, never, waste your money buying a hand full thinking you'll always have one. Just the opposite happens and you'll lose all 20 faster than the length of time you could have held on to the only one you had. Guaranteed. Think it has to do with, "well I'll just grab another since I've got so many" over protecting your one and only.

  15. gotcha | May 07, 2009 07:12pm | #37

    ALL,

    I've read all to date and now I must admit a guilty feeling.

    There are days nothing gets done but looking for things, backtracking, etc. I've always said no one could afford to hire me to fix things because charging by time would make me very expensive for my ability.

    All of these messages make me feel much better.

    Thanks,

    Pete

  16. [email protected] | May 07, 2009 10:01pm | #38

    I once lost a wrench in my hip pocket, and found it only after searching for it, for two hours, and giving up, because if I left then I had time to get into town to a store, and buy a new one before closing time on Saturday. 

    Made the half hour drive into town, and got to the store just before they locked the door.  Found the wrench, got rung up at the cash register, and reached in my pocket to get my wallet and pay for it.  Only to find the missing wrench, and no wallet. 

    Joking told the clerk, that if I had my wallet I'd buy her a beer to make up for staying late.  She laughed and asked me to join her for a beer.

    1. GregGibson | May 07, 2009 10:12pm | #39

      . . .  and THEN ? ? ? ? ?

      Greg

      1. Piffin | May 08, 2009 12:50am | #40

        Beer and a wrench wench turns the imagination, doesn't it? 

         

        Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

      2. [email protected] | May 08, 2009 03:28am | #41

        She got me drunk and tried to take advantage of me. But, she failed. Because, I took advantage of her first. We dated for a couple of months, and went our separate ways. She was in that nesting mode, some gals get into in their mid twenties, and I was still in the wild child phase.

  17. Jer | May 09, 2009 02:32am | #45

    I was at a ball game once and I went down to the vendor to get some beers & dogs. I was wearing swim trunks & they had no pockets like my windbreaker did where I carried my wallet that day. Being a warm day with our seats at a southern exposure I had taken my windbreaker off & left it where we were sitting and just carried the wallet with me in my hand. Upon returning, loaded down with beer, hot dogs & chips, my hands were full and so I inadvertently stuck my wallet in my mouth caring not a whit how I looked.
    As I approached our seats I realized my wallet was nowhere to be seen...it was one of those triple fold thin ones. I started to panic, thinking I left it back at the vending stand.
    I quickly deposited the eats & drink with my buds, explaining nothing to them, and bolted back down the stadium steps two at a time, wallet still in mouth, certain that it was in the process of being swiped by some thief and that I would never see it again.
    People started turning their heads away from the ballgame to watch the bald headed fool wildly now jumping pell-mell down the steps...with a wallet in his mouth.
    Bounding & butting past the thirsty customers I confronted the vendor, but I first spit my wallet out onto the counter.
    "Hey! Why don't you get in line like everybody else?!", he said to me.
    I looked at my tooth marked wallet and then I looked at him, back at the wallet again I thought, "Yeah...get in line".

    I slunk back to my seat in the 6th inning and my beer had been drunk and there was no more food. My pals were well on their way to...
    I put my hat back on, donned my shades and stuffed my wallet back into my windbreaker fully humbled.

    Who cared?

    The sun was out, and I was at the ballgame.

    The Boys of Summer worked their magic that day and the home team squeaked by with a homer at the bottom of the 9th. There would be joy in Mudville and for me, I didn't care if I'd ever come back.

    1. rez | May 09, 2009 08:21am | #46

      Jer,

      Good stuff. 

      1. Jer | May 09, 2009 03:04pm | #47

        Thanks. I guess I should mention that I had partaken of some of those sweet perfumed cigarettes maybe an hour earlier. That didn't help matters much, but it can't be the full reason why I did what I did. I've always been a bit of a space cadet that way.It was a long time ago before marriage, car payments, picket fences and microwave ovens."How do I know my youth is all spent?
        When my get-up and go has got up and went,
        but in spite of it all I'm able to grin,
        when I think of the places my get-up has been."
        Pete Seeger

    2. jet | May 12, 2009 06:48am | #56

      OK That beats my Father In-Law's pencil anyday!!!!

  18. gordsco | May 09, 2009 03:49pm | #48

    When using a lot of PL- Premium I unnoticably seem to get it on the end of my pencil which gets parked between my teeth and the PL is transferred to my cheek.

    So I decide to curb this behavior and stuff the pencil into my hat, which I remember 50% of the time. Now I not only do I have have a black cheek, I have PL in my hair.

    I also may spend a ridiculous amount of time looking for items I set down only a moment ago, but I always know where my pencil is.

     

     

  19. PedroTheMule | May 09, 2009 05:32pm | #49

    Hi ncproperties,

    What's the longest you've looked for a router bit, apex, pencil, drill bit, etc... that's right in the corner of your mouth?

    I was working in a clients office one day......he's stomping room to room hollering in a muffled sort of way....."Where's my *(%$ pen, anybody seen my *$%# pen?"

    Of course he was muffled because the pen was actaully sideways in his mouth. This guy is brilliant, big money maker, all around nice guy but stuff like this goes on pretty regular......the staff just leaves him alone when he gets like this......

    Pedro the Mule - I know I'm that stubborn, am I that crazy too?

  20. JohnD1 | May 09, 2009 05:48pm | #50

    When I was young, I used to put a lot of electronic kits together. (Remember Heathkit and Knight Kit?). I would be working along soldering things together. I would set down the iron, put in the resistor, and then I could not find the soldering iron. I mean, I just put the thing down! I did not move from my seat!!!

    Sometimes I would have to get up, go to the outlet, and follow the cord to find where it was--right where I could reach it easily.

    1. oldbeachbum | May 09, 2009 08:38pm | #51

      "

      Sometimes I would have to get up, go to the outlet, and follow the cord to find where it was--right where I could reach it easily."

       

      Now THAT is funny !!!

       

      ....................breathing in too many fumes?

       

       

      I'm not flippin' you off.........just counting cubits

      Edited 5/9/2009 1:39 pm by oldbeachbum

      Edited 5/9/2009 1:39 pm by oldbeachbum

    2. PedroTheMule | May 10, 2009 01:11am | #52

      Hi JohnD1,

      When I was young, I used to put a lot of electronic kits together. (Remember Heathkit and Knight Kit?). I would be working along soldering things together. I would set down the iron, put in the resistor, and then I could not find the soldering iron. I mean, I just put the thing down! I did not move from my seat!!!

      Sometimes I would have to get up, go to the outlet, and follow the cord to find where it was--right where I could reach it easily.

      Lead Free Solder my friend lead free solder.......otherwise funny things happen to the brain and you start to forget stuff like....uhh forgot what it was....oh yeah I like remote controls too.......especially with iced tea.......

      Pedro the Mule - Lead free horseshoes for the Mule

      1. JohnD1 | May 11, 2009 07:42pm | #54

        Lead Free Solder my friend lead free solder.......otherwise funny things happen to the brain and you start to forget stuff like....uhh forgot what it was....oh yeah I like remote controls too.......especially with iced tea.......

        (Then I will not tell you how for difficult soldering I used to hold the solder in my mouth, the iron in one hand, and the component in the other.  But, hey, you could buy white lead primer in those days.)

        1. PedroTheMule | May 12, 2009 02:50am | #55

          Hi JohnD1,

          (Then I will not tell you how for difficult soldering I used to hold the solder in my mouth, the iron in one hand, and the component in the other.  But, hey, you could buy white lead primer in those days.)

          I grew up on galvanized (lead tainted) water pipe.

          Also was barefoot on wet muddy gravel in the backyard one day.....prior to polarity plug soldering irons....yep you guessed it.....dang 110 going down one side of my body locking my hand on that thing.....the good side is that I had just plugged it in so it wasn't temparature hot.....the bad news is I tried to pull it out of my hand with the other hand......geeeez that didn't work duhh....now both hands all the way up the shoulders down to the toes was dancing the electric jig......finally managed to lean forward enough that it unplugged the cord as I fell which then release muscles propelling me across the gravel.......ahhhh the memories of childhood......

          Pedro the Mule - that explains a lot

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