Saturday, February 04, 2006

The Absent-Minded Not-Yet-Professor

The Absent-Minded Not-Yet-Professor

I seem to have a penchant for leaving things behind that I actually need and use.

So, today, I was feeling proud of myself because I was running early on my commute. I had to be at WashU by 12 today for my "Saturday rotation" shift in the computer lab. I left the house about 10:50, and just made the 11:05 northbound #70 Grand, at Grand and Connecticut.

The bus arrived at the Grand MetroLink station about 11:15, and I spent a blustery 7 minutes or so down there. It's pretty cold today, so the 'wind-tunnel' effect is really not fun under that viaduct.

I got on the MetroLink about 11:23, and got off at Forest Park station about 11:29. That's when I left my pair of nice, warm, blue Thinsulate gloves in my seat, or possibly on the floor! I had even looked around when I got up from my seat, but didn't see anything. Somehow, it didn't register that I wasn't carrying them, and they weren't in my pockets either.

About 90 seconds later, after I got off the train, walked up the new steps to DeBaliviere, and crossed DeBaliviere to catch the westbound #58 Clayton-Ballas around 11:33, it hit me: dang, my hands are cold! Where's my gloves? Oh, CRAP! Damn it, damn it, damn it!

See, about a year ago, a similar thing happened in almost the same location. I lost one of my previous pair of gloves, leaving it behind on the eastbound WashU Shuttle Gold Line as I got off the shuttle to catch MetroLink at the Forest Park station. In the ensuing days, I called the various lost-and-found offices at WashU, to no avail.

I suppose I could call Metro lost-and-found (314.982.1406), but I'm not holding out much hope.

I believe that the Forest Park MetroLink station must have a glove-sucking vortex under it, similar to that which sucks up my favorite socks into the dryer. ;-)

(sigh)

2 comments:

Claire Nowak-Boyd said...

When I lose something on public transit, I usually try to comfort myself in knowing that someday, I will pick up some other absent minded transit rider's left-behind treasures.

I am still kicking myself for losing a set of photobooth strips on either the Red or Yellow Line in Chicago, but on the other hand, there was also the time that my friends and I came across an abandoned umbrella on the Red Line as we were on our way to go wait in line for a concert. It had just started raining and we had a long wait ahead of us and only one small umbrella for three people, so it was a good find!

If the object I find is nice enough that I think someone would try to find it (like the time I found a fancy cell phone on the Blue Line!), I try to get it back to the owner, but I don't think we would have ever found out whose cheapo umbrella that was. My sister still has it.

Hopefully, your lost gloves will at least find an appreciative home...?

Matt Fernandez said...

I have a tendency to do that too. I left an umbrella in the MCI center in Washington, DC, 2 weeks ago, and I left my rather expensive camera in the GIS lab at school today. Luckily I remembered that before I made it down the hall and the people in there knew it was mine anyway, but it still pisses me off that I am so forgetful.