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I keep seeing remarks about "senior moments", but I think I have a new one.  Picked up a very nice South Bend #290 a couple of years ago, where somebody had replaced the reel seat with a modern low end piece.  I finally found a South Bend with the right seat in near perfect condition and  got ready to do the restoration.  I can't find the rod !!  Looked high and low for days and no rod!!   Has anybody ever lost a rod - in the house, no less?  (Carey Mitchell)

Assuming you're married, ask your wife to look for it.  Works (almost) every time.  (Neil Savage)

Bad move, never let them find out how much stuff you have hidden away. Mine already tells me I have enough stuff to start either a hobby shop or a fly shop.  (Larry Puckett)

Well, if your SWMBO is like mine, there are *no* secrets anyway.  (Neil Savage)

Larry is right.  After 37 years, I've learned a little.  Never let them know just how much "stuff" you really have.  For this reason, I keep rods in 3 different places, so she has never seen them all in one place.  Women are like deer, who can't count (2 people can walk through a brushy spot and as long as one comes out the deer assume everything is OK), women tend not to notice small clusters of "stuff".  I would hate for her to find out just how many rods there really are in this house, and I sure would not want her to know how many $ are tied up!  (Carey Mitchell)

I went to the manor school a few weeks ago for a bamboo get together. We were running late and the janitor was anxious to close up the school, so I hurriedly packed up.  The next day I'm looking for one of my rods and the butt section is not there.

So Monday I go to school but they won't let me in because the people I want to see are not around. They casually told me that if anyone found it they would have turned it in, even though school hadn't even officially opened yet!  They acted like I had lost a bobby pin.

After a week of panic (I left the rod on the bleachers and I could just see it getting crushed repeatedly as the stands went in and out), I finally called the gym teacher at home. We were talking about the rod, when it slowly started to sink in, I hadn't brought that rod to the cane fest as a friend was bringing one I had made her.

Ever so slowly the memory of a butt section that needed a rewrap floated up from the depths of my mind.  It was downstairs, with a few other sections, waiting for varnish. That's a senior moment.   (Mike Canazon)

Oy.   You haven't  been eating any of them deep fried mice,  have you?  Or collecting those funny looking mushrooms growing on the sides of those mountains?   ;-)   Almost sounds like (shudder) you have too many rods!  How's the shop coming along?  (Mark Wendt)

The shop is done, except for the ceiling which I will get to soon.  A couple of the major woodworking projects are finished, BTW, got one on Norm's web site and 3 more waiting. Now back to finishing up the RM tools.  Another thing I have recently learned is that grandchildren tend to interfere with weekends.  (Carey Mitchell)

This brings to mind the time a few years back when I could not find my S&W .22 Kit gun.  I knew I had not lost it, I just figured it was buried in the  back of the safe, behind all those cane rods.  I had looked in there a few times but never had the time to clean it out properly.  I looked in all the glove compartments, under all the car seats, fly tying box, and tool boxes but no .22.  I figured it would show up sometime but was starting to get worried after a few years.  I didn't think it would be a good idea to ask my wife if she had seen it . . .

Then one day I got around to transferring all the stuff in my fishing vest to a new vest and when "everything" was out, the vest was still kind of hefty.  There it was, in the back liner along with a 10 year old Ham sandwich.  I don't know how many times someone had commented on the weight of my vest saying "What do you have in there anyway?".   I'm glad it is stainless steel.  (C. Scott Bennett)

Thanks for sharing that one! I needed a good laugh after work today and that story did the trick. I was sitting at my fly tying desk when the kids were still little and had gotten my pocket knife out to trim something. The kids were running after each other yelling, the SWMBO was yelling, so I got up to see what was going on. After every thing settled down I went back to the fly tying desk and my knife wasn't there. I proceeded to walk around the house for about a 1/2 hour looking for it because I didn't want the kids to pick it up and maybe get hurt. Walked around the house scratching my head with my right hand while the thumb of my left hand was hooked in my front pants pocket. SWMBO proceeded to ask me what I was looking for and I told her I couldn't find my pocket knife. Her response was a sharp "I'm sure it's right where you left it!" About now I was frustrated to the point of getting p#&$d off so back to the den to tie flies and for some peace and quiet. I went to shut the door with my left hand and the pocket knife fell to the floor. It had been in my hand the whole time without me being aware of it! I NEVER told anyone about that one until today...LOL  (Will Price)

Guys, you make me feel a lot better, but I still have not found the rod.....and there are only 3 places to look!  (Carey Mitchell)