There are senior moments and senior moments, but this is my best yet.
Earlier in the year the commune installed communal household rubbish bins around the commune. Our nearest one is a ten minute walk away. My car was in a local garage not far from the bin so I thought I would drop off the plastic container plus a plastic bag full of kitchen waste like leftovers and peelings etc en route to the garage. I also had the idea to take the house keys to pick up the mail from the letter box on the way back from having picked up the van. I literally tossed the waste bags plus phone, wallet and keys in a shopping bag and headed for the bins.
I emptied the waste into the bin and threw the used plastic bag into a recycling bin. I continued walking to the garage, picked up the van and headed home for the two minute drive. I stopped off at the post box but couldn’t find the set of keys. I went inside the house to look for the keys even though I knew I had put them in the shopping bag.
There were two possibilities, either they somehow dropped from the bag whilst walking or, I had thrown them in the waste bin with the leftovers etc. So, I returned to the said bin armed with a small stepladder, pitchfork and magnet on a string. I wedged the bin open and dangled my magnet in the waste. No luck so I then inserted the pitchfork to mix up the waste and tried the magnet again. It was smelly and the heat attracted files and the like. Still no luck so I again probed with the fork and suddenly heard the chink’ of metal on metal. I probed around and eventually hooked a prông on to the keyring to recover the keys.
One lady stopped and gazed with amazement and a chap and his dog didn’t stop but went around the block for a second look without asking why I was on a step ladder with my head in a waste bin.
The keys polished up nicely and a valuable lesson was learned.
OMG!!! You’re giving me the shudders just reading about it!
That’s on a par with me leaving my backpack (containing iPad, passport and all documents) on the hard shoulder of the northbound A11 autoroute and having to do a 50 minute circle back via the Le Mans exit to retrieve it…
Not when you’re trying to get to Dieppe to catch a ferry! Having found the backpack I had to skip lunch and go like a bat out of hell (entirely within official posted French speed limits of course) to get to Dieppe on time.
Nice one Peter ! I have fear of doing something similar. For example, sorting the waste bags and then throwing the wrong one in a communal bin. Like yours, very deep and usually fairly full.
I had placed the wallet and phone in the bag, put the smallish waste container with the small plastic bag on top then threw the keys into the shopping bag so I suppose the keys must have fallen automatically into the waste bag. Waste bag unsealed as it’s easier and less messy to empty the slips rather than having to rip it open at the bin.
Probably the most difficult bit was keeping the metal lid open whilst my head was inside , the risk of being beheaded was high !
We have several compost heaps at the bottom of the garden. When we finally get round to clearing them I am absolutely sure that we’ll find quite a lot of items that have “gone missing” in the past few years…
I stood behind a woman who had gone through security at Gatwick airport, she had apparently put her bag on the conveyor belt and it hadn’t come out. “ where’s my bag, where’s my bag? “ she screamed , “ it’s got everything in it. I asked her what colour her bag was , “ green” she said. “ like the one on your back? “, I said. Yep, that was the one, she’d picked up her other bag and had forgotten she’d already retrieved her green one.
Having found the backpack I had to skip lunch and go like a bat out of hell (entirely within official posted French speed limits of course) to get to Dieppe on time.