MIA, I Know

I'm sure you're all wondering if I'm even still alive. And for a while, yes, I've been wondering the same thing! I've had some HORRIBLE miserable sinus issues the last few months. I was "layed low" in a serious way. All sorts of miserable. At one point, it was even a struggle to get from my bed to the sofa because my inner ear was so bunged up. Vertigo. Seriously, not fun. I have only had it once before, when I was a missionary in Chile. This wasn't *quite* as bad as that. But only because the antibiotics actually worked this time. In Chile I had to have surgery to fix it. So, fortunately I'm surgery free. But, it wasn't fun.



I'm on the mend now. I still have a bit of a stuffy head, but only slightly more than normal, and less than most people with mild alergies in the summer. I'm trying to be good and not make things worse. But, that's why I've been MIA so long.

Evaporation; Not Just for Liquids!

I've been trying to put my flat together for a couple weeks now.  And, honestly, I've been doing a pretty fair job.  A couple of things have been on hold, though, because the IKEA loft bed that I bought, with attached desk, under the loft, didn't have screws with the desk part.  Or, at least, I couldn't find any.  It's possible, I suppose, that I tossed the screws when I got rid of the packaging.  But, I did try and locate them before I decluttered.  Never saw them.  Nor a hint of them.  So I made a trip down South (IKEA is at the extreme South end of the valley, and I'm at the North) to get them.  No problem.  The attendant went straight back to the spare parts area to locate the missing bits.  And she found them.... well, most of them.  She couldn't locate one screw, of which I needed two.  So so put in a request and had them shipped to my house directly.  That was back on Thursday of last week.  Fast forward to this Friday.  The screws appeared in my postbox!  Yeay!  Now I can complete my desk, right? 

HA!

I go up to my flat, open the package, take the screws out and put them with the other screws, in a Ziploc plastic baggie.  I vividly remember doing this.  I set them down and went to find the screwdriver.  Come back, get the desk bits out..... and the screws have evaporated!  *poof*  Gone.  Seriously.  I took the flat apart looking for them.  I put the flat back together, looking for them.  I've searched for TWO SOLID DAYS for them.  I. Cannot. Find. These. Screws.  (Yes, yes, I know I've always had a few screws loose.  But these ones are missing all together!)

Lois said she'd come help me search on Monday.  Seriously, I really doubt she'll find them.  I've searched every surface, every drawer, every box.  I've even checked the rubbish.  TWICE!  I've looked in all the obvious spots, and started looking in some really strange ones; the dishwasher, the fridge, the bathroom cupboards.... just on the off chance that I wasn't paying attention to what was in my hands.  I have no idea what has happened to these screws!  It's making me crazy.  And, on top of that, it's keeping me from finishing getting my things settled.  I can't set up my office til I get the desk squared away!

Frantically Searching

My bird got out today. He didn't mean to. He's just not very good at this whole flying thing. He was trying to find me (I was in the kitchen and he was in the lounge) and just as he came fluttering around the corner I opened the kitchen door to take the recycling out. He missed my shoulder and all the sudden didn't have anywhere else to land. So here I am watching as he keeps getting higher and higher, flying further and further away. I know he didn't mean to escape. He thinks he's a people! (Or maybe better said, he thinks we're birds.) He was just looking for the rest of his flock, and isn't very skilled in the flying department. He doesn't understand enough about the mechanics of flying to know that if he just turned around, he'd come straight back, after all, he'd never had a long enough run to try turning around and going back in mid flight. And he doesn't understand enough about navigation to get back to where he started. Up until this point his world consisted of the four rooms in the downstairs of the house. I'm sure he's out there frightened and cold (it's well below freezing tonight) and not sure what to do about it. I just hope (and pray and pray and pray) he's found somewhere warm to settle down for the night and that he lands on someone's shoulder tomorrow, as they get ready to go off to work, or come back from taking the kids off to school. I did deliver nearly 100 fliers today, so most of the community in the area he's most likely to have landed in knows what's going on. I even put up posters at the pub and the co-op. Everyone's been so lovely as I've knocked on their door to request their help in finding him. I'm just so afraid I'll never see him again, or that even if I do, he will have caught something, and won't survive. I feel so guilty and so miserable. My consolation is that Lois' bird got lost in November, wandered into a neighbour's house the next day, and 3 days later was reunited with Lois and Steve. So, it's not impossible that he'll make his way home. Everyone's prayers for his safe return are welcome.