had it been a snake...

Last summer, the mulcher attachment on the riding lawnmower broke off as did one of the deck wheels while mowing over at the shop. Broken parts were put aside and not long after, Harvey happened with the resultant flood and the broken parts were not thought about again until it became necessary to use the mower this spring. Well, really, late spring, might even have been early summer, before I went to Portugal though. I think. Anyway, we looked all over for those two things so we could see about getting the wheel welded back on. I searched everywhere in that shop looking around stuff, behind stuff, every space, in cabinets, on shelves, I even emptied the huge nearly full trash bag in case it had gotten thrown in there. We finally concluded that it must have been set out on the street with all the other ruined stuff so we had to order a new very expensive deck and new mulcher and if we hadn't been spending all that money on the house would have probably just bought a new mower.

Friday evening when I was over at the shop cleaning up the wax table, filling the wax melting pot, putting the plaster bats in a pan to soak, and in general getting ready to set up my forms on Saturday morning when I walked over to another part of the shop to confirm what I already knew, that the tool box with the level was over at the house. As I glanced down at the floor where the toolbox sits I saw this on the floor next to the flat lap...

In. Plain. Sight.

Right next to where I was standing when I transferred the contents of the trash bag into another. I was basically standing right next to the thing I was looking for and never saw it.