photo credit: travelizmo.com

Yesterday I joined Panda on a run to respond to a lockout and let someone back into their apartment.  We were planning on going on a run to Ralph’s and I didn’t want to wait alone, so I went with him.  As Apartment Coordinator, he gets a GEM (Global Electric Motorcar) car (or cart) to use on days that he’s on duty, to get between apartment complexes.  It looks somewhat like a golf cart and runs completely on electricity.  There are no doors and the maximum speed is 25 mph, but even that seems fast.  It doesn’t help that the roads are super rickety and full of potholes.  I was pretty terrified the whole ride and thankful when we reached our first destination: the rental office.

I waited as he went inside to make a key that would open the appropriate doors and then we went to find the lady who had locked herself out.  After that, we returned the cart and left it charging, then went to try to get to Rite Aid before closing.  I wanted to get some candy they had on sale, but unfortunately, they were already packing up by the time I arrived.  We then went over to Ralph’s and got some groceries before heading back to the rental office so Panda could deactivate the key he had created.  I got a cup of water to drink in there and we returned to the apartment.  I settled in to do the normal things I do online, suffered through some spotty internet service, and eventually got ready for bed.  As I was looking for my phone to set an alarm, I finally realized that something was wrong – I couldn’t find my phone.

I was having nightmares of finding something like this lying on the side of the road. photo credit: gammoth.com

Thinking back to what I did, I tried to look everywhere I had been in contact with.  The search was limited to just the dining table and kitchen.  I hadn’t sat on the couch or gone into the bedroom at all.  I tried calling it, but didn’t hear a thing.  A thorough search returned nothing, so we headed out to look in the rental office, where I thought I might have put it down to get water.  With no luck, we checked the apartment once more and then went out to Ralph’s and Rite Aid again.  The lost and found at Ralph’s had nothing and we didn’t see a thing along the path that we had taken earlier.  I kept calling the phone, but it started to revert straight to voicemail, which worried me.  Had it been run over?

We tried the apartment again and were getting ready to give up for the night, but then decided the apartment complex we had visited.  It was the only place left.  This time we took the GEM cart again, so Panda could return it to the office instead of having to wake up early in the morning to take it back.  We scoured the place and even tried the rental office once more, with nothing.  Reluctantly, I had to admit defeat and we went to the parking space for the cart.  In a desperate attempt, I tried calling again on the drive and at a light, we heard a strange beeping sound.  Panda said that it was not his phone, so I tried callign again.  When he slowed down enough for us to listen for a sound, I heard it!  Confused and disoriented, I tried to pinpoint its location and discovered it underneath my seat!  There’s about an inch of space between the seat and the box thing it’s on and somehow it had slid there.

Just had one of those moments... photo credit: gigacrate.com

It turns out that there was no signal at one point because the cart was parked in the garage and couldn’t receive one.  Then when we were out and about, the signal returned, but I never called when we were near the car itself.  We checked every single place I had been and explored every single option.  I even looked in places I knew it couldn’t be!  But alas, in the end, I still got trumped and it truly was right under my nose the entire time.  Amazing how you think you’ve thought of it all and checked everything only to find the one place that never crossed your mind was the very spot you should have looked first.  Thank goodness for that timing that worked out just right, so we’d hear it.  Otherwise who knows if my phone could have stayed there for so long.