Do you have a problem with inanimate objects trying to "escape?"

In My Humble Opinion
81

Caller to a radio show was in a bad mood (apparently the show does a Whinge on Wednesday thing) because she’d spent ages preparing a stew, left the pot on the worktop while she answered the door, came back to find the pot on the floor!
A couple of years ago I bought a little gizmo for Olbas Oil (battery operated fan thing), I had it on one night but knocked it over in my sleep. Following morning I go to retrieve it and cannot find it anywhere. So I gave up.

This week I was turning my mattress, and what do I find under the mattress (and I mean between the mattress and the divan)? My Olbas Oil thingy squashed completely flat, batteries and Olbas Oil pad gone. How did it get there?!?!?

82

Is this a thread about when things get knocked over spill or fall out of cupboards?

83

In my shop, I work with a lot of small metal objects. Most of them do not easily roll, but if any of them are placed anywhere close to the edge of the workbench, they will find their way to the floor.

This, in itself, is not surprising. What facinates me is that every time something falls from the bench - every time - it hits the rounded toe of the front of my shoe and richochets straight under the bench and into the darkness therein. Getting down on hands and knees with a flashlight will not reveal their whereabouts. You can look all about on the floor, and you will never find the part. I have found that it is far easier to simply find a replacement part from my spares and let the escaped part have its temporary freedom.

I say temporary because, come the next morning when I open up my shop for the day, I will walk in and find - laying right out in the open on the floor - in a place where you would step on it if you walked anywhere near that area - will be the missing part. In clear view, obvious as hell, right in the middle of the floor.

I am not the only one to notice this. I have had two other people work for me that have experienced this same mystery many, many times. It would almost be a game when I opened up the shop in the morning to see what missing part was laying in the floor as if it had been there all along.

After a while, I started to imagine that I could hear the returning parts laughing at me, their tiny mirthful voices mocking me in my irritation.

But soon I realized that the faint laughter was not coming from the parts, but from underneath the workbench. I have since determined that I must have some “shop gremlins” living under there who play these tricks on me, to their own tireless amusement. If it is a part they already have enough of, the thow in back out on the floor during the night. If it is something they need or want, it vanishes forever to that bottomless cubbyhole where lost objects go to retire.

I have never seen the thieving little bastards, but I know they are there.

Oh, yes, I know they are there.

84

Is is possible that sometimes they’re just bored and want to play?

I have these tiny pills that I break in half. I popped one half in my mouth but the other one got caught on a piece of skin as I put it down and bounced to the floor. It easily could have hid under the couch but it didn’t. I picked it up and it once again “escaped” but landed in plain site. It seemed more playful than malicious. Or is this just a way of lulling (lolling?) me into a false sense of confidence?