Things are there, then they aren't, then they are

I’m sure everyone’s experienced this. You put something down, you can’t find it, and then you do, in a place you swear you’ve looked at multiple times. I’ve come to believe that things exist, then they cease to exist, then come back again. This happened a few years ago. I was alone in the house, I tore off 10 pieces of tape, hung them over the edge of a table (needed to tape some bags closed). Went to get the bags and the pieces of tape were gone when I got back. Even ran my finger over the edge of the table so that even if I couldn’t see them, I would feel them. Nothing. Went back out to get the tape again and when I got back they were hanging on the edge of the table again. Know it doesn’t seem reasonable, but does quantum physics and relativity always seem logical and reasonable.

Keys. Keys have the ability to dematerialize and rematerialize at will.

People do believe this silly idea. The things are there all the time. People just don’t realize those things are have the ability to cloud people’s minds, relishing the frustration of the poor people who can’t see what actually physically exists in front of them. You’ll notice that if your keys blink in and out often and you start paying extra attention to them so they can’t play their little game that the TV remote will suddenly engage in the same behavior. It’s because they talk to each other, they all know when and where you are vulnerable and play that to their advantage.

Happened to me yesterday. I was shopping and was using a grocery list app on my phone. When I finished shopping, I put my phone in my pocket before I checked out. When I was ready to get in my car, I reached in my pocket and couldn’t find my phone. I retraced my route and couldn’t find it. I left my name and alternate phone number at the service desk and asked them to call me if someone turned it in. By this point, I was getting a little frantic. I kept checking my pocket and still didn’t find the phone in it. I went home and was about ready to write my phone off. I decided to call my cell number and see if anyone answered it. When it connected, I heard my cell phone’s ringtone coming from my pocket. Lo and behold, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, which I swore hadn’t been there for at least the past hour. All I can figure is some all powerful being dematerialized my phone from my pocket to play a joke on me, then took pity on me and transported it back into my pocket.

First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.

I lured my puppy into my office with a blue squeaky ball - nothing too unusual there. My office is a finished room in an unfinished basement and I keep him here with me a number of my work hours.

So pup plays with the ball, squeaking and squawking and thumping. Then… silence. He wanders over to his blanket and starts gnawing on a nylabone.

I look for the ball. It’s nowhere.

And three days later, having searched my small office repeatedly, I still cannot find the goddamn ball. There’s not a lot of floor space, all the furniture and cabinets are solid against the floor and walls, and I have searched every place a softball size ball could go… and it ain’t here.

No, he didn’t swallow it. I am looking forward to “here again” because it’s driving me nuts and is very distracting as I keep searching and re-searching while trying to work…

Crap like this is THE evidence in my mind of a bigger reality / afterlife sorta thing.

MY personal biggie was this. My EX (burn in hell bitch) for some reason had an ungodly number of screw drivers. Literally dozens and dozens of the damn things.

Need a flat head? Every damn one turned into a phillips. Need a phillips? Every damn one turned into a flat head.

Car key gnomes.

<opens eyes>, <shuts eyes>, <opens eyes>

Hey, that’s freakin’ cool!

I had a dog like that.

Leave in the morning there’s dog saying goodbye. A 100 lb 20 in tall dog, with a tail known as the ‘tail of death’. A friggin’ huge dog in a two bedroom ranch house.

I get home. I call dog. No answer. I go through the entire house. 2 BR, 2 Bath, Kitchen, living room, dining room. No dog. I do it again, closing doors be hind me.

I turn around in the living room, the rest of the house is blocked off no dog.

I turn around again…dog.

We have 8 cats and they all can do that. ::: sigh :::

My glasses do this all the time. Especially when I’m laying in bed.

And they seem to only disappear when I get a text on my phone. Or I need to rerad the back of a package for cooking directions.

Of course, when I don’t need them, I’m piratically tripping over them.

If I am a part of the matrix, my programmer has a twisted sense of humor.

I have several cans of beans in my pantry that disguise themselves as cans of tomatoes whenever I’m looking for beans. Then back to beans when I’m looking for tomatoes.

They have survived for years on that shelf, staying uneaten, laughing their little canned laughs at me.

Years ago, I used to spend a lot of time at my then-boyfriend’s house. I lived about 40 miles away, in the country. I never actually moved in with him full time, so I had a cloth duffelbag that I used to carry back and forth. When I was at his house, it sat on the floor next to a dresser. I put my glasses, watch, earrings, etc., on top of this dresser.

One day, I took off my favorite pair of earrings (style similar to these), and dropped one. I looked in the bag, around the bag, all over the outside of the bag, on the floor, under the bed, behind the dresser, in the dresser drawers, everywhere I could possibly think of. I did this for days. No earring.

I continued to carry the bag back and forth to my house for several months. Eventually I was spending lots of time at his house and started leaving more stuff there, so I took the duffelbag home and put it in my closet. Every now and then, I’d take it out of the closet and go through it, looking for that earring. I occasionally looked around in his bedroom, too, on the off chance…

Fast forward SIX YEARS. He and I broke up. I gathered up my things that had accumulated at his house, figuring if that earring was there, I’d never see it again. Oh well.

Fast forward another TWO YEARS. I decided to take a P.E. class at the local community college where I was taking some other courses. I needed a gym bag of some kind. That duffel came to mind. Can you guess what’s coming?

I took the bag out of my closet and set it on my bed. There was the earring. On my bed. It just fell out of the Nowhere into the Here. I guess it had somehow gotten hooked on the outside of the bag and clung there?? For eight years? During multiple car trips? I dunno.

I’m glad I keep the mate. They’re still my favorites.

Beware this disappearing and reappearing act when it costs you money. It bit me on the butt just a couple of days ago. :mad:

My aunt wanted to see a good movie, so I hie it to Redbox and rent Room. She thoroughly enjoys it, so the next morning, I prepare to get my stuff together for work, and to take the movie back. When I left her place the night before, it was in my tote I took with me. That morning? Gremlins had apparently taken it out that day to watch for themselves and had yet to return it. I shrug and head off to my first cleaning job.

When I come home to let the dogs back in, I check the gremlin library to see if they still have it on loan. Yup. I frown, because that film isn’t that long. Re-search the surrounding area, but nada. I’m due at my next house soon, so I put it out of my mind and take off. After a long day, I finally wrap it up with the idea of gathering everything up for what’s next in the morning. Start looking all over the house for the damn movie, assuming I’d missed a crucial dropbox location for mischievous gremlins. And the bag. Still absolutely, freaking nothing.

Fast forward more days, more gremlin antics than I care to consider, and I find the tear in the time space continuum has been repaired. Amazingly, my PITA gremlins have very graciously put the movie they must not have realized I needed, right back where they got it. In that same tote. That is turned inside out umpteen dozen times. :mad: :mad:

I appreciate their help, obviously. But could someone let them know they owe me about $7? I don’t speak gremlin. Thanks.

The thing that amazes me is that nearly everyone has these experiences multiple times and yet no truly believes that things cease to exist and then come back again. The mind has trouble accepting this notion no matter what the senses say. This is probably related to the anti-deja vu thing I’ve also noticed. Like when your driving down a street you’ve driven down every day for years and you notice a building, tree, or tower that you swear wasn’t there the day or weeks before. Reality is in flux.

Yep, my cat can do that. He’s a large cat, and there’s only so many places he can hide. He’s in none of those places, and then suddenly there he is.

I had this happen at work the other day. I had an email I needed to forward. It was in my inbox, then it wasn’t, and then a minute later it was there again. I know our email at work sucks, but geez…

Happens in our house all the time; especially the cat.

OTOH, about a week or so ago, I could not find the 5 lb bag of sugar that I knew I had bought. So, sigh I went out and bought another one. Two days ago my daughter commented that she had taken it on a previous visit, because she was out of sugar, and broke.

A friend who was a really, really sloppy housekeeper with some hoarding tendencies launched a search for a sweatshirt I had given to her daughter. Daughter wanted to wear it, and hoarder friend couldn’t find it anywhere.

About an hour later she found the sweatshirt very neatly-folded on the center of her bed. These are people who rarely do laundry, much less fold clothes in Gap style. I’d say it was one of the kids, save they were totally housekeeping impaired.

Your items don’t disappear. Matter can’t be destroyed. Your stuff is transmogrified into a lone sock in the washing machine, a cluster of dry-cleaner’s metal hangers in the closet, and a tangle of rubber bands in the kitchen junk drawer.

As soon as you go looking for the mate to a sock, or a wire hanger to snake out the bathroom sink, or a rubber band to put around the letters you’re taking to the post office, that’s when they change back.