It appears that I am not going mad after all

I guess we all know the feeling that you know you have something in the garage but you simply cannot find it, no matter how hard you look? And it's not only one item, but a bunch of them?

I had to get at the Corvette's spare wheel today (keep in mind that this is the car that had two drowned rats in the windshield washer tank). In the middle of the wheel, there was an abandoned mouse/rat/squirrel nest and the busy animal had collected important items in there.

• A couple of automotive lightbulbs
• My bottle of threadlock that I've been looking for just about forever
• A couple of assorted vacuum plugs on a little plastic tree
• A 4mm socket
• A bunch of wood screws
• A little plastic "pill" container I use for small parts

I therefore conclude that the mouse/rat/squirrel was probably moonlighting at one of the shops in town. Probably was their best mechanic.

It doesn't mean you aren't going mad, it only means that you've found a few of the items you've lost.

I'll bet there's a lot more than that you are still looking for.

He probably works on Chevy big blocks.

You didn't know about the bulb stealing rodents? They are owned - and trained - by sock gnomes. (Yes, that really is where your socks go.) A well trained animal* will not only take the bulbs, it will also strip the insulation off the wires in poorly accessible portions of the wiring harness so as to to let the magic smoke escape.

--
* - The English Wire Wrecker is squirrel breed that is widely accepted as the finest of harness rodents. The gnomes of Gaydon, Warwickshire (UK) Kingdom have a proud tradition of breeding and training these animals.

so true. its what I get for almost never putting tools away.

I need to find a new spot to hide Tim's stuff.

In reply to failboat:

Oh god, that is so berkeleying funny cuz its so true.

yes, yes it is.

N Sperlo wrote: I need to find a new spot to hide Tim's stuff.

Try "in plain sight", that seems to work depressingly well.

JoeyM wrote: You didn't know about the bulb stealing rodents? They are owned - and trained - by sock gnomes. (Yes, that really is where your socks go.) A well trained animal* will not only take the bulbs, it will also strip the insulation off the wires in poorly accessible portions of the wiring harness so as to to let the magic smoke escape. -- * - The English Wire Wrecker is squirrel breed that is widely accepted as the finest of harness rodents. The gnomes of Gaydon, Warwickshire (UK) Kingdom have a proud tradition of breeding and training these animals.

Those little buggers must have invaded indianapolis then.......we had to put a complete engine, injector, and coil pack wiring harness in my sister's focus....

There is apparently a highly specialized subspecies that craves 10mm sockets.

yamaha wrote:

JoeyM wrote: You didn't know about the bulb stealing rodents? They are owned - and trained - by sock gnomes. (Yes, that really is where your socks go.) A well trained animal* will not only take the bulbs, it will also strip the insulation off the wires in poorly accessible portions of the wiring harness so as to to let the magic smoke escape. -- * - The English Wire Wrecker is squirrel breed that is widely accepted as the finest of harness rodents. The gnomes of Gaydon, Warwickshire (UK) Kingdom have a proud tradition of breeding and training these animals.

Those little buggers must have invaded indianapolis then.......we had to put a complete engine, injector, and coil pack wiring harness in my sister's focus....

They probably stowed away on a Lucas shipment a few decades back.

In reply to BoxheadTim:

Somehow I think Peyton Manning is completely to blame on that one....

BoxheadTim wrote:

yamaha wrote:

JoeyM wrote: You didn't know about the bulb stealing rodents? They are owned - and trained - by sock gnomes. (Yes, that really is where your socks go.) A well trained animal* will not only take the bulbs, it will also strip the insulation off the wires in poorly accessible portions of the wiring harness so as to to let the magic smoke escape. -- * - The English Wire Wrecker is squirrel breed that is widely accepted as the finest of harness rodents. The gnomes of Gaydon, Warwickshire (UK) Kingdom have a proud tradition of breeding and training these animals.

Those little buggers must have invaded indianapolis then.......we had to put a complete engine, injector, and coil pack wiring harness in my sister's focus....

They probably stowed away on a Lucas shipment a few decades back.

I'm glad someone got the geographical reference to Gaydon...to be a bit more specific, it was a lucas shipment for a land rover.

BoxheadTim wrote:

yamaha wrote:

JoeyM wrote: You didn't know about the bulb stealing rodents? They are owned - and trained - by sock gnomes. (Yes, that really is where your socks go.) A well trained animal* will not only take the bulbs, it will also strip the insulation off the wires in poorly accessible portions of the wiring harness so as to to let the magic smoke escape. -- * - The English Wire Wrecker is squirrel breed that is widely accepted as the finest of harness rodents. The gnomes of Gaydon, Warwickshire (UK) Kingdom have a proud tradition of breeding and training these animals.

Those little buggers must have invaded indianapolis then.......we had to put a complete engine, injector, and coil pack wiring harness in my sister's focus....

They probably stowed away on a Lucas shipment a few decades back.

obviously they must be nocternal

In reply to failboat:

I did exactly the last one this weekend when working on my "new" old truck. I had a can of penetrating oil disappear on me. Looked all over for it. Next time I am in the garage, it'll be staring me in the face.

Got 'em in Texas, too. Some years ago I left my car at the Dallas airport for about 10 days while on a trip. It was one of those '86 Accords with the flip up headlamps.

Some rodent chewed through the headlight motor wires and shorted them. That headlight probably flipped up and down for three days before it ran the battery down. Must have been an odd sight for passersby. My first clue when I saw the car was that one headlight was about 1" from fully closed.

I can only hope that the little bastard got a shock when he finally got the thing shorted...

In reply to CGLockRacer:

It only took me 20 minutes to find my spark plug socket yesterday, for the 2 minute job of changing plugs on the riding mower. I just used it a few weeks ago to do the plugs on the neighbors mower! Why isnt it right here? Well it was with all the other sockets, you know, the same place I checked 5 times before I found it.

They like to move things around. A few rat traps baited with bovril-on-toast will help with that.