The curse of living alone. Yesterday evening, wanted to ‘remote control’ the AC and looked for the hand-held-device. Could not find it. Looked in the usual places, not there. Then one starts looking in the unusual places, hoping against hope, it isn’t there, because that would be a true sign of the beginnings of de-railment. Unusual places include, but are not limited to, the refrigerator, drawers completely unrelated to holding such equipment, behind the flower pots, make-up bag, and kitchen cupboards. Happily, or unhappily, depending onto which end of the candle for reassurance one is holding, it was not to be found. Went to bed. Got up middle night to work on project, continued to search. Decided light of day would be more productive. Morning arrives, and now I am on my knees, looking under desk, under anything that rises from the floor, and it is nowhere. This is when one wants desperately to have a roommate. A fresh pair of eyes, someone else to give it a thought. This type of event puts one pretty close to the edge of the precipice of ‘am I losing it?’. The morning turns into noon, and as I reach one more time to adjust the AC button on the unit, a new idea dawns. The paper recycle. The Paper Bag carried to the basement, yesterday, was in the vicinity of the AC remote control. I am in luck, as the asst, asst super was just switching out the full bags, and I dumped my paper recycle into the new bag. And here I am now, digging around in the same self bag, thinking this has got to be it. Not much more than my detritus and the 300 page Sunday NYTimes. I lift the layers out, pulling up the bottom of the large clear plastic bag and then I feel it. The hard plastic in among the paper shreds. The AC remote. Alone in the basement, I exclaim,’Eureka!’ not caring if I look like a crazy dumpster diver. But then the next thought: what if my paper recycle had ‘topped off’ the bags being put out yesterday. You might never have heard from me again, as it would have eventually driven me mad, wondering where it had gone! The small favors of life.