They Are At It Again

I need to talk about those blasted gremlins that keep borrowing my things. I'd call them the Borrowers, but I think that term is copyrighted. Well, for that matter, so is "Gremlins". I could call them the Denizens of the Universe that Co-Exists In My House and In My Life, but that seems a bit long. Let's go with "gremlins".

First of all, they never gave back the old GPS. I've replaced the old one, already, so ... any day now ... I'm still waiting. This delay is really quite rude. Even worse, they keep borrowing other things without returning the earlier stuff!

Two days ago I was tearing the house up looking for a pair of tweezers. I must perform this ritual at least a dozen times a year, if not more often. Periodically, I get disgusted and finally buy a new pair, and low and behold, the others show up. By this time, we must own at least 6 pairs. To try to cut down on how far and how often these tweezers can travel, I've started to be fairly rigid in where they are allowed to live. For example, at least one pair must be in my makeup kit, and at least one pair must be in the drawer. The rest can move about aimlessly if they wish. Nonetheless, this last time around they were all AWOL. (Good thing we weren't having a true Toddler splinter emergency!)

Well, we solved our problem another way, and sure enough, I found two pair in my makeup kit this morning, right where they were supposed to be. Of course, I don't need them now.

Tweezers are one thing. In the grand scheme of things, tweezers are unimportant. This tug-of-war we are having over the portable DVD player, though, is really getting on my nerves. See, we have been taking Toddler on a lot of long car trips (5+ hours) over the past few months. Sometimes the last hour or so is just torture on all of us, and the portable DVD player is our only saving grace. Trust me when I tell you that DH and I are very motivated to keep all the necessary pieces together for just such a car-ride emergency. We need the player, the wall charger, the car charger, and the all important Bunnytown DVD.

I swear, for the last four trips, one of those pieces has been missing, no matter how carefully we try to keep them together. We have spent the days before each of the last several trips scouring the house looking for one of the two cords and ended up having to travel without them. The one time we managed to find all pieces, somehow the DVD was missing by the time we went to turn the machine on.

Honestly, I don't understand. These pieces all have a home together, and we put them there when we get home from each trip. (Or at least, I'm pretty sure we do.) We even talk about it, noting where they are (and commenting to each other if for some reason we elect to do something out of the ordinary, like leaving some pieces in the glove box for the next trip).

At the moment, a few days away from another long trip, we have two wall plugs that look like they go with the DVD player (although I recall one of them does not), one car adapter to allow us to use the regular plug in the car, and one DVD. Currently missing: the DVD player itself, and the car charger that plugs into the cigarette lighter. We have 48 hours to find them before we have to leave.

DID YOU HEAR THAT, GREMLINS? WE NEED THOSE PIECES BACK IN 48 HOURS!

I am willing to share my things with the other dimension. To be candid, I have no choice. I wish they would borrow everything that goes together at once, though, and return it all at once. This "bits and pieces" approach to our DVD Player is quite annoying. I mean, what use do the Gremlins have for the DVD player without a cord? I guarantee the battery has completely drained by the time we get it out of the car. And what use can they possibly make of the car charger without the player to plug into? What good is a random cord?

FORTY-EIGHT HOURS. I MEAN IT THIS TIME. YOU CAN KEEP THE DANG GPS NOW BECAUSE I HAVE A BETTER ONE. NO, YOU CAN'T BORROW THE NEW ONE.