Following up on Arfa's self-mockery...
The Sony D-FJ75TR is a classic Discman. A very-low-drain two-AA-cell player that runs about 25 hours on high-capacity NiMH cells, it can be literally slammed into a soft surface without skipping -- and that's with the skip protection turned off! Its remote control -- about the volume of the average person's thumb -- includes an excellent AM/stereo-FM digital tuner, a model of modern miniaturization. (If you come across one, treat yourself to the pleasure of opening it up and inspecting it.) It even has a hybrid mini jack with electrical and optical outputs.
The D-FJ75TR was perhaps the last of Sony's "really good" Discmans. I've therefore collected spares. A recent eBay auction had one for $10, including the remote control (the unit's best feature, and often missing). With shipping, I got it for $16.50. * The seller said the tuner wouldn't auto-program, but he was wrong -- it worked fine. (The manual is thoroughly confusing.)
Anyhow...
After stepping outside to program the tuner with Seattle's stations, I brought it back in and set it on my desk. Or so I thought. When I left for Intel Monday morning, I couldn't find it. I spent a few minutes looking, then gave up and left. It gnawed at me all week, and the first thing I did when coming home Saturday was to search for it. Did I actually leave it on the stairs? Or in the garage? Perhaps it was under the pile of junk that has taken over my bed.
The problem wasn't the $16.50 -- or even the loss of the spare parts. It was the apparent encroaching senility. Why can't I remember where I put things?
**I'd looked repeatedly on my desk -- where the Discman & remote should have been -- but couldn't find them. Were they under the pizza pan? Nope.
About an hour ago I decided to have a pizza -- a hearty, stick-to-the-ribs breakfast. When I lifted a plastic shopping bag off the aforementioned pizza pan -- there was the Discman and its remote. It was on my desk all along. The pan was sufficiently warped that the player could "hide" under the bag where it wouldn't be seen. Naughty Discman -- naughty Discman!
The best advice I can give anyone who's mislaid something is... If you can't find it in a few minutes, stop looking. It almost always shows up unexpectedly where you never thought it could be.
- The AC-E455 power supply -- perhaps the most-common wall wart in existence -- was also included. (I now have a drawerful of them.) Sony made a universal switching version of this supply. If you want one of either, I can send you one for , shipping included.
** One trick I've learned is to say -- out loud -- "I'm putting object A in place B" as you do so. And when you find a lost object... Never, never, NEVER move it until you're ready to put it in its final resting place.