A Phenomenon: I Don’t Know What it’s Called, But I Know You’ve All Been There

It's the one where--after weeks or months of searching for something valued--you finally give up and outright buy, or just order, a replacement. Following which, within 36 hours or so, the original reappears.

I've seen it called a variant on Murphy's (USA) or Sod's (UK) Law. But that doesn't seem to fit. Things can (and do) go wrong at any time and all the time, and there often isn't a (sometimes doubly) happy ending, as there is in the case I'm describing here.

I'm a great fan of St. Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of lost particulars, whether things or people. And I'm quite familiar with the prayer: "St. Anthony, St. Anthony, please come around/Something is lost which cannot be found." It works more times than might be expected, but--on the occasions in which it fails--sterner measures must be employed.

Thus it was with my one-quart saucepan which disappeared a few weeks ago. I couldn't find it anywhere.

Had I--perhaps--stuck it under a kitchen or bathroom sink to catch the drips from a leaking p-trap? No. Filled it and taken it--in the absence of a handy watering can--to water indoor plants, and left it somewhere obvious? No. Stuck it, temporarily, full of something in the back of the freezer or refrigerator, pending a more permanent solution? No. Used it--because I couldn't find the scoop--to dole out grain for the sheep or chickens? No. And on and on? No.

I thought I had looked everywhere, to no avail. I was puzzled at the loss because of the sheer "presence" of the item. I mean, a fairly heavy, three-ply saucepan with a hefty handle isn't the sort of thing that ends up in a bag and is simply thrown away. I might confess--if pressed--to having done such a thing with, say, a pack of sewing needles or something similar, that which ends up in the bottom of a paper or plastic shopping bag and is so inconsequential in weight or mass that it goes unnoticed, and--with a subsequent clearout--out it goes!

This couldn't possibly have been the case with my one-quart All-Clad.

But, yesterday, I gave up. And I ordered a replacement, tri-ply, induction-ready, one-quart with lid, item from Amazon. To be delivered this morning by 8 AM.

At about 10 AM this morning, I opened one of my cat food bins:

Six or eight weeks ago, I decided to try a new brand of cat food. My kitties didn't like it at all. So ever since, I've been mixing it--bit by bit--into their regular diet, so that I can get rid of it.

It's probably been at least three weeks since I've looked in this cat food bin to shovel out a measure of the rejected food into the preferred food. Shockingly, that timeframe might--in a weird Dr. Who time-travel sort of way--correspond to about how long I've been looking for this quart pot.

LOL.

If any of you has a creative, apt name for this phenomenon, please weigh in.