> > We still think it's amazing to find something so infamously lost after that long a time.
>
> That's the cool thing about losing stuff beyond all hope: finding it again, sometimes years later, and marveling about it. It's like opening a time capsule.

Today we were visiting a small country church that we'd never been to before. At one point while we were there, my brother caught sight of something and walked across the room to a box of children's toys. He pulled one out that had been partially covered: a small barn full of plastic animals. He and I looked at it for a few seconds, then he opened the barn's small door. The latch made a very familiar sproinging noise. It was one of our toys, missing for a decade, maybe more.

I love that feeling of finding an object not seen for years. It's almost like finding an old friend, because it brings back with it a few other lost memories. In this case, it came at a perfect time--it caused me to remember times when I was very small, playing at my grandparents' home. My grandpa's funeral had been only a couple hours earlier.

gab"Hadn't meant to say that, but it came out"by