Lost important stuff in cab

(Short version posted minutes after this. Here are all the ugly details)
Well it seems that every few years a complete catastrophe happens to me. Here is the latest...

But before I begin, it could have been worse. It's still pretty bad, but it could have been worse. I just have to check a few things to make sure.

I have a part-time (sometimes full-time) night job that requires me to wear a tie and bring my lunch. And breakfast. And sometimes dinner. Most often I catch a few hours of sleep at my GF, Maria Dedvukaj's house. I then shower, but on my suit, stop at the local deli to get food, then catch a cab to head off to the work location. Tonight that pattern was maintained, with the added detail that I would be on Roosevelt Island.

Another added detail was that I had overslept and was running late, so I was a little rushed. I had not tied my tie, but had it draped around my neck when I collected my food from the deli and spotted a yellow taxi, aerodynamic SUV style, conveniently waiting at a red light across the street. I rushed to the cab, manipulated the door handle according to the instructions "PULL AND SLIDE TO OPEN," threw my bags inside, and jumped in. I told him we were going to Roosevelt Island, and then realizes my tie had fallen off.

This tie was actually a rather special tie for me. Maria had gotten it for me for Christmas a couple of years ago. It is a tasteful dark blue with a pattern of tiny little white Star Wars rebel logos.

I asked him to pull over immediately (we had not actually gotten anywhere yet). We turned right off Astoria Boulevard to o onto 31st st, and I asked him to pull over right at the corner, under the subway tracks. In a bit of a hurry, I asked him to wait there because I had dropped something. He seemed to understand.

I ran out of the cab,back across the street to the deli, in less than a minute failed to find the tie, I left the deli, and saw my tie lying in the street. Relieved, I picked it up, looked up, and...

...no taxi. The spot at which I had gotten out was empty. The cab was gone.

There was another yellow taxi at that corner, still on the Astoria Boulevard side, sitting at the curb. I thought it might me my cab, but it was a boxy SUV style, the door handles were wrong, there were no instructions on the door, and my bags were not inside. There was another cab there too, a sedan. But it was also not my taxi.

Now, you might think,"so he just lost some groceries and will be a little later for work. At least he found his beloved tie." Well, here's what that tie cost me:

My computer bag with my laptop computer and external hard drive in it.

There were other odds and ends in those bags (date book, unused 30-day Metrocard, flash drive, a personalized, signed graphic novel about the life of Abraham Lincoln, my aviator-shape glasses with transitions lenses, etc), but they were all replaceable or forgettable, to one degree or another.

Not the computer. Not the external hard drive.

I had been in hurryhurryhurrydontpanic mode before. Now I was approaching panic mode. I looked up the street and saw what I though was the signal light on top of a n empty taxi and started running. By the time I got to where that possible taxi might have been, it was no where in sight. I ran back to the intersection and saw that the cabs that had been there were gone now. I wandered through the temporarily vacant part of the intersection, turning in all directions, hoping beyond hope that some answer to my dilemma would appear. I repeated "Oh my god!" in a half-shout, half-wail, half-moan that reeked of desperation, terror, and uncertainty. I started inventorying what I had just lost. Mostly it was the videos had been editing. I had recently moved a lot of files onto my external hard drive so I could move them onto a new computer, but that selfsame external hard drive was in that selfsame bag. And now I had no food or drink for the rest of the night

I thought about how I could have jumped into one of those two cabs that had been parked at the corner and tried to chase down the taxi that left me. Now both they and the original cab were long gone.

At least I still had my wallet and my phone. I used my phone to ask Google for the Taxi and Limousine commission (did you know they have a one-star rating on Google?). I dialed that number and got an automated-response system with no options for "lost property." I tried to remember any details about the taxi, but I did not remember any words or numbers on it aside form those instructions by the door handle. I did not actually make a trip or pay a fare.

My panic mode wound down to a combination of desperation, depression, and practicality. I still had a job, and I still needed to get to work. (I left out the part abut how my phone and while I was initially looking for the car and it was the fellow at work whose shift I was suppose to relieve. I had rapidly and emotionally tried to explain that I had lost my stuff in a cab and would call back. Lets just pretend I had included it in a literately functional manner). The emotional upheaval I had gone through had superseded the hunger I had been feeling, and I decided not to take the time to get more food.

Eventually another taxi came by and I hailed it. As we drove I spotted a taxi a lot like the one with my bags filling up at a gas station. I asked the driver to stop there and made sure he kept the meter running and understood that I was going to check out that cab,

It turned out to not be the same cab, but I asked the driver what the make and model was, and he said it was a Toyota Sienna There was a taxi dispatch across the street, and though I did see another Toyota Sienna there, it looked like it had been parked there for a while. When we turned a corner and passed a grocery store, stopping at a red light, we were next to yet another Toyota Sienna. There was no one in it, and though the back seat looked the same, there were no bags in it, or in the back luggage compartment. I briefly toyed with the idea that the driver might be inside the store, but what would he have done with my stuff?

The driver gave me the number for Curb and I tried calling it, but did not understand how that would help. He said all taxi drivers are on it.

I had called my GF to let her know hat had happened, and she gave me what comfort and practical advice she could. I got to work and found my co-worker and another person awaiting m e, saying that they were concerned that I had been fighting for my life or something. I was no doubt a sweaty mess, but at least I had my beloved Star Wars tie.

I explained what had happened, particularly about how I had not identifying info abut the car. Vinnie (my co-worker who had called me earlier),expressed sympathy. He thinks that there may be a way that it the stuff may get back to me.

I called the Curb phone number and talked to a fellow, explaining the story, and he transferred me to the credit card processing company. Since there was no transaction, there was no record of my trip. I wondered if it was possible that they could track down the next fare that was picked up, just a few minutes past 11 PM on 31st Street in Queens by a yellow taxi Toyota Sienna. Apparently they can't track things with that particular collection of information. I tried calling Curb again, explaining how there was no transaction, so connecting me with the credit card processing company won;t help, but he did so anyway,although he prefaced it by saying "they deal with the divers" and not mentioning that they were the credit card processing company.

Somewhere in there someone mentioned calling 311, so I did that. Without any identifying numbers on the taxi cab there was nothing more that she could do but take a report of lost property. I described the property in as much detail as possible, and even asked her to copy the report and change the cab to green, just in case I misremembered the taxi's color.

She very courteously and thoroughly took down all the information gave her and gave me a cpuple of file numbers and phone numbers. Apparently taxi drivers are supposed to turn lost property into a precinct in Manhattan.

So now I am, with a more calm head, continuing to inventory my losses here. Of course there ar ea lot of "wy didn't you's" and "What made you think's" at play here. I my defence, I can submit this:

Ever since my local cab company got bought out and went to heck (they used to come in three minutes; last I checked it took ten minutes to get them on the phone) and I figured out how to use Uber, I have been using it extensively. Uber drivers have been understanding when I make one last dash up the stairs to bring down something I forgot. I even mentally checked in that I had stuff in the cab so the driver would now that I would be coming back to the cab, so the thought that he might drive away was a very low-percentile risk to me. And I did take a little time as I thought possible to look for that tie.

And it turns out that "follow that car" is a much faster reflex in movies than in real life.

Now, this is not the end of the world. It may set back certain projects by months. It may mean the irretrievable loss of certain computer files (pictures, video, writings) but...
I did not lose...
my wallet,
my phone,
my tie,
my prized "SHAZAM!" hat that I was wearing.
I have a new laptop that I have been slowly moving some files to in preparation for eventual transition.
A lot of the files on this computer and ext HD were on previous computers and ext HDs.
My suitcase,with all the clothes that I had worn over the weekend, including my Utilikilt and Captain Marvel doublet, I had decided to leave behind.
Everything else that I had gotten at NY Comic Con was in my home or my GF's home.
...And I still have my health. And both of my jobs.

There are much more important issues in the world than this personal catastrophe, but it still sucks.

But I am still going to take the day off of my day job to fully inventory my losses and try to rebuild, clearing up some things that have been hanging over my head for months as so many of my days and nights have been filled with double commitments.

I have already determined and filed the appropriate papers to leave my current day job indefinitely to focus on those projects that have been hanging over my head for years, and this in no way will affect that. I have been doing quite will for myself recently in many categories that I historically have not, and that proves that I actually can do anything if I decide that is what I am going to do.

And Vinnie gave me a chicken hero sandwich tonight, proving that a hero can be more than just a sandwich.