Decrepit Old Fool

I have a roll of special tape that is used for repairing books.  It’s clear, acid-free, and certified by some librarian’s thingie.  Since it’s expensive, I don’t keep it with the regular packing tape (which looks like, and for all I know is, the same thing).  Instead, I thoughtfully put it some other place so it would still be there when I need to fix a book.

Except, I don’t remember where that other place is.  And after living in the same house for most of three decades, there’s a lot of stuff in my basement.  I have only three options for finding the book tape:

1. Conduct a systematic search of the basement, room by room, looking for the book tape.  Of course, the odds of me finding it, let alone not getting distracted by some interesting thing along the way, are slim.

2. Just forget about it.  The book tape will turn up eventually.  Of course, then I won’t be able to find the book I wanted to repair.
3. Try to reconstruct my logic from when I thoughtfully came up with a good place to put the book tape. This can often be a frustrating exercise but once in a while actually succeeds.

Of course, that list omits the one, sure-fire strategy: go buy a new roll of book tape.  Odds are excellent that I’ll then find the missing roll (and misplace the new one).