Ranger Rik rescues his chick's mitts

We have a built-in section in our closet with shelves for shoes and a rod for clothing to hang from. Late in the afternoon of this day-long comedy of errors, I realized that I had dropped one of my fingerless gloves down behind the top shelf onto the floor. Of course, it fell into a practically invisible and hard-to-reach corner. Ranger Rik to the rescue!

After duct-taping a small hook onto the end of a yardstick, Ranger Rik managed to pull up a dust covered glove. Then he saw something red. Is it the missing red cashmere sock? I take a look. No, it's one of the pair of Canadian 2010 Winter Olympics mittens I bought in Vancouver this year. On sale even. So Ranger Rik manages to pull up the mitten.

Well, if there's one, where's the other one? I look in every coat and jacket pocket -- no mitten. They both must have fallen behind the built-in and onto the floor.

Using all his ingenuity, Ranger Rik clears everything off the top shelf and hoists himself up so he can really see. Sure enough, there's the other red mitten. Unbending a wire hanger (my idea), he manages to grab hold of the missing mitten and bring it up, covered in dust from wrist to fingertip. (I did originally suggest he use a hockey stick, but that would be sacrilege.)

Hence the title of our story -- and did we need a giggle after all the things that went wrong today:

Ranger Rik rescues his chick's mitts!