This past week, a co-worker and I were discussing how engineers always seem to want to optimize everything. Trying to calculate if buying gas at the gas station down the street because it's $.01/gallon cheaper is worth it based on miles per gallon consumed by the car and mileage to the gas station. Placing something at the bottom of the stairs so as not to waste the energy in making an exclusive trip upstairs but waiting until you had another reason as well. Trying to plan a route that combines 18 different errands in the shortest possible distance while minimizing traffic lights and left turns across busy streets. Stuff like that.

Every once in a while, that optimization comes back to bite you.

So we bought a second car seat to install into my wife's car last week. I left it in the garage right next to her car. After all, why waste the energy to carry it into the house when you're going to install it into the other car in the garage, right?

Well, I kept forgetting to bring out a box cutter, or some other excuse and the result was not getting it installed before I left on my California trip this week.

So I went out this morning to install it, and it was gone. And I instantly realized what had happened.

I had placed the box next to my wife's car. It was also next to the bins we put our recyclables into. My wife and our nanny, thinking I had taken the car seat out already, had assumed the box was empty and put it out with the recycling.

ooops.

We bought a replacement today. It's already in use. No procrastination this time....

Wonder how many gallons of gas it will take to compensate for this...