Temptations – "(I Know) I'm Losing You" (1966)

I can feel it in my bones

Any day you’ll be gone

Oooh, baby, I'm losing you

My 24th season of basketball refereeing did not get off to a great start.

I had been assigned to do a girls’ junior-varsity game at 530p at a high school just a few miles from my apartment.  (So far, so good.)

But the visiting team – which was being bussed from a high school in the most distant part of the county – ran into rush-hour traffic, and arrived half an hour later than they should have.

Don’t ever send me this greeting card!

Then the very loud buzzer that the scoreboard operator uses to alert the referees when there’s a substitute who wants to enter the game got stuck in the first quarter, necessitating a long delay while someone went into the electrical closet at the school to disconnect and then reset the buzzer.  (My hearing is almost back to normal, thank you very much!)

But then the same thing then happened in the second quarter.  That time, the effort to reset the buzzer resulted in both scoreboards going blank.  So we had to wait until the athletic director located the small portable scoreboard that is used for kids’ rec league games in that gym on weekends.  (That scoreboard wasn’t satisfactory for several reasons, but we really had no choice.)

The game started out looking like it was going to be a blowout, but it ended up coming down to the home team’s last shot.  That last shot was blocked, but the home team players, coaches, and fans were certain that the shooter was fouled.

They were kind enough to point out our error to us as we left the court.

*     *     *     *     *

My partner and I had changed into our uniforms in the PE department office.  I had left my phone and keys in a zippered coat pocket before heading to the gym to do  the game, but my smart watch wasn’t with them when we returned to change back into our street clothes.  

I didn’t think much about that – I figured I had stuck it somewhere in the small suitcase I use to transport my uniform, shoes, and whistle to games, and that I would find it once I got back home and unpacked.

But the watch not only wasn’t in my coat pocket, it wasn’t in my suitcase either.  Nor was it in my car when I made the long trip from my apartment to my parking garage to check.  

The watch

I texted one of the referees who was working the varsity game that followed mine and asked him to look around the dressing area after his game was over, but he told me that he didn’t see my watch anywhere.

*     *     *     *     *

There’s an app on my phone that controls various aspects of my smart watch’s operation.  I opened that app, thinking that there might be a “Find My Watch” function I could use to track it down – and sure enough, there was such a function.  

I didn’t know if “Find My Watch” worked only if I was in the immediate vicinity of my watch.  But I had nothing to lose, so I hit the button.

A jazzy little ringtone immediately started to sound, so I knew the watch must be nearby.  But where could it be?

After listening intently for a few seconds, I realized that the ringtone seemed to be coming from inside my left shoe – which I was still wearing.

The shoe

Sure enough, the watch was in my left shoe – where I had hidden it after changing into my referee shoes before the game.

Somehow I had managed to change back into my street shoes, walk to my car, drive home, walk to my apartment, walk back to my parking garage, and then walk back to my apartment once again without noticing that there was a watch in my left shoe.

*     *     *     *     *

2 or 3 lines has previously featured the Rare Earth and Rod Stewart covers of “(I Know) I’m Losing You,” so I figured it was about time to feature the original 1966 recording of that song by the Temptations.

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