Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

I am feeling very successful this evening: I have finally found and purchased plastic metrocard holders, which had been on the shopping list for a couple of years.

I got them the same place as the previous ones, the Transit Museum shop. For a long time, they had not only not had any in stock, the staff had told me that they never would again: there were none in a warehouse, nor were they ordering more.

Looking at the MTA website this afternoon, I found a link to that shop, and started browsing. They had Metrocard holders, in a few different designs, including the aerial photo of the city that they had on metrocard holders years ago. They also wanted a flat $8 for UPS shipping. I work half a mile from Grand Central Station, so I walked up after work, found the shop, and bought eight metrocard holders. Yes, there are only two of us, but I suspect they will stop carrying them for another several years after this. Then I checked off the oldest item on my shopping list, and came home.

When I got to the subway this morning, I reached into my pocket for my 30-day Metrocard, and it wasn't there. Since I was already well behind my usual schedule, I decided to use a pay-per-ride card and deal with the problem later.

I got home and looked in all the sensible places, and a few not-entirely-sensible ones, without result. I am not happy.

I have called the MTA's refund hotline and left a message; someone is supposed to call me back tomorrow, and I'll get a pro-rated credit to the credit card I bought it with.

The real problem is that I've lost not only the farecard, but the handy little plastic holder I had it in. When they introduced the cards, the MTA handed out some free holders, to encourage people to start using cards instead of tokens. After that, they offered them for sale at the Transit Museum shops for about $1.50. Then they stopped, completely. I don't know why. cattitude and I have used up half a dozen of the holders (over time, the glue connecting the two sides wears off, and then bits of the thin, transparent plastic that's one side of the holder break off, and eventually it won't hold the card anymore.

The holder I just lost, I found on eBay a few months ago. There aren't many there, though: none at all right now. The fallback is to keep my Metrocard in my wallet, which is less convenient, because I have to reach into my pocket, take out my wallet, and then take the card out of a pocket in my wallet.

I cling to the hope that it got knocked behind some piece of furniture, and will keep my eye open for either replacements or plausible substitutes.