Could not see the part for the trees...

I just had an incredibly stupid moment! I have just spent over an hour trying to find the master cylinder for the 1969 Chevelle Supersport that is my current project of the hour. In my mind, I thought I had removed it from the sprue and clamped it into one of those sticks with the 'gator clip on the end for painting.

That was several days ago, and tonight I returned to the bench to work. I look to the stand holding all my gator clips and NO PART! My thought was that it had popped loose and took off for parts unknown! I searched the bench area, which sad to say, is always a mess! Then down on my hands and knees thinking maybe the carpet monster tried to get it, searching with a flashlight.

My next step was to retrace my steps, so I picked up the box and started to search through the sprue trees to find where the attachment point had been and I couldn't even find that! Then it occured to me that maybe I was missing a whole tree! Sure enough, I looked down and there was the other tree with the master cylinder still attached, near the leg of the bench!

I've been under tremendous stress lately, so that is the excuse I'm going with. I was so busy looking for this tiny part, I totally bypassed seeing the entire tree where it and several other parts still reside.

Good thing I wasn't looking for a forest!