Shaji Thorns you are the bain of my existence!!!

The current question around the household is "how many patches are allowable on a tube before it is to many?" The current number on my front tire in five as can be seen in the following pictures:

Upon removing the tube from the tire after our last ride, which was fast and fun, I found a small puncture (Lower photo, second from bottom patch). I obviously repaired the hole with one of the small patches that they sell locally and checked the tire for any sign of thorns that could still be hitching a free ride. Satisfied that there were no thorns in the tire I remounted the tire and tube and pumped it up.
The next day I was disheartened to find that my tire was once again flat. Today I decided to re-tackle the task of fixing the flat with the intent of finding the likely thorn that was the culprit of the puncture. I marked where the valve was on the tire so that I could use that as a reference point to further search for the thorn based on where the hole in the tube was. This seemed to work pretty well since my tube seemed to have a small hole next to one of the other patches. I peeled the old patch off in order to cover the two holes with one patch and patched the tube. Next I compared where the hole was against the orientation of the valve on the tire.
After running my fingers along the area trying to find a prickly bit which would locate the thorn I was without luck. I then began to search more thoroughly the outside of the tire which resulted in me finding a very small sliver of thorn that had broken off. Obviously this was the culprit and I made sure to remove all traces of it from existence, both on the tire and on earth.
It has now been about twenty minutes and I dare not go and check to see if the tire still has air.