Sep11

lock ‘er up and throw away the key.

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not me , but exactly like me holding my keys in my hands just before i helped them to go missing
(and this baby is smart to just be focusing on one thing at a time)
—
and yet another
multi-task seemed like a good idea mishap unfolds
carrying trash, two sets of keys, donation bag, library book, coffee cup, dvd, lists,
and an odd assortment of things
to drop off, return, or deal with on my other random errands
determined to make one trip
i did get out the door
things balanced, hanging from wrists and various fingers
dropped trash bag in the dumpster first
 unlocked my car using my left pinky
threw everything in the backseat
drove off and finished all of my tasks
happy to be getting rid of things i no longer needed
bringing in groceries and new things i didn’t know that i needed
again, everything balanced
determined to get back in my door in one trip
tiptoed through the garden shortcut
made it in with all intact
put everything away and went to get the mail
sadly
my second set of keys was nowhere to be found
which included my mailbox key
searched and went through everything
retraced my steps
(as i learned to do from bert and ernie on sesame street)
looked in all of the hidden under-seat and in-between places in my car
figured keys would pop up somewhere in the next day or so
but alas, it was not to be
by process of elimination of all other possibilities
came to the conclusion
they must have fallen into the trash bag
that i threw away in the dumpster
 unretrievable
so i began the process of replacing them
my second car key was on there
i’d just listed my car for sale, with two keys
too expensive to replace
changed that detail in my ad
my mailbox only opens by key
can only be replaced by the post office
went to two post offices
each handled a part of it
had to pay $45 and have one of their people
come out, re-key it, and create a new key
my mail carrier who is great
left a massive pile of mail from the week
hidden on my front porch for me
why did i even have a massive pile of. mail?
key fixer guy came the next day
gave me three keys
need to get the padlock on my storage unit
cut off and replaced
mail restored, ad changed, buy padlock
next up
one job, focused, on task, slowly
figuring out
if there were any other important keys on that ring.
—
‘some people think my father was a spy, because of working for that government agency in vietnam,
but he can’t find his car keys, much less keep a national secret.’
*lauren graham, american actress
besides having startle response, and technology being my nemesis, another reason i opted not to be a spy.

*Lauren’s father, Lawrence Graham, was a candy industry lobbyist, president of the National Confectioners Association and worked for the United States Agency for International Development in Vietnam. (seems like a pretty good spy cover to me)

—

photo credit of smart baby with keys: google images

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68 responses »

  2. oh beth, we are really, really related in mind – or lack thereof! 2 weeks ago, i lost my complete ring of all important keys, at least two of them extremely costly (car key 300.- or more, ‚pass‘ key for appt, building, underground passings, garage door well over 300 too). furthermore i remembered stuffing it in my handbag ABROAD – i was desperate. i started trying to re-order the making of house keys and decided that we will not replace car key because of cost, found the full set nicely hidden in a ‚sports-bag‘ i had hung around my head abroad when i went shopping for essentials on way home!!!! i was absolutely sure however that i had pushed the thing not into my handbag but let it drop beside it, which is a frequent thing due to my appalling eye sight!
    the extra house key has arrived, the invoice is still pending! gosh, i was SO relieved. First thing i did was getting a very long, large and colourful strap and now i feel ‚safe‘ (except that the strap now wants to wrap itself around door handles and whatnot).
    Then yesterday morning, after, again returning from abroad, i fixed the mailbox key a neighbour had, back to my set of keys, thinking while doing it: must find a better ring to affix to the set, went about my tasks. returning home, the mailbox key was gone…. (you could say ‚as predicted‘ – except that it was fine until yesterday)
    Now, this is a much smaller matter because those keys are easy to reproduce and i can get it done locally without involving the building mgt… but still – i think i might develop a key phobia!

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  3. Oh man…. I was kinda hoping that after all that, replacement keys found, etc. that the missing ring would pop up. Reminds me that I never did get a replacement key for my car, said key fob having disappeared when I moved…

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  4. Hmmm … losing keys (not actually, mostly misplaced) is a good/bad habit of mine, and nothing to do with my ‘aging’ process … I’ve always had a “key” problem, and in the early years of married life, embarrassingly, my mother-in-law, gave me a “key-ring whistle” … I didn’t have the heart to tell her, that couldn’t whistle! …

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  8. Oh, Beth, I felt my anxiety kick in as I was reading your post. I am more likely to lock my keys inside – keys for the car in the car and keys for the house in the house – but I do remember one time when my keys went missing and months after I’d gone through getting all of them replaced, I found my entire ring of keys in a finally melted pile of snow. I now keep my car key and my house keys on two separate rings, just in case!

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  9. Because my mind tends to wonder:) I have to put everything back in the same place all the time…otherwise…it’s not good. Just spent two weeks looking for my passport…..thank goodness I found it….now in a very special place with written notes telling me where that is!:)

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  15. I can relate to your story pretty well, Beth: Trying to get as much as possible into as little time as possible or as fast as possible. And that is when something happens that causes so much more time.

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  19. You poor thing. I think most of us have been in your shoes at one time or another. Not fun but just human mistakes. I do exactly what you do and try to do everything in one trip. Maybe I’ll learn something from this. Fingers crossed. Sorry you had to go through all of it.

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  22. wjat a tale of wor;I keep checking whether I have locked the front door when I go out and whether I have my mobile phone in my top pocket ,whether I have turned the bathroom tap off ; –and so on, all the time forgetting the need for my wallet which I shoot off without :(

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  25. Oh no. Sad.quite an inconvenience.

    I had to change my front door lock yesterday too.
    Mine is a funny story. I had detached it all from the bunch earlier. So I opened the front door, heard it drop to the floor, but I never found it again.

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  27. Maybe 6 or 7 years ago, I had a similar hectic multi-tasking loss of my wallet that tortured me for months. I did not mind losing $300 in cash but the driver’s license, medicare card, etc. replacement was a pain. I was lucky to figure out the wallet was buried deep in a garbage bag so I did not cancel credit cards and shared my wife’s cards. The TORTURE came because it happened to be garbage day and I thought of pulling the cart back inside as the truck approached but was sure I would find the wallet somewhere in the house. My mind slowly made me realize how it happened. I think I would handle the stress of making the wrong decision better today.

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