Guffaw had himself a Bobby Burns day recently – Friday was
mine. I didn’t have huge plans, and up
to a point the day went pretty well.
Friday is normally my day to go to the office and, as usual, I
drove. I have a sleep disorder so I get
up when my body says to get up, not when the train system going out of Brunswick, MD, says to. And
unless something Very Bad has happened on the highway, I make the 75 mile drive
in time to clock in at 9:30. That rotates
my day around so that I then leave after the worst of the traffic is done.
It was a nice day.
There was some frustration because the system had gremlins and I got
stalled on several projects because I couldn’t get to the data I needed, but ah
well. I dashed down to the Basilica of
the Immaculate Conception for confession on my lunch break – it’s just a
couple stops down the subway line from the office. It was a beautiful day, and apparently also commencement
day at Catholic University.
So a bit after 6 pm I packed up and headed for the parking
garage. My plans for the
evening: go home, have a sandwich, read,
relax, go to bed. The “gang agley” factor raised
its head when about halfway to the garage I realized that I couldn’t find my
car keys. Back to the office to rummage and
dig. No keys. Pockets, lunch bag, computer bag emptied
out. No keys. They aren’t in the
ignition, either.
Uh-oh.
I’m 75 miles from home.
And public transportation is virtually non-existent between where I live
and about 10 miles west of where I’m standing. Crud. Crud crud crud.
Fortunately, I have a neighbor who has a key to my house,
and much as I hated to do it I called her and asked if she could get my spare
keys and meet me at the end of the subway line in Gaithersburg.
The D.C. metro system is not a complete loop. I was in Silver Spring, I needed to go to
Shady Grove. In the crow flying world they aren't far apart. In the Metro
world it means you go all the way down into D.C. and then up the other side. So 50 minutes later, having passed through many subway stops that are much more interesting on a weekend, I was in Shady
Grove. My neighbor delivered the keys,
we went out to dinner, then I started the trip back to Silver Spring at about
10 pm. Retrieved the SUV about 11, then
did the 1 ½ hour drive home, knowing that I had to be on the other side of the
county at 9 am the next morning. At
least traffic was really light by then.
On this week's to-do list - get a spare key to leave at the office.
Not good; sorry it happened to you. But the question is, did you find your original keys?
ReplyDeleteNope. I suspect I donated them to the Basilica or to the MARC system going to-from. I have to make some phone calls to lost and found.
DeleteSpares are always a necessity. I've got spares for my truck, even though the key has some sort of microchip in it and a spare won't start the truck, at least it'll open the door if I do something stupid like lock the key inside (not that I've ever done that ....:ahem:....). I don't feel really comfortable unless I have about three different ways to access a locked compartment.
ReplyDeleteYeah...I knew I had a spare. It just never occurred to me to consider that we might end up with such a gulf of distance between us.
ReplyDeleteYikes!
ReplyDeleteGlad you got it (somewhat) resolved.
(and glad I'm not the only one!)
gfa
Life tends to throw curve balls, doesn't it?
DeleteOn a regular basis!
Deletegfa
Glad it worked out...not a good feeling!
ReplyDeleteWow, that's what I call spending some real quality time with Mr. Murphy. He must like you a LOT.
ReplyDeleteOH - thanks for reminding me of a recent episode that might have ended very poorly.
ReplyDeleteFamily piled into the car, which had been loaded beyond capacity the night before, at 4:30 AM to head for the airport for our flight to our annual ski week. I leave the car at an off-airport lot to save $$. I'd forgotten to grab the valet key so I removed the car key from the ring and left that in the ignition as per SOP.
As the family climbed out of the car everyone except me closed their doors. Nobody had yet opened the hatch. The guy who was writing my ticket went into the car to record the mileage and somehow managed to hit the lock button, climbed back out and closed the door. All our ski stuff, except the ski bags bungied on the roof rack, was now locked in the car.
Fortunately this was Newark NJ and most every worker there, including the young woman running the register, had learned how to open locked cars at some time in their life. They had us opened in about 10 minutes.
While they were pondering what to do first my youngest got on her iPhone and googled "how to open a Jeep Grand Cherokee without a key". Try it. Not only are there plenty of videos but they are accurate. What a world.
Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteYeah, me and Murphy were real close that day, and you obviously have experienced that sinking feeling yourself. Thanks for the google tip - my keys are gone gone but I'll try to remember that if I ever find myself staring at them in the ignition.