Thanks For Finding My Key — I Think

by John Hawkins | August 19, 2003 5:27 pm

So Friday night I discovered that the keys to my car were missing — the ONLY keys to my car. I had been meaning to get a copy of the key made, but I’ve busy as hell working on everything from RWN to unsuccessfully trying to teach my Jack Russell Terrier, Patton, that he’s not supposed to poop on the couch. Oh there’s nothing like losing your car keys right at the beginning of a week-end.

So I look all over for them. I check my room, the living room, the kitchen, I check the trunk of the car to see if I left them there. Then I start checking other less obvious places. Maybe I absent mindedly put them in the fridge — nope. The trash? Nope. Under the bed nope?

The next morning I called the office at my apartments to see if anyone turned any keys in and they said, “no”. Then I start wondering if the missing keys are “dog related”. After all, Patton will chew on and eat almost ANYTHING. He likes cat litter, shoes, pillows, quilts, magazines, & network cable, so why not a key? So I start looking for places Patton might have dragged the key — no dice. Then I looked around outside in the path from the car to my house, where I walked Patton the day before, etc. There was no key to be found, it just wasn’t happening.

So I give up on finding the key and start thinking about replacing it. I call a local dealer and ***W00T*** he tells me that he can make me a key with a VIN number. Great! So on Monday morning I get up an hour early to catch a ride to work with my roommate (he has to be in earlier than me), but he’s sick and decides to just let me borrow his car. So I got to work and head to the dealership at lunch. However, there’s a problem — my car has a “Sentry Key Theft-Deterrent System” and they need car on hand to make a key that will actually start the car. ***Sigh*** They did offer to make me a key that would open the doors, but I didn’t need anything in the car so I said “no thanks” and headed back to the homestead.

So I head home, go online, and order a tow from AAA[1] (that was the best $50 I spent this year) and leave my roomie to deal with the tow truck driver.

My roommate then calls me at work about an hour later and tells me the tow truck driver couldn’t tow my car because it was front wheel drive and the front wheels were facing away from him. Since there was no way to get into the car and turn it around, he couldn’t properly tow it. He did however offer to “drag” the car to the dealership. My roommate quite properly told him “no thanks”. ***Sigh AGAIN***

So I have to take off of work and drive BACK to the dealership and get the key that will only open the doors and then I head BACK to the apartment and make sure it works (it does). So then I go BACK online, order ANOTHER tow from AAA, & head back to work.

Then I get another car from my roommate and guess what? The key turned up. It seems that my helpful neighbor saw it in the trunk of my car on Friday, picked it up, and then took it back to his apartment. Then when he saw my roommate getting ready to have the car towed he walked down and gave him the key.

He did say that he “pounded on my door” on Friday to give me the key. Of course, that seems unlikely since I was home all week-end without a car and I have a dog who barks louder than Lassie when Timmy is stuck down a well every time someone knocks on the door. But maybe I was walking the dog or both of us were sacked out asleep and missed it somehow. Why didn’t he put a note on the car or my door? Couldn’t he have tried KNOCKING AGAIN Friday night, Saturday, or Sunday????? I didn’t bring that up, but he volunteered that he “forgot” to come by again.

So here’s my dilemma — on the one hand, I’m grateful that this neighbor was looking out for me and decided to grab the key so no one could get into my car. That was certainly a nice thing to do. On the other hand, I want to beat my neighbor until my arms get tired for putting me through all of that. So I have mixed emotions here — appreciation & the urge to MAIM are both strong. However, I think I’m going to stick with appreciation. Not only because I have to live beside of this guy, but because getting really irritated over someone trying to do something nice for me seems so petty. But still, couldn’t he have just…must not think about week-end without car key, must not think about week-end withou car key, must not think about week-end without car key…..

PS: I got the key back yesterday. Today, the car wouldn’t start. There was a bizarre electrical problem sucking the juice out of the battery 24×7. It had to do with a trunk light which is odd given that my trunk doesn’t seem to have a light in it.

Ya know, after all these problems & the brutal wreck[2] I was in, I think I’m ready to start using some clean, fuel efficient, government funded, environmentally friendly form of public transportation….then I’ll start eating granola, wearing a dress, & going to Phish concerts. Har, har, har — yeah right — keep dreaming you hippies!

Endnotes:
  1. AAA: http://www.aaa.com
  2. brutal wreck: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/archives/week_2003_06_15.PHP#001038

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