Tuesday Troubles on Monday!

 Today I had many things to do.  With great good fortune I made very good progress.  It was time to head to the YMCA for my swimming.  Since I have told the world that I am working on a particularly hard swimming goal, I was all souped up to do today's workout.

Well!  I got to the YMCA, got my stroller out of the trunk, got my swimming backpack out of the trunk, remembered I have forgotten to bring dry socks since I wear socks in my Frogg Toggs shoes in the water to keep my feet from getting banged up, then the final thing I did was toss my purse in the trunk, which I always do to keep it out of sight of anyone who might be light-fingered and easily tempted.

So good.  Ready to hit the road to enter the building. I slammed down the trunk. Yay!  Then I heard the beeping, realized my key fob and YMCA membership card lanyard was NOT around my neck just at the moment the beeping stopped.  I could now NOT get into the car.  I tried all the doors but they were securely locked.  R-r-r-r!

Even with this foolishness, Heavenly Father was watching over me.  For perhaps the third time since last September when I started going to the Y, I had slipped my phone into my swim backpack...so I was not totally without resources.  

After a short call with a nice girl at Toyota who had no idea how to help me--she suggested I get a locksmith then she said if I would bring the car in to the dealership they could help me.  Sure.  Glad to do it.  I might have been slightly hot under the collar/impatient with that and asked if she had a manager who could help.  He sounded about the same age as the girl.  He also told me to bring the car in.  Or at least I needed to bring in the registration and my driver's license. I said I would be glad to if he would open my car.  He said they could not do it without information about the car and ownership.  I was grateful he was looking out for us but was a tad distressed.  Finally he said they could make a key for the actual keyhole in the door...thank goodness they had one of the blanks there!  He checked his system, said they had a blank they could cut, then asked me to hold while he checked if they ACTUALLY had the key.  He came back on the line with the blank in hand. I thought that was pretty darn smart of him and appreciated it greatly.

He told me it would take fifteen or twenty minutes to get the key cut then he would send someone to the rescue along with the invoice.  I was perfectly happy.  Walked one lap around the building then started downloading a Libba Bray book, the third in the Gemma Doyle trilogy, and waited happily.  The girl arrived in very good time.

We got the door unlocked.  I got out the registration which she photographed.  I handed her my driver's license which she photographed.  I got out my credit card which I handed to her to use to pay the bill.  I thanked her and she got on her way.  I got into the car and drove off to my next stop since it was too late to swim by then...my reservation time having been almost totally used up.  

Arriving at the JC Penney parking lot,  I got out of the car to get a couple of towels, shut and locked the door, and as I started walking away I heard beeping.  And more beeping.  I could NOT lock the dratted door!  I realized the new key was nowhere to be found. Somehow it was keeping the door from locking but I could not find it for anything.  I looked totally through my purse and everywhere else I could look.  Could NOT find that key.  

Each time I got out of the car and tried to lock it there was a continual beeping. I REALLY wanted those towels so I drove to a far corner of the parking lot so no one would hear the beeping and realize they could drive off in the car.  Funny thing.  This time when I locked the car it did not beep!  I rushed into the store, bought the $4.00 (as per the sign above the piles) towels for $9.00 each.  I mentioned the discrepancy in signage but the clerk said that I had the $9.00 ones and there was nothing to do about it.  So I thanked her and only bought two of them instead of the four I had chosen.  Oh well.

It was fun coming home and telling Dear One about my less than brilliant performance today.  He was so nice about it.  The key was pretty costly...