So last week, my Jetta breaks down in O-Town. And not the good part of town (the part where some guy almost squeezed a couple of shots off at me a couple of weeks earlier). I was in a bit of a nervous state, not only because I hate car breakdowns, but because it has been ridiculously hot lately. Also that, and the fact that I could foresee paying for repairs- and being stranded in a place that isn’t entirely the safest. Managed to get home with the car, and got it into the dealer to get evaluated. When Allie picked me up from Cutrubus and drove me home, I was thinking that perhaps I would just work from home for a couple of hours, pick up my car, and be back into the office by early afternoon. We get home in the morning, and I go down to the basement and in my office to work. Around 1130, she has the boys loaded into the Escape and ready to go meet her sister, who is in town visiting. She announces that she can’t find her keys.
We don’t, nor we ever had, a spare key for this vehicle. When we bought it, we always PLANNED to get a spare, but never did. That whole “oh, it’s like $65 for a spare, we’ll do it later” crap. We never got one. So she searches and searches for HOURS. Around 3, we decide to get someone to come out and get us a new key. So now after several hours with two cars down, I get a ride from Tony to the Ford dealer in Layton. I have to take my registration, drivers license, etc over to the dealer so that they can provide me with some special key code. I call the locksmith, and give him this key code, with which he makes us a key for the thing. Then the programming for it takes FOREVER too. But hey, $150 later we have a couple of keys for this thing.
At this time, she is going nuts, because she had to ditch her sister- and also because the next day we have our neighborhood campout that we are ultimately responsible for. So she is freaking out about not being able to get around to get everything ready. So now it’s like 5:10 p.m. and I call the dealer about the VW. It’s now ready, and we jump into the Escape and she gives me a lift over to get my car. A few minutes and $350 later, I walk out with the keys to my car (which now runs like a champ after having replaced the Master Air Flow).
Get home to find Allie still gone, out running all sorts of errands to get ready for the campout. About 50 miles and several hours later, she comes home. I decide to get our camping gear packed and ready to go. From up on the ladder in the garage, I look down on the roof of the Ford and what do I spy? Those keys that we spent HOURS looking for, and were CONVINCED that Fischer had thrown into the trash as some sort of entertainment. Can you believe that those stupid keys stayed up there through like 50 miles (two trips to the Roundys, a Walmart stop, and who knows where else she went? )Either way, we find the things and finally get to bed. Not too fun dropping $500 on unexpected car expenses. But hey, if you need a decent locksmith, I know somebody. (unfortunately)
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