The above photograph might not seem at first glance to be of anything horrifying – but it was in fact a horrifying scene for me. Those are my car keys on my car seat, and I’m on the outside of the car looking in. . . locked out. At least it was 12:30 on a beautiful sunny day. At least I had my cell phone with me (and obviously my camera as well) and I was in the parking lot of Subway, so it could have been SO much worse. (I could have been in the middle of nowhere and in pouring rain.) And at least I had a book with me, because I noticed several people in line and if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s standing in line without something to read. So I had Pete Sampras’s new autobiography with me, and had that to entertain myself with until MacKiever’s Towing came to rescue me about twenty minutes later.
It’s funny. You call a locksmith person and they come with an amazing assortment of sophisticated tools and a three-ring binder with a detailed schematic drawing of various cars and trucks and the specific design of each respective door and lock so they can know exactly how to get the door in question unlocked and opened up. But this guy had two little pieces of plastic which he wedged into the rubber lining of the door – and then inserted a long metal tool which was so primitive as to appear to be homemade … a long handle with a little hook on the end….. and in less than ten seconds he had inserted this tool in and pulled up the lock on the door and gained me entry. I’m sure that’s the easiest $50 he ever made, but at least I didn’t have to shell out the money out of my hide. We are AAA members. . . and I kid you not, just the day before yesterday Kathy was asking me whether or not we should renew our membership. AAA membership is not quite so significant a benefit as it once was, thanks to all of the easily accessible resources like Yahoo Maps and the like. But today proved that when a household has an absent minded professor in it like ours does, AAA membership is a no-brainer necessity. Not that I do this on a regular basis, but I have this sneaking suspicion – or is it a sinking suspicion – that the kind folks at AAA will be receiving more calls from us – not fewer – as the years go by.