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Yesterday was very exciting, but all is sorted now.
My aunt was in Redwood City picking up Dazzle from the groomers when my uncle called her, from Lake Tahoe, to let her know that he'd gotten a concussion (in a skiiing accident) and couldn't drive himself home from the airport. So she pulled over and sent me a few semi-frantic text messages asking if I could come and help her do the two-driver shuffle to get my uncle's car home from the airport. I said I could, and since she didn't say what time this was going to be, I headed right over.
Of course, I got there a good twenty minutes before she did, so I was parked and waiting and reading stuff on my phone to pass the time, keys in the ignition. She arrived, and I hopped right out, locked the door, shut it, and realized my error as I was putting my hand to my waistband to check that the keys were securely clipped there as they always are. Unfortunately, despite Dad's cautionary tale about locking his keys in the Honda*, I did not have a spare -- not on me, and not anywhere, since the car key has a microchip and when I've remembered that I should have a spare has not been when I've remembered the money, and vice versa. And I'd never even gotten a spare without the chip just for door purposes. The windows were shut tightly, and the locks are the rocker switch sort that don't respond well to coathangers. It was about 5:20 by then. My aunt said that we'd have to leave at 6 in order to get my uncle at 6:45, so we didn't have time to call a locksmith right then, so we got dinner and fed the dogs. She asked if I would just want to go home after the car shuffle, and deal with it in the morning, but I pointed out that yes, I did have a spare house key -- safely at home, locked inside.
Just as we were finishing up, my uncle called. It turned out that he was already there, and had either said 5:45 and my aunt mis-remembered, or had meant 5:45 but said 6:45. So we scurried down to the San Carlos airport, and I drove my aunt's car back while she drove my uncle's car with him. His pilot was there watching him until we arrived, which was very nice of the fellow. My uncle was headachey, and didn't remember much of anything beyond the initial ski-fumble and heading in to the lodge, which was a reasonable chunk of time.
Then we called a locksmith; since it happened at my aunt's, her AAA covered it, which was convenient. I will have to check mine about lockouts. The guy was there in about 20 minutes. He had a little tool to pry up the edge of the passenger side door, and a wedge to keep it open, and this long snakey tool of rubber-covered quarter inch diameter metal, with a nice handle and a little bit at the tip. He worked the thing inside, found the lock, and poked it with the bit at the tip, and it opened right up. It couldn't have taken more than a minute. I retrieved my keys and we had steamed apples and raisins with cinnamon and pecans, and watched a movie.
First thing this morning, before going to my aunt's craft-and-chat session, I stopped by the hardware store across the freeway and got a spare key for the door. It lacks the chip, and you have to fiddle with it so it works, but it unlocks both doors and the trunk. My uncle is feeling somewhat better, but still headachey, and tired from being woken up all night. On the way back from my aunt's this evening, I got a second one, and a second spare house key, and I am thinking I might leave those with my aunt in case of emergency.
* Dad locked his keys in his little blue Honda once upon a time, before I came along, while he was doing laundry at the Coin King laundromat in Fairbanks. Mama was shopping at the grocery store across the way. Dad realized that he'd left his keys on the seat and locked them in the car. But he was at the laundromat, and he'd happened to have left the window open a crack, so he got his hands on a coathanger, fashioned it into a hook of just the right shape, slid it in through the crack in the window, and pulled up the vertical locking knob. Then he opened the door, carefully rolled up the window so that no other nefarious person would be able to repeat the trick, locked the door, and shut it.
Then he realized that there was a problem with this: at no point had he actually picked up the keys. And sure enough, there he was, outside the car, and his keys were inside the car, the window was closed, and I can't remember whether he'd put the coat hanger inside the car too. So he had to hike across the road to the grocery store to get Mama, who had her copy of the keys. After that, he had a full spare set of keys made, and he kept them in his other pocket, carrying them with him at all times, and was never locked out again.
My aunt was in Redwood City picking up Dazzle from the groomers when my uncle called her, from Lake Tahoe, to let her know that he'd gotten a concussion (in a skiiing accident) and couldn't drive himself home from the airport. So she pulled over and sent me a few semi-frantic text messages asking if I could come and help her do the two-driver shuffle to get my uncle's car home from the airport. I said I could, and since she didn't say what time this was going to be, I headed right over.
Of course, I got there a good twenty minutes before she did, so I was parked and waiting and reading stuff on my phone to pass the time, keys in the ignition. She arrived, and I hopped right out, locked the door, shut it, and realized my error as I was putting my hand to my waistband to check that the keys were securely clipped there as they always are. Unfortunately, despite Dad's cautionary tale about locking his keys in the Honda*, I did not have a spare -- not on me, and not anywhere, since the car key has a microchip and when I've remembered that I should have a spare has not been when I've remembered the money, and vice versa. And I'd never even gotten a spare without the chip just for door purposes. The windows were shut tightly, and the locks are the rocker switch sort that don't respond well to coathangers. It was about 5:20 by then. My aunt said that we'd have to leave at 6 in order to get my uncle at 6:45, so we didn't have time to call a locksmith right then, so we got dinner and fed the dogs. She asked if I would just want to go home after the car shuffle, and deal with it in the morning, but I pointed out that yes, I did have a spare house key -- safely at home, locked inside.
Just as we were finishing up, my uncle called. It turned out that he was already there, and had either said 5:45 and my aunt mis-remembered, or had meant 5:45 but said 6:45. So we scurried down to the San Carlos airport, and I drove my aunt's car back while she drove my uncle's car with him. His pilot was there watching him until we arrived, which was very nice of the fellow. My uncle was headachey, and didn't remember much of anything beyond the initial ski-fumble and heading in to the lodge, which was a reasonable chunk of time.
Then we called a locksmith; since it happened at my aunt's, her AAA covered it, which was convenient. I will have to check mine about lockouts. The guy was there in about 20 minutes. He had a little tool to pry up the edge of the passenger side door, and a wedge to keep it open, and this long snakey tool of rubber-covered quarter inch diameter metal, with a nice handle and a little bit at the tip. He worked the thing inside, found the lock, and poked it with the bit at the tip, and it opened right up. It couldn't have taken more than a minute. I retrieved my keys and we had steamed apples and raisins with cinnamon and pecans, and watched a movie.
First thing this morning, before going to my aunt's craft-and-chat session, I stopped by the hardware store across the freeway and got a spare key for the door. It lacks the chip, and you have to fiddle with it so it works, but it unlocks both doors and the trunk. My uncle is feeling somewhat better, but still headachey, and tired from being woken up all night. On the way back from my aunt's this evening, I got a second one, and a second spare house key, and I am thinking I might leave those with my aunt in case of emergency.
* Dad locked his keys in his little blue Honda once upon a time, before I came along, while he was doing laundry at the Coin King laundromat in Fairbanks. Mama was shopping at the grocery store across the way. Dad realized that he'd left his keys on the seat and locked them in the car. But he was at the laundromat, and he'd happened to have left the window open a crack, so he got his hands on a coathanger, fashioned it into a hook of just the right shape, slid it in through the crack in the window, and pulled up the vertical locking knob. Then he opened the door, carefully rolled up the window so that no other nefarious person would be able to repeat the trick, locked the door, and shut it.
Then he realized that there was a problem with this: at no point had he actually picked up the keys. And sure enough, there he was, outside the car, and his keys were inside the car, the window was closed, and I can't remember whether he'd put the coat hanger inside the car too. So he had to hike across the road to the grocery store to get Mama, who had her copy of the keys. After that, he had a full spare set of keys made, and he kept them in his other pocket, carrying them with him at all times, and was never locked out again.
