Friday, April 4, 2008

Losing Things...Including My Mind!

There is nothing worse than losing your keys.  OK, maybe there is something worse than that, but humor me!   About a week ago, my key ring went missing.  Actually, it is only part of my key ring.  I usually have the key ring with my car keys on it, and a separate one with one of those "handy" detachable clips, so I can multitask.  The detachable ring had my keyless entry remote for my car, my house keys, my sister's house key, and our only mail key.  

After days of waiting for the key ring to suddenly appear, Kent and I started searching in earnest for the keys.  We turned our couches inside out to no avail;  it's amazing and disgusting what actually gets trapped inside the crevasses of our couches.   We searched the cars, the diaper bag, my purse, our pants pockets, and anything else we could think of.   Nothing!   I was getting more and more frustrated knowing the mail was piling up in our mailbox that we couldn't get to (not to mention our Netflix movie that was waiting to be watched!)   But we still held out hope that they keys would appear.

On the fifth day, that would be yesterday, I started calling around to find out how much it was going to cost to replace everything.  The post office said that our boxes were actually "builder" boxes, which means the HOA handles it.  The HOA said we had to call a contracted company.  The contracted company said it would cost $63, and we would have to wait a WEEK before they could come.  What?!?!    And this is just for the mail key.  Forget the keyless entry to my car, which I haven't even started trying to deal with yet.   Kent suggested we search again before spending the money to replace everything.  

One more fruitless search, and I finally decided to put our mail on hold at the post office and start the process of replacing the mail key.  I called the post office, and a very nice postal worker told me that she could give the number of an independent locksmith who could do it for $40 and would get it replaced within 24 hours.   So, after all of the searching, phone calls, and frustration, the independent locksmith came 2 hours after I called him this morning, replaced the lock, gave us 3 mail keys, and charged us $50 instead of the $40 suggested by the postal lady.   But, it is replaced!!!  

Now to replace house keys and the keyless entry remote.   

4 comments:

Omgirl said...

I can't beieve that was the outcome! I was still waiting for the miraculous finish where they turned up in the dishwasher or something.

kimberlina said...

There could very well be a miraculous finish yet, but for now I'm just trying to get to my mail and be able to get into my house :)

Audrey said...

Ryanna hid Derek's keys one time. It had one of our two car keys on it which made me incredibly paranoid because car keys nowadays all have chips in them and so Wal-Mart can't copy your existing key. You have to go to a dealership where they charge you at least $90 for the key and that's if you have the master of the two keys they give you with you car. We eventually found them in a compartment in his backpack that neither of us had ever discovered before. Boy did we feel dumb because she had told us several times that's where she had put them and we kept telling her she hadn't and she needed to remember where they really were.

kimberlina said...

I asked Maija if she knew where the keys were, and she kept insisting they were "in the car." So I tried to narrow down which car, and she brought me to the car...it was her red toy car outside. So I asked her to show me where the keys were, and she said, "Silly, Mommy. The keys are here," as she pointed out the toy key in the toy ignition of her toy car. Yes, silly me!