Stupidity

The snow arrived and it was gorgeous – I had forgotten how beautiful it can be - especially when reading in front of a fire with a great view out the window.  It stuck around for about an hour and then nicely disappeared, leaving icing on the roofs across the way but 2 hours later even that was gone.  Perfection.

However I celebrated by doing 2 incredibly stupid things.  The first occurred on my outing to the grocery store.  Yes, I drove.  It was not at all icy so I get no credit but that wasn’t the stupid part.  The stupid move was slamming the trunk lid down after storing my bags of groceries – with my keys tossed inside one of the bags.  And of course I hadn’t unlocked the car door prior to opening the trunk – no, of course not.  So there I was, stuck in a very cold grocery store parking lot.  The house key was in the trunk so even if I walked the mile home, I couldn’t get the spare car key.  This is very different from my life in Pacific Grove where the movie Turner and Hooch (filmed in downtown) so perfectly captured our town crime scene – nothing happens.  Everyone who visits at my house knows where to find the spare key. It is such common knowledge, and so many copies are in the hands of friends and relatives, that I felt obliged to have the locks changed when I moved to Portland.  But here I am, living urban, so no spare key hidden under the car, no spare house key stashed outside.  Yes, I was truly stuck.  Granted I have AAA but like to save that for true emergencies and I remembered I had a backup – my precious daughter, Stephanie.  I called her and she ever-so-nicely drove over, picked me up, drove me to my house where I used her copy of my house key to get in, drove me back to the grocery store and made sure I found my keys inside the trunk before she left.  She didn’t even groan (well, she may have internally, but not for me to hear).  The problem was solved – except for my feelings of stupidity.

But that was not all – the next stupid decision was right around the corner – well, downstairs in my basement. That evening I tossed my dark clothes in the wash forgetting to check the pockets.  And yes, there was something important in one of the jeans – my thumb drive.  The thumb drive with the thousands of photos from the albums of my adult life. The ones I had carefully scanned – and let me tell you, it took HOURS and HOURS and HOURS over the past year and a half.  Yep my cute little red 8 GB thumb drive had had the ride of its life.   And it didn’t just go through the wash cycle – it went through the dryer cycle as well.  When I spotted it lying inside the empty dryer drum I felt sick.  I walked upstairs numb – yes, the photos are still around somewhere – I gave some to Stephanie, some to Lee and some were here in the house but I just can’t do it again.  How stupid could I be?  Checking pockets is rule #1 of laundry.

It was only when I was in bed that I remembered how, about a year ago, my other precious child, Lee, had been somewhat insistent that I get an external hard drive to back up my computer.  I had been quite proud when I was able to set it up myself with no help from my techno-savvy children and son-in-law.  And, yes, I had recently backed up my computer and had transferred all the photos onto the hard drive.  I had another copy.  All was not lost.  It’s amazing how easily sleep can come once a problem is solved.

Today I took a chance and plugged the thumb drive into my laptop and, incredibly, it still works.  All the photos are there.  Truly amazing. 

And I figured out a solution to the key problem.  I put my keys on my UC Davis lanyard and it works well.  I just take it off when I drive then stick it around my neck when I go into a store.  Can’t happen again. 

What a foolish thing to say – especially if the gods are listening.  I didn’t mean it.