In Other News

What with all the Ike-talk, I almost forgot to mention my (most) recent boneheaded move. 

On Friday, for the second time in a row, my (roughly) quarterly statewide political meeting in CapitalCity coincided with our monthly business meeting in OldWorkTown. 

OurTown, OldWorkTown and CapitalCity are arranged in a triangle, each about an hour from the others. 

My plan was to go to the business meeting all morning, have lunch with the other directors, then head up to CapitalCity, arriving late afternoon, in time to catch the last training session before the evening activities. 

All seemed to be going well, and I got on the road around two o'clock. About ten minutes down the road, I decided I'd give Shrike a call, just to check in. She ought to be on her way to work, and we'd have a few minutes to talk while we both drove. 

When I opened up my cell phone to make the call, I saw that I had a voicemail waiting. 

(Sometime calls go directly to voicemail for some reason, and neither the call nor the arriving message vibrates the phone, so I don't find out til later. Wierd.)

So, I listened to the message, and it was Shrike: 

"Hi honey. Um, do you maybe have an extra set of keys with you? Like mine? Please call and let me know. I need them to get to work."

I was pretty sure she had just misplaced them, but I reaching into my bag, and the first thing my hand touched was my car keys. 

I looked at the ignition, and there were hers. 

Oh shit. 

So, I called her back immediately, and confessed that, yes, I had, in fact, stolen her keys. 

But, I had a brilliant solution, "Can't you just take the truck to work? We have spare housekeys that you can use to get back in." 

"I put the truck keys on my keyring." 

I looked, and there they were. 

Damn it. 

So, I turned around and drove about an hour and a quarter back home to give her the keys, so that she could go to work. 

The funny this is that Shrike kept apologizing for making me go out of my way to take them to her, when the whole thing was my own damn fault. 

I took a few minutes to grab something to eat and do a couple of other things while I was home, before getting back on the road to drive another hour up to CapitalCity. 

I ended up getting there around five o'clock, and missed all the afternoon training sessions. 

I was there for the reception that evening (Free dinner for all! Free drinks for all who are not pregnant!), a meeting with the Obama campaign's LGBT outreach guy, and lots of hanging out and schmoozing at the bar. 

(Of course, that's when all the work gets done, not at the official meetings on Saturday.)

The whole time I was at the bar, I had one eyeball on the TV that was showing CNN coverage of Ike (with no sound), and I returned to my room a little after midnight (very early for me) to watch it until I fell asleep.

Tomorrow, Shrike plans to go make copies of the keys to both cars and the truck, and we'll put them on a separate ring, along with a house key, which will live at the house for future such emergencies. 

Nothing like being prepared ahead of time, huh?