Thursday last week hubby had a doctor's appointment in Carlsbad in the afternoon, we decided to have a family outing after I got off work while we were in the same town. Upon leaving the restaurant Jeff informs me that he locked his keys in his truck, and blames it on being distracted by the boys. This is not something Jeff does, this is something I do a lot - lately, I almost have Ace Lock and Key in my cell phone memory. Anyway he has this elaborate plan based on previous experience at his work.
He tells me to drive home, find the spare clicker, and try and unlock using the remote via telephone. Huh? Don't forget that home is 30 miles from Carlsbad. So me and the boys drive home. I find the clicker, we try it over the phone. Nothing. We tried it using the land line, hmm try the cell phone he says. Whatever! So we try cell phone, nothing. Bummer, okay see you in a few. I load the boys back up and we drive back to Carlsbad with the key. He calls me as I'm leaving, "try again up on the highway." We get crappy cell service at our house (good wireless Internet, but crappy cell - same company go figure). Okay so I pull over on the highway when I get 5 bars on my phone. We try again. Nothing, except the locks on my car seem to be unlocking, but this doesn't sink in to either of us. So I continue to drive to Carlsbad.
As I pull into the parking lot I start clicking to unlock his truck - nothing, except my locks going crazy. OMG! I realize how stupid I really am. The clicker I use is square shaped, Jeff's is kind of hour glass shaped, apparently the spare clicker to my jeep is also hour glass shaped. Huh?! The spare key on the other hand is obviously the same shape as my jeep keep. Doh!
Time to call Ace Lock and Key - NO! I drive back home, find the correct clicker and once again try the remote via telephone. Nothing. So back to Carlsbad again with the correct key.
I did the math in my head. From my recent experiences with the Ace guy, it would have cost $45 and maybe 45 minutes to unlock the truck. My jeep gets 16-17 mpg, but lets make it easy say 15 mpg. 60 miles round trip from home to Carlsbad and back times 2 trips (first trip home doesn't count as I had to go home anyway) - 120 miles at 15mpg = 8 gallons of gas times $3.30 a gallon = $26.40. At ~ 2.5 maybe 3 hours. Oh and I got a ticket on my last trip home because apparently I crossed the white line, but since I wasn't drunk, he was just checking to make sure I was alright, and by the way where is your current insurance card. Priceless!
So who was more blond? Jeff for locking the keys in the first place, me for getting the wrong clicker, or Jeff for also not cluing into the wrong clicker, Jeff for not biting the bullet and calling Mr. Ace guy, me for not adamantly suggesting he call my friend over at the Ace place, or Jeff for coming up with the clicker over the phone idea, me for choosing a family dinner over my swim workout? The good news is that neither of us got angry at the other, we just dealt with our stupidity. Now we can laugh about it - and so can you.
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2 comments:
That's a pretty funny story. LOL.
In the end, I think your time (2-3 hrs) is worth more than $20 you saved by driving vs. the Ace guy but those are generally the things you realize AFTER the fact.
Hmmm. Tough to choose...I think I'd have to pick whoever it was that though that the clicker, which uses a type of radio wave, would work over the phone, and I say that with the spirit of friendship and love. I'm also reminded of when I lived out in the country with my kids; there are so many benefits to rural life but boy sometimes the distances can really bite one in the butt.
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