It's been a hard day's night and I've been working like a dog....

Ok, so I got the puter back today. Well, actually yesterday. I picked it up yesterday morning from David and Janice's while dropping K off there after her optometrist appointment. He spent like 45 minutes explaining how he saved my precious files and what all my new functions were on XP (I had NT). Most of it went in one ear and out the other, but I think I kind of got the gist of it. So Dave takes it out to the car for me when we are done with the walk though and buckles it in the front seat (the back seat and trunk are full of shit for work).

I then proceed to my work day. Well, actually, first I had to make a stop at Hart's (our supermarket here in Eureka) and hit their big ass meat sale. It only lasts 3 days and I knew I would not get back to town until it was over so it was now or never. Now I have the computer strapped in the front seat and 12 pounds of top sirloin in the back seat. So I head over to Tad's (my favorite convenience store) and proceed to ask Kate (my friend and owner of Tad's) if I can leave the meat in her walk in cooler until I finish my job at the New Orleans Hotel. Of course she says yes cause she adores me. 

I buy my one and only cup of coffee for the day and a bottle of water and head off for the NO. It's Friday afternoon and busier than shit in the historic district downtown area, touroids everywhere. Which means there is no place to park. So I park in the loading zone, go get Kara (my friend and the GM there), go down to the restautant they need rekeyed and proceed to pull and gather up all the locks, get all final instructions from Kara and hop back in my car, locks stuffed in my pockets and head over to Harmon Park where I can find a picnic table and rekey everything. Having to do that because there is no place to park adds like 45 more minutes on to the job but hey, I boy's gotta do what a boy's gotta do to get the job done.

So I get the locks finished (not to mention have a few conversations with friends in the park passing through) get back (parking in the loading zone again) reinstall the locks, talk to Bill who calls on his way home from Fayetteville and says he will meet me at the next job, give Kara the bill and head back to Tad's to get the meat I think I am going to run by the house before heading to the next job (next next job was closer to the house than downtown Eureka Springs is).

So I get to about Thorncrown Chapel and Bill calls saying he is at the job site already. I am either really slow or he was closer than he let on when he called before. So I tell him to pull as many locks as he can until I get there and I deadhead to the job.  I don't bother to tell him I have almost $50 worth of Top Sirloin in the car. I figure it's 6 of 1, half a dozen of the other since making Bill wait for me costs me money.  So I chance that we will finish this job quickly and risk the meat.

Now mind you, it's close to 3:30 when I arrive and I have a chiropractic appointment at 5:00 in Holiday Island, a mear 12 miles from where I am at the moment, down windy mountain roads filled with touroids going 10 miles and hour. There are 16 locks to pull, clean, rekey and reinstall. I get there and Bill has the front pulled already. So I find the customer's old key code, cut a key to work with, cut the new keys and head in to start rekeying.

Now you need to know that under good circumstances, rekeying a standard Kwikset lock takes approximately 5 minutes at the utmost and 2 minutes if you really rock. I must say that, from the time I arrived until the moment I was pulling out of the driveway and back on to Hwy 187 was less than 55 minutes. Me and Bill just fucking rocked. I like these kinds of jobs cause they are nearly pure profit. I think that making $200 bucks an hour rocks anyway.

So now I am off to drop the meat off and head to HI for the chiropractor appointment. I get there with 1 minute to spare and low and behold, for the first time ever, the chiroprator is actually running late. I am actually extremely glad that I have the book I brought for K's optometrist appointment in the car with me. I read about 4 pages and she is ready for me.

So I hop on the table and she gets to work on me and suddenly my cell (which I am tethered to 24/7) goes off. I am laying on the table, she is adjusting me and I can't get up (not to mention I don't have my glasses on so I couldn't see to answer it anyway). So she runs over and gets it and my glasses and hands them to me.

It's Ky, she has locked her keys in her truck and needs me.  I tell her I am getting an adjustment at that exact second, but that as soon as I am done I will rush there to save her. Mind you, she is an hour away in Bentonville. She tries to tell me where she is. She's at Mail Boxes Etc., she uses Wendy's as a land mark. Wendy's is not a place I would eat even if you put a gun to my head. She also tells me it's just past Walmart World Headquarters, better known as Corporate. Now here's the kicker, where she was is just past Corporate, if you are coming from her work. If you are turning off 102 on to Walton Blvd however, it's just before corporate.

So I don't even start looking for the nebulous Wendy's until I pass corporate. In fact, I was probably staring at Jimmy John's thinking I would like to have a sub from there when I missed Wendy's. I am also very aware that she has been sitting there waiting for me for a million hours and I am kind of anxious to get her in her vehicle and safely back on the road to where ever as soon as possible. I am running the length of Walton Blvd in my head searching for the Wendy's in my mind. I am drawing a blank. I can see the Taco Bell on the corner of Applegate, I can see the car wash I love oh so much there too. I can see all kinds of shit I know is there as you head north on Walton just past Corporate, but there ain't no Wendy's in my memory.

So I keep on driving thinking maybe they built a new Wendy's down past Applegate, I mean Bentonville is growning rapidly these days, it could happen. Why I cannot fathom, but still, it could happen. Finally I get as close as you can get to Bella Vista without actually driving in to Bella Vista and I know something is seriously wrong. I turn around and head back south. I pass Corporate and there on my right is Wendy's with MBE just a stone's throw away. And there in the bed of the little orange pick up truck is Mistress Ky with a sad little smile on her face.

So I say, "I drove right past you."  She says she knows, she yelled at me as I drove past. I am deaf, we all know this. Blind, deaf and dumb in the mental sense. She tells me I look great, I tell her she looks fabulous too (we haven't seen each other in ages mind you since she and the Aud boy work 9 million hours a week). I get my tools out, we figure out how we are going to open this sucker up and then I pop the sucker open. She is grateful, grabs her keys and proceeds to lock the vehicle back up.

I did not see her do this. She says to me "Do it again! Do it again!" I said "huh?" She holds out the Old Man's keys to me and says, "these are the wrong keys."  I seriously thought she was joking, but no, she wasn't joking one little bit. Now I am thinking this is funnier than all shit. Probably because it seemed ironic in some way to me. We both got a good chuckle out of it none the less.

So I pop it again, she gets the right keys this time and we head off to gas up and pee (we both had to go really bad) and then she insists on taking me out for a bite to eat and to get caught up on our lives.  I can't resist when she insists, so off to dinner at this fabulous little Italian place and some lovely conversation.

Now mind you, since I left the Chiropractor's office, I had tried to call Sue on the phone. But it just rang busy for at least an hour and a half. I can't call on the business phone because it's forwarded to my cell. I was afraid she was going to start worrying so finally I called Bill's house, left him a message to try to call my house for me. He calls me back, says he will email her. He emails her and within 30 minutes, as we are getting ready to be seated at aforementioned Italian restautant, Sue calls me.  At least now she knows I am not dead and vice versa.

Ky and I had a lovely dinner, talked for ever about all kinds of fun stuff and then we both head off to our respective abodes. It was great getting to see her after such a long time. Always reminds me why I like her company so much. She's brilliant.

Fast forward to today (Saturday).  The family and I are in town running a few errands when I get a lockout call. It's a black version of Ky and Aud's truck. I get there and within 2 minutes I have it popped. The guy says, "Wow, that was fast!". I say, "That's because I just opened one just like yours last night, twice in fact." I have that particular vehicle down to a science now.

So the puter came out of the front seat late last night and here it sits on the dining room table still not hooked up. Sue and I went to look at Kia Sedona's today. We didn't get home until almost 10pm.  Maybe tomorrow I will get this sucker back up and running. Who knows. I know we have to make a Walmart run tomorrow cause K needs a few more things for school on Monday. I just hope it doesn't take so much time that I don't get a chance to work on the puter not to mention mow the law. I have to mow the law tomorrow cause while we were out, Dave Rush, my next door neighbor, mowed his lawn and now I have to mow mine. It's our (mine and Dave's) neighborly lawn mowing war at it's best. He mows, I mow and vice versa. Thank god I am poor or everytime he painted his house I would have to do that too. You just wait til I get the new siding and roof... ha ha ha ha ha <evil grin>  Wait, come to think of it, we went to the Kia dealer today because Jill and Dave just bought a new Kia this week... hmmmm, neighborly wars at their best <grin>.

I know it's not until Monday but, Happy Anniversary honey! Seven years is not a long time yet. Wait until you are sitting there watching me die 20 years from now. Then that will have been a long time. I love you Sue, more than you will ever know.