Forgotten Keys

 I have touched on these topic areas before in a few different blogs. In summary they are as follows:

1.        College students/teenagers do not answer the house phone because they assume the call is not for them—all their calls arrive via their cell phones.

2.        College students/teenagers do not answer the door bell for the same reason—they would have received a text message first if someone they knew was at the door.

3.        College students/teenagers do not arise from their slumber until noon unless they have been texted or called on their cell phones or need to get somewhere of their own accord.

And the other morning, by accident, Kara took both sets of my car keys with her to work. My car sat in the driveway with no way to start it. And that may have not been overly problematic but for the fact that I needed to get Briana to the train station—her flexible schedule had her starting work at 10:30 am.

So I looked out of my window and saw a few cars in the driveway across the street from me and ran over to ring the bell. I knew I could secure Briana a ride or at least borrow a car. But there was no answer. And neither was there an answer at the houses of two other neighbors whose bell I was comfortable enough ringing, and who I surmised by the parked cars were people were dwelling in the house. So in desperation I called all the house phones after my bell ringing solicited no answer, but no one picked up. All the college students/teenagers were sleeping in their respective houses, and the doorbell or house phone was not important enough to rouse them.

Finally I called my most proximately located friend, and she graciously dropped everything and gave Briana a ride.

Disaster was averted.     

And as my friend’s car pulled away  a few things popped into my head: What if the gas company had been ringing the bell to tell the residents to vacate before an impending explosion? All those sleeping college kids/teenagers would have been lost in the disaster. Ignoring the bell and the phone is just not the safest thing to do.

But something else occurred to me. Throughout my “no-key” crisis I had remained calm. I did not get angry at either the circumstance or the people involved. I slipped completely into the problem-solving mode. I was grateful for a good friend who had saved the day.

Which reminded me about a totally different blog I had written a while back---not crying over spilt milk and viewing the glass as half full—it really is the way I deal with the world.

When you do not allow emotion to distract you, solutions reveal themselves. And there is always room for the positive—even if you must search diligently to find it. Which is why when Kara came home that night I thanked her for taking both sets of keys that morning—she is the reason I got all the chores I was avoiding done and was able to cook a well prepared dinner. She also enabled me to write at my leisure---and gave me some good topic matter. And none of that is ever a bad thing.