key challenged

We've had to call AAA about nine times in our married life to break into our various cars because the keys were locked inside. Today, Ryan has been the cause of that for the fifth time. Kev & I have been driving for 30 years, Ryan three. He's done this more times than years he's been driving. Granted, the first two times it was just a dumb move by a kid. But these last three--he's NOT paying attention!

Today he grabbed a set of keys that he thought belonged to the Saturn. Stick the key in the ignition, go to school. I get a call, and he's going off about how is it the stupid skinny key fits the ignition but not the door?! I tell him that's not a Saturn key, it's a spare truck key. I'm trying to figure out where the real keys are, and he keeps going on about the stupid skinny key in that one-octave-higher-than-necessary voice. Finally we figure out neither of us has one clue as to the whereabouts of said keys. Kev was the last one to drive the Saturn, and in keeping with the eerie history of something weird, trying, and/or calamitous happening every single time on the very day he leaves town, he's incommunicado in the wake of this dilemma.

AAA gives their guys an hour to get there and help you, and our guy was 50 minutes. Wasn't raining, but it was cold. He was young, nice, and so efficient that he didn't even bother to turn off his engine while he broke into my car. I gotta get some o'those tools--they were cool! He shoved something that looked like a square blood pressure cuff into the door jam, and then pressed a white plastic wedge into the space above that to make room for the long wire thingy that presses the lock open. Nice!

He was genuinely sorry for the trouble, and that goes a long way with me. I wasn't mad or anything, just thoroughly puzzled about where the keys could possibly be. Did Kev unknowingly take them on his trip? Did they fall out in the driveway and get picked up by a dog? Do I have them?! He ended up taking twine and stringing it from the door handle to the lock and tying a great big bow as a very odd, and thus effective, reminder not to lock the doors. It was Jylle he was more afraid of than himself though. The girl's muscle memory is far stronger than the one in her brain.

All went well. They arrived home without incident, and I heaved a huge sigh of relief. We have five get out of jail free cards left this year with AAA, and it's already April. You can do this, Ry, you can do this, baby…