Helpful Hint

James and I were on our way out the other day to meet some friends for dinner and we were arguing who was going to drive. We always argue over this and it's not like we have a long way to drive, every where we go it's not more than a 10 minute drive. So the sneaky person that I am, I purposely left my keys on the table in the house so that when James came out he would have to drive. As he was walking out he saw my keys and picked them up and asked if I was driving and I said no. So he comes out the door, locks it and pulls it shut. We get in the car and he looks around for his keys and then asks me where they are. I'm not the watcher of keys so I say why don't you have them. And we both realize that he left them inside our house which is now locked. All the windows are locked tight because we checked them before we turned the furnace on for the year. After my tantrum where I swore so much that a sailor would blush, I call a locksmith. Forty minutes later (he said it would be 15 minutes) he shows up. He indicates that he will first try to pick the lock but if that doesn't work he will have to drill it. Three minutes later the door is unlocked. The locksmith came into the house so that we could pay him for his services, which he priced at $165. Yes, that's right, for 3 minutes of work we had to pay him $165. Have you ever felt what it's like to get kicked in the stomach by a horse? Me either, but that's what I imagined my feeling was like when he said $165. But what would have been my basis for my argument? He let me into my own house. We could have refused to pay him and he could have shut the door on us. I'm not even sure what this man does with his fees that he charges people. He drove up in a van that barely made it down the street. He certainly wasn't dressed the nicest. If I was charging people $165 for 3 minutes of work, I would be wearing Gucci suits to unlock peoples doors. That way they would know that they are about to be ripped off. Or what would have been easier is if he would have just punched me in the face a few times, I would have rather done that then pay the $165. He was even polite enough to give us a break down of his ridiculous fee, $40 to come to our house, $120 to unlock the door. So the helpful hint of the day is: Have a hide-a-key or give a key to a friend, a neighbor, a bum on the street or even the cat next door.

Fun in the car waiting for the locksmith