Jane’s World: Hospitals, Annoying Jeep Issues, Shout-Out to Northwest Lock

I was talking to a friend the other day, and we were commenting on how if you based people’s lives on what they post on Facebook, you’d think everyone was on a fabulous European vacation or celebrating 25 years being married to their best friend or [other amazing life events]. And if you read my Facebook feed, you might think I spend all my time taking fab pictures of this beautiful peninsula or floating happily in my little kayak (though not much of that yet this summer – no time!). So here’s my real-life story of the past 24 hours.

I ended up taking the husband back into the hospital last night around midnight – still having seriously painful gout issues – a result of his failing kidneys and other health issues. He couldn’t even walk by the time I took him in. He’d just been in the hospital for his first gout issue a couple weeks ago. That one was in his toe, this one is in his knee.

I got home at 4 a.m. (Tim’s still in the hospital) and because our stupid Jeep’s dome light refuses to turn off (a new thing! although it’s a 1999, and it’s been a good little soldier, so yay for that) – now every time I get somewhere and turn off the car, I have to disconnect the battery, otherwise it drains down. We’ve been trying to gather funds to buy a relative’s car, but with the MegaStorm and hubby’s health issues and me not getting as much work-for-pay done the past few weeks, things just are not going well on “buying that better car” front.

So I get home last night and go to disconnect the battery, but in the process, the automatic doorlocks somehow lock themselves. And the spare key is also inside the car in my daughter’s bag (she’d used it a while back during the film festival), along with my phone and purse and camera and basically everything I need every day. The front hood is also all the way down, and you can’t open it without pulling the latch – inside the car.

So after fussing around trying to get in there myself and putting out a few Peninsula feelers, I end up calling a local locksmith (thanks to my BFF Kris Hains for the suggestion) and bite the bullet on having to shell out cash to get into the stupid car (using valuable funds for that “better car” we’re trying to buy!). The locksmith, Bill, shows up and I’m telling him about the hospital visit and getting home at 4 a.m. and locking my stupid keys in the stupid car, and I ask if he knows an old friend of mine, Byron Gay, who I knew had a locksmith business.

Turns out Bill is Byron’s son, and he’s the kid who used to run around the Damascus Road coffee house playing with the lighting system. I was in a little praise band with some friends back then, including Mike and Michelle Davis and Jenifer Thomas – we’re talking late 1970’s. The coffee house was out on Garfield at the time.

So anyway, Bill is able to get the car open, and then gets ready to go (at this point, I realize he has his dog with him in his van – “dog people” are always “good people”). I ask him how much I owe him, and he says ‘I’m told you’re all good.’ He refuses to take any money from me. At this point, I thank him profusely and start weeping. Yes, there are still good people in the world, despite all the stuff we hear on the news every day.

And if you need any lock work done, please call Northwest Lock at (231) 946-1611, because they are truly the best in every way.