My stupid afternoon...

Earlier this week I had "one of those days".  I had several appointments scattered throughout the day up on the hill. (For those of you not in-the-know, "the hill" refers to Los Alamos proper, as opposed to White Rock, a sort of suburb, where i live.  The hill is about 10 miles away, with an entire National Laboratory in-between, and about a thousand feet in elevation change. We have different growing seasons, for heaven's sake.  It only takes 10-15 minutes to get there, but seems like a big deal.)  So, I was carefully planning my busy day to avoid the gas mileage of running up-and-down from the hill all day.  I taught my online class, got dinner into my slow cooker and bread machine, packed up my laptop and school books to work at the library, and headed out. 

Most of the day was lovely.  I had a good doctor's appointment, tea with a dear friend, grabbed a sanwich and read over lunch, got a haircut, and worked on school items at the library. Finally, it was time to leave the library to go to the dentist's office for a filling-- not something I was really looking forward to anyway (though I love my dentist, and feel sorry that no one looks forward to seeing him....) Well, I could not find my keys.  then I remembered that I had put them in my purse when I got to the library, and as an after-thought, decided to only bring my computer backpack with me and leave my purse in the car.  Drat.  I had locked my keys in the car.

My fist thought was to call Dave, but where was my cell phone?  In my purse, locked in my car with the keys.  It was not that far to the dentist's office, so I could walk.  it was beginning to snow a little, but i had brought a jacket.  Where was my jacket?  You guessed it, Gentle Reader: in the car with my keys.

So, hauling my computer backpack and walking quickly against the cold, I began heading to the dentist's office.  After turning a corner, I realized the office was farther than i thought, and that I was going to be late unless I did something drastic.  So I did.  I jogged.  In my dress shoes.  Down Trinity Drive.  Not a pretty sight.  But I made it on time.

To make a long story shorter, I got my filling, left several messages for my husband, and walked (more slowly) back to the library.  I tried calling him again from the circulation desk (no place has pay phones anymore!) but to no avail.  So I sat with my computer, found my youngest son online, and asked him to keep calling his Dad until he got an answer.  It turns out Dave's electricity had been shut off for a couple of hours at work, and he was killing time in another building.  Eventually he came to my rescue, but he didn't have his extra key with him, so home we went.  After dinner we returned to the hill and picked up the car.  So much for saving gas... and what a stupid afternoon!