Lost keys and the universal push...

Have you ever thought about your universe, and how you can influence the way it responds to you?  That YOU are controlling IT instead of IT controlling YOU, and that you can make it do what you need it to do for you?  Its a crazy concept, but these last few weeks I've needed it.  I've needed to use that power to bring back something very dear to me, my lost keys.  Stupid Jones... how did that personal commandment go again??  Thou shall not ride drunken'd bicycle in the dark of night, somethin', somethin' about helmets... something like that.  I always forget the second part of that, usually after a couple beers it changes to something like "Get up fatty!  Let's go for a ride!"

I'll admit it folks, my bike and I have been in many stupid accidents.  Silly things like my last post, running headfirst into a construction sign.  Now that's just stupid.  Those ones are fine enough on their own, but then there are all those rumm'd up collision courses that are totally avoidable but yet... I buy the ticket, an' I take the ride.  Oh man!  I love it!  I've often relied on my bike to get around at the end of the night, and I always wear my helmet because I know by now, I'm just one of those guys.  And on this one fateful friday night somewhere around midnight, I was havin' a few, home alone, and just got a real bad hankerin' for a cigar..... a cigar??!!  WTF Jones???  Really, it was only half the cigar, and half the ride.  Off I went on my merry way, and somewhere along that ride back from the gas station, my keys... unbeknownst to me, fell out of my jacket pocket.  I had the garage door opener to get back in, so I had no idea my keys were even gone until a couple days later when I really couldn't find them and started thinking, then worrying, and having to retrace the memories of that evening.  I searched everywhere and scoured my brain, what did I DO that night when I got home?  I know what I did.  I smoked that horrible fucking $2 kiddie cigar is what I did!  The gas station didn't have REAL cigars, just the ones that "all the kids are smoking", is what the cashier said.  Two thinnies in a sealed plastic baggie that tasted like they'd been dipped in cough syrup and hung out to dry with the cod.  Fucking disgusting shit.  I was disgusted with myself.  But not as disgusted as I would be, when I'd given up hope of finding my keys and made an appointment at Volkswagen to go in and get a new key floppy and found out that a replacement would cost me FOUR-HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!

Ooooh, so many regretful drunken'd nights in my lifetime.  And this one was so damn'd stupid.  Its not even a good story, one that you'd want to tell your friends.  I reckoned that I would not get a replacement until I had gone the full distance in trying to find my lost keys, and use the emergency 3rd key for the truck in the meantime.  The emergency key is like a dunce-cap key, oversized and not exactly user friendly.  The VW's keyhole is actually hidden underneath a small pop-off panel just behind the streamlined doorhandle, not convenient at all.  I tore the house apart and searched desperately for those keys but they weren't anywhere to be found.  I put an ad up on Craigslist and retraced my route several times, went back to the gas station a couple times just in case, but nothing.  Then I began trying to mentally pull them back to me, to push the universe to give me something and I got several bubbles of reaction.  The first was from a guy who suggested a website where lost things get posted.  And then, I was scouring the same route again and all of a sudden, there they were!!!  They were sticking out of a pile of dirt on the sidewalk.  I picked them up, and it was a set of keys for an Acura, complete with the house and mail and another key, just like my set but all chewed up from traffic.  Oh well, the universe had responded.  I couldn't complain about that.

My last and final step was to put flyers up along the route with a $100 reward for their safe return.  I figured, if nothing else, that reward money would get the kids to dig up dirt for me and leave no stone unturned, or hopefully connect me with the people that might have found them.  The posters went up last thursday night and just last night, a guy emailed me to let me know he had my keys!  Actually, he emailed me on behalf of his neighbor, who had my keys.  She had found them the saturday after I lost them and held onto them.  I picked them up from her tonight on my way home and happily gave her the $100 reward.  It has been just short of a month, and I finally got my keys back!

I'm so friggin' happy about that.  It all worked out.  Besides the ridiculously expensive floppy replacement, I have a precious aluminum fish as a keychain, given to me by a good friend at a very good time in my life that is invaluable to me.  That fish hasn't left my side for 15yrs so above all else, its good to have my fish back.

A big shout out to Jennifer and William who brought it all back to me.  Hey universe, do something nice for those folks would'ja!

Thanks for reading.

TRJ

PS ... I've been told that my 'comments' section for this blog was inactive.  I'm going to fix that for any of you who want to leave comments.  The best way to reach me is my email address (trjonz@gmail.com), as I probably won't come back to the same post to comment on somebody's comment.  Maybe I will, I dunno.  I appreciate the readership immensely, but these posts are a mark in time designed for your entertainment and tomorrow we'll be onto the next chapter.  Keep moving forward, the new motto.  But, if you wanna drop a line, please do so.  I'll get it.  Once again, I thank you for reading.  Sincerely, Troy.