The Miscellaneous Cost of Forgetfulness

Posted Motzai Shabbos (after Shabbat)

We go to our other house on average a couple of times per month and it seems like every time we do, something gets left behind or lost. The other week we arrived and couldn’t find our mail key (we live in a rural area and have a neighbourhood Superbox). Our next door neighbour has the 2nd key so we borrowed it back and I got another key cut at a big box hardware store in town (20 minutes drive). We returned to the big city and a day or 2 later my hubby put on a pair of jeans he hadn’t worn in a while. He put his hand in the pocket and there was the key!

This past week when we were leaving, my hubby put almost everything we were taking back in the van. I made the rounds of the house and made sure I had things like my rings (because I left them once before and didn’t have them for about 3 weeks). We got halfway home and stopped to gas up the car. It was raining and I asked Hubby where our jackets were because it was raining and I was going to take DC inside for a potty break. I got back a blank look. “Why would I know where they are?” he asked. “Because you packed the van,” I replied.

You guessed it. He had put our jackets in the spare bedroom closet and hadn’t retrieved them. Being without them would be bad enough since they’re our hooded rain jackets but the really bad thing is that I had most of my keys (except for the house keys and the car key) in my jacket pocket! That includes the key to my office, which is a giant pain because I work 3 nights a week and have to call Maintenance to open up for me when I don’t have it.

So, the other night I sat down with the calendar to figure out when we were going to be able to go back. We’d been to the house the last 2 weekends, so we weren’t really planning to go a third time in a row, especially since it would be about 9 hours of driving in total and we’d only be there for less than one day. But, when I looked at the calendar I realized the following 3 weeks don’t work at all for us. We couldn’t even go just for Sunday any of those weeks. I can’t really manage for a month without jackets and keys and we just planted our garden last week. Our neighbours will water for us once a week or so if we’re not around but I don’t expect them to do it for a solid month!

We have stuff to do here in the city too and in the end we decided I’d go by myself on the Greyhound. It only takes about an extra hour of travel time, but I don’t have to do the driving! I normally drive the whole way, so it will be much more relaxing. I might even sleep! And it costs just about exactly what we spend on gas. (So, if we all go, the car is a better bet.) If this works well, maybe I can do it again another time when it doesn’t work for us all to go.

But the cost? Well, let's just say Capital One will be happy....