The first thing to go

The perils of getting old...

I do a middling amount of work from home, so much so that it isn't unusual to lock up my Shop for a few minutes at a time so I can do something online or what not. I've even cautioned my customers to call if they get to the Shop and it's locked, because I'll come up if I can (it's only a couple blocks away). Often I'll drive my van back and forth to save a few seconds as against walking.

Yesterday as I worked from home I got a call about some cables. I told the guy I was at home, but call when he was close and I'd meet him. An hour or so later he calls; he's at my Shop. I ask him to give me five minutes and I'll be there.

I walk out the door, lock the house and start fumbling in my pocket for my van keys. At the same time I look out at the street: no van. It wasn't in front of the house or across the street from it, or even down the road a bit. My van wasn't there, anywhere.

Of course I began to get mad. I can't believe this is happening! And in the middle of the day! Someone took my van...no, Marty, you took your van. To the Mechanic. Because it had a broken coil spring.

In my defense, this was around 12:30 and I had already been up since 1 AM and driven a 400 mile road trip. But you aren't going to cut me any slack for that, are you?