A "Key" Lesson in Life

          When we are young it is common to misplace important things like your glasses or your orthodontic equipment or your homework or your shoes or your cell phone. These situations can drive parents crazy. Sometimes, at any age, we are all a little too careless with our items. Then when we get older and approach dementia we continue to misplace or lose things and sometimes don't even realize that the things are gone.  Sometimes these misplaced things are minor, other times they are expensive to misplace and a real problem to go without them.
        Now I don't know if it is dementia setting in or just plain careless, but I recently lost my keys.  We searched everywhere - two, three and often four times - without any success.  We checked with places that we had visited, again without any success.  What made the situation even more frustrating is that I had seldom even carried my keys in the past few months because of my two surgeries.  I hardly ever left the house and when I did, my wife did all the driving and I had no use for the keys.  
         When I finally gave up any hope of finding them, I went about the process of replacing them.  My house key was simple to have made.  My church key was replaced by the church office.  But then there was the problem of replacing my two car key fobs. That was not easy.
        I first contacted the car dealer.  I was told that it might cost me over $700 to replace the two of them.  I knew it would be expensive but I was stunned by that response.  I wasn't sure what to do and decided to wait a little longer, hoping that they might still show up.  But they didn't.
         One day at cardiac rehab I shared the problem with one of the nurses.  That afternoon she surprised me by calling me at home and telling me that her boy friend had a person that I should contact.  While at that time I still wasn't yet ready to purchase, I though to be courteous to her I should at least call this person.  I did and I was pleased to find that this contact could replace my 2009 fob for about $75 less than the dealer.  Unfortunately he didn't have the software needed for my 2015 fob.  So I ordered the 2009 one from him and picked it up the next day.  One down, one to go.
         When I went to the locksmith to get my house key I was pleased to learn that he could replace my 2015 fob for about $100 less than the dealer's price.  But he first had to order it and we had to pay in advance.  I told him to go ahead.  I figured this would be the best deal I would get and I knew it would be done right because of the reputation of the locksmith.  All I had to do now was wait for him to receive the order.
         Then the big surprise happened.  My wife decided to wash some of the clothing that I had seldom worn during my long recovery.  In fact I had really only worn my gray sweat pants and another pair of pants for the past few months.  But I also had an old pair of blue sweats that I really didn't like to wear.  But I probably wore those sweats once or twice while the others were bring washed.  And guess what?   When my wife went to empty the pockets she found the keys!  Unbelievable but true.
          I quickly called the locksmith and tried to cancel my order for the 2015 fob which they had already charged to our credit card.  They said that I would still need to pay the postage and a restocking fee.  At this point I readily agreed.  So the key which I didn't get, ended up costing me $44.52.  I thought that was a little high, but it was certainly better than what I was expecting to pay to have it replaced.
         Now maybe I should look for an ap that would find my keys when they are misplaced. I know there are aps to find some other items when they are lost.  But then I'd probably need to buy a smart phone to use the ap.  And I would also probably then misplace the smart phone.  
           However, there is at least one good thing I can conclude from this frustrating and expensive experience. Since at least I knew that my keys were misplaced, it might not be the beginning of dementia.