For real this time

Today is March 14th. It turns out that I ultimately chickened out of actually jumping into the literary blog pool back in November despite what my sentiment from the last blog had promised. One day of not jumping in turned into one week; one week into one month; and suddenly those best of intentions have paved that proverbial path where those type of intentions tend to gravitate. The signpost ahead suggests there are still miles to go before I would reach that destination but it’s clear that I need to regroup and get off at the next exit or I could end up there if I’m not careful.

I’ve discussed this failure to launch with my son who is supposed to be the co-pilot on this flight but his response has continued to be that it doesn’t quite feel the same to him if we can’t do it actually over tacos in a restaurant and he doesn’t want to just force it. We still are cautious due to COVID and even with vaccinations on the horizon, I fear that I’m running out of runway as he’ll be off to college soon and my opportunities will become even more limited to do this with him than they are now. Given this new reality, I am going to pivot. This page will now probably be more of some solo thoughts from yours truly and I’ll hold out hope that the original shared vision that includes my son manifests itself here in some way even if it is just me discussing things going on with him while at college.

Why is today different from last time you might ask? Well, on occasion there are experiences we all have that stand out in our lives that feel as if the universe is trying to get your attention. Whatever source you personally decide to attribute this experience to: a religious deity, karma, magic, luck; etc. really doesn’t matter as much as the fact that the experience gives you reason to pause. I had one such experience today that I’d like to share as the ultimate result of this experienced paused me and brought me to sharing it here.

I had mentioned in one of my earlier blogs about seeing an eagle while bird watching. I started this hobby back in the Fall thanks to the encouragement of my friend Rob. We’ve been going out to various places on the weekends trying to up the count of unique birds observed in my home county. We planned our next outing this morning which would mean we would meet up at a predetermined time and place and see what birds we could find. A couple of days ago, my wife had placed the spare keys to my son’s car on the roof of my car. She was in a hurry and didn’t have time that day to take them in the house but she was confident that she or I would remember that they were there and bring them in before I drove my car again.

Fast forward to today and multiple trips literally right beside the now forgotten keys without the retrieval part of the plan being executed including this morning’s pass by me as I get into my car to meet Rob today. I pull out of the garage and drive slowly through the neighborhood before turning on the main road so I can get some gas I need for today’s journey. As I start getting up to speed, I hear a strange noise that sounds like something might have hit and bounced off the roof of the car. I glanced in the rearview mirror behind me and don’t really see any bouncing item to associate with the noise I just heard so I dismiss it and just keep driving. I stop for gas but focus almost exclusively on the pump and the gas tank opening without giving the rest of the car a second thought. I drive on an interstate at 55 mph for several miles until I decide to grab some breakfast to eat on the way. Multiple turns and a drive-thru later, I’m heading back on an interstate that eventually increases to 70 mph for several miles until I exit again making additional twists and turns until I reach my rendezvous location with Rob for our first birding activity which was over 30 minutes away from my house.

I was a little early and I decided to back into the parking space to wait for Rob. I’m not sure if it was attributed to my brain processing some combination of the recent Allstate commercials that highlight various things being left on the top of cars or if the synapse responsible for housing the memories of the keys suddenly fired and my heart sank as I realized the suspected source of the noise from earlier. I texted my wife just to make sure she hadn’t already secured them and to let her know my suspicions and the expletive reply in all caps I received a few minutes later confirmed what I had surmised. I told her about where I thought the sound I had heard was made along the road and she spent the next part of the hour walking alongside the road hoping that all was not lost. She would even have been ok with seeing them smashed on the pavement if she could at least confirm their fate. Her search came up empty and she relayed this fact to me a little later. There wasn’t much I could do from where I was so Rob and I continued to bird and ultimately decided to go to a second location.

After another winding trip for double digit miles again at various speeds, we arrive at the second birding location. We spend another hour or so birding and eventually make our way back to our cars. Rob had parked right beside me and just as we approach he says “Do you have your keys?” The word keys was a trigger word after the experience earlier that morning so my hands instinctively pat my pockets to confirm the shape of my keys are still in my pocket. The heart-stopping panic restarts as soon as my left hand feels the familiar shape of my car keys so I respond “What do you mean?” not understanding what he meant. He points to what he just saw and says ” Right there. On your trunk. Looks like someone left you some keys. They must have thought they were yours.” I look at where he is pointing and my jaw drops. There is the key from the roof lodged in the gap of the trunk.

I take a quick picture and text it to my wife and then relay the whole ordeal to Rob. All those miles of driving at some fairly high speeds not to mention the twisting and turns from the winding county roads could have easily dislodged it. This was on top of being fortunate enough in the first place for the end of the key to slide just so it could lodge in this spot after a random slide from atop its roof top perch. After processing those odds and being amazed at what had to transpire that day for me to have this opportunity, I grabbed the key and quickly place it in my pocket before it had the chance to slip away. Rob perhaps summed it up best with his response once I had finished telling him my story. He said “You must be living right.” I’d like to think I am so I’ll share some of it here so you can judge for yourself.