On Friday my company had its summer outing. We basically head up to a park at a lake around here and spend the day playing kickball, going out on paddle boats or canoes and generally having a good time. All in all it was a really cool event.
The problem is that I’m as dumb as a sack of slow-witted hammers.
I knew I was going into the canoe, I just failed to realize taking my phone and my keys out of my pocket would be a good idea. As one might expect, I ended up in the water (three times actually, but that’s not important right now). I didn’t lose anything, but obviously the water didn’t agree with the electronics in the phone and my car alarm remote. And that, dear reader, is where the next few days of my life acquired that special flavor of hell.
Without a phone or a car is not a good place to be. Especially if your cell is your only phone. The thing that becomes quickly apparent in this situation is that one needs one or both of these items to get anything done at all, including replacing phones and key remotes.
To make a long story shorter, I am extremely lucky that I had a friend around (one of the others in the canoe) who was kind enough to drive my ass around for the next couple days to help me get my life back in order. Returning to my car again (after trying the wet keys, letting the keys dry out then trying them, trying the keys after replacing the battery, etc.) with the backup keys that were at my house (a half hour away), I realized that nothing would work. I could get in the car, but I couldn’t turn off the alarm. It wouldn’t even shut off after trying to start the car with a valid key. I was fucked. I had to get my car towed to the local dealer who informed me that if they couldn’t get the alarm remote to marry up to the car it could run up to about a thousand dollars to fix this. Well, after spending fifty bucks to replace my phone, probably another hundred or so for the car I needed to rent, and an entire Saturday (and most of a Sunday) dealing with this crap, I was not looking forward to shelling out a grand on replacing my damn keys.
Fortunately this morning the dealer called and said they were able to get one of the remotes to connect. They asked if I wanted to get another one for a hundred bucks or so and I was happy to say yes. So hopefully this whole ordeal is nearing the end and things can go back to normal.
Ugh, stupidity is painful.