Ever had a day where everything went wrong? Well I sure did. I all started when I lost my truck keys… in Utah Lake… for the second time…

Things actually started off pretty well. On Thursday evening me and a handful of friends headed out to Utah Lake for some tubing and R&R. Everything went fine until we headed back in. When we reached the harbor in Provo I discovered that my tuck key was missing. Not necessarily a big deal, but I had already lost my other truck key (in the lake) the previous week.  A boat in the Provo harbor, no truck key, no extra key, no way to park my boat- frustrating.

We scoured the boat for my key. I had emptied my pockets when we launched and I was certain it  had to be on the boat. Needless to say the key never turned up. We docked the boat as best we could and attempted to formulate a plan. Meanwhile the mosquitoes were starting to bite…

Tom suggested attaching the boat trailer to his SUV so we could get it out of the water. The SUV was at his house so he went to get it. I puled the boat trailer off my truck and felt relieved that things weren’t more complicated. The mosquitoes were getting pretty bad. We had found some bug repellent in the boat so I doused myself again. When Tom came back we realized that we’d need to transfer the hitch over to his SUV. Sadly it was locked onto my truck. After many minutes of trying every boat key I had I realized that I was somehow missing the key I needed to unlock the hitch. Two missing keys. Nuts.

Jim called his parents-in-law and they were gracious enough to offer assistance. They were in Spanish Fork so it was about a half hour before they could come get us. I was wet, cold, embarrassed and covered with mosquitoes. Since the boat covers were locked in the truck we had to tow the boat back to Lehi without them (cringe). Since dinner had not been available dockside we stopped at Wendy’s on the back  It was closed. The freeway was also closed becuase of a rather severe accident so we took Geneva road (long and bumpy!).  When we finally made it home I showered and collapsed in bed. I felt kind of itchy, but it was going to have to wait.

Around ten the next morning I was woken up when all three of our maids came into my bedroom. I groggily opened my eyes and sat up. One of them shrieked and they all ran, giggling, from the room. An inauspicious start to the day. As I came to my senses I remembered that my truck was in Provo and I had to find some way to get it home. The itching was getting worse. I felt very sick. Allergies or a cold- they could be nearly indistinguishable. I rubbed my eyes- oh no… my contacts were still in. I pried them out but my eyes were bloodshot and stung like a wasp. My glasses were missing so I had to put my contacts back in- ouch. I made my way to work and Fran called our favorite locksmith.

They said making a new key was complicated, but possible, expensive and very time consuming. They would call us as soon as they could squeeze us in- but we had to be at their shop within 20 minutes of their call and then take them to the truck. Standby. I hate standby. I was about to each lunch when a customer came in. After the customer left I was about to eat lunch when the locksmith called. We met them at their shop in American Fork and they followed us to Provo. We arrived at the truck and our locksmith hit us with some bad news: he had forgotten something kind of fundamental to making the key- namely the key template. He had to go back to the shop. “At lest you have something nice to look at.” he said gesturing at the the lake.

I was hungry. We had some time on our hands so we went to Saigon Cafe to pick up some food. The order was wrong. My kids all decided the were hungry again (I shared). My little girl, Claire, stepped on the take out box and dumped the food out. A bee flew over and stung me. No sign of the locksmith. I was really itching. My wife had some calamine lotion, but it had dried into a chalky powder.

Over an hour later the locksmith finally came back (he’d stopped on the way down to do another job). Finally it was time to start making our key. It was going to take another hour. I sat in the grass (it was wet) and built a little house out of sticks. I wished that I lived in the little house… until my kids smashed it, that is. Anyway- the locksmith finally got the key made. He pointed out some imperfections in it (“Really hard key to make!” he said), and explained that it would “break in.” That’ll be $300. Fine by me- my ordeal was coming to an end. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel…

…but I would have the mosquito bites- over two hundred on my arms, legs, head and back- to remind me of my worst day ever…