"Art is the concrete artifact of faith and expectation, the realization of a world that would otherwise be little more than a veil of pointless consciousness stretched over a gulf of mystery." ~Stephen King, Duma Key These days I am looking for the beauty, no, the art, in the simplistic. Last night I looked down and saw my keys sitting on my desk, and thought, wow... if those keys could talk. I have a new car, and a new key for it. There is a key to my front door, and one to the back. A key that belonged to my dad, which hasn't been used in over 20 years, and a key to the middle console of a car I sold in 2006. That's a lot of keys, to a lot of things, in the past. Why do I do that? Why do I hold on so tight to little things like keys? In my desk is another key chain, which holds the keys, to everything I ever unlocked, in my entire lifetime... I kid you not, and yet when just about everything I owned was stolen from a temporary storage unit I owned a few years back, I grieved for about a day or so, then picked myself up and moved on because, after all, it was just stuff! Just stuff. And yet I still have all these keys. Hmmm. Maybe its all the art that the keys represent. You know... the art of living. The day to day, whether we are locking stuff in, or locking it out. Using the key to drive us away or to something. Did I ever blame the key, when there was a bad piece of mail in the mailbox? No. Why would I? And yet, If I had been unlucky enough to have owned one of those GM cars that couldn't handle heavy key chains, it could have been the death of me! You have no idea how it felt to find out about that fatal design flaw on the news. My being a sentimental fool could have caused my death. Sometimes you never realize who much impact the small things can have on your life.
Keys... beauty in the simplistic. "Every human being who is born into this universe is like a child who has been given a key to an infinite library, written in cyphers that are more or less obscure, arranged by a scheme... of which we can at first know nothing, other than that there does appear to be some scheme." ~Neal Stephenson, The Confusion
The current challenge subject for the Round Robin Photo Challenge is "KEYS." It's an ironic subject, because for the last month or so it has been a subject that has played LOUDLY for Alan and I. Keys to our cottage, keys to our cars, keys to our fence, keys keys keys. I was going to tackle this assignment by posting a little about all the different KEY situations we have found ourselves in, but at the last minute I decided to choose one situation to share. The quote above serves all the situations, and I know that someday it will all seem funny, but I am preferring not to dwell... for now.
So, how about we talk about my car Lilith...
We bought Lilith in late September of 2006. My old car Angelica, aka a 2001 Saturn SL1 had lived a good life, but was now ready to move on to her final resting place. Alan's car, was also tired from having served him well, so off we went to the Saturn dealership to find two new rides.
We both chose 2007 Saturn IONs. Alan chose a gold one, and I picked one in Cypress green. Well, actually, I had chosen a candy apple red one, but after further consideration finally took the green one. I love the color of my car. In the sun it is either green or gold or a combination of both when the sun hits it just right. Lilith is a confortable car, and we were both happy, until 3 weeks after my warrentie expired... and you guessed it... Lilith broke down.
The estimate was about $4000. It was two years after I bought her. She had 3 more years of car payments. And it was going to cost $4000 to get her running again. $$#@*&^! Coincidentally, Gov. Schwarzenegger had just decided to furlough state employees by taking 3 days pay out of their checks per month, and Elvis was becoming ill. It was a perfect storm of stupid. So, Alan and I made the decision to continue to make the car payments, and deal with Elvis's illness. The car is not a living, breathing thing, but my boy was.
So, though all the various ins and outs of the last few years. Alan and I are once again on an upswing. Don't get me wrong, we don't have endless piles of cash lying around, but we were able to get my car fixed, finally, about a month ago.Now, how does a key fit into all this... well... you see... Lilith ran well... for about a month, and then suddenly a couple weeks ago, the mechanism that the key fits into got stuck. We couldn't get the key out of the car. UGGGGGGGG! No worries, 2 days and $400 later, she is driving like a dream. Half waking NIGHTMARE and half SURREALIST COMEDY.
In that Lilith wasn't driven for 4 out of the last 6 years, she drives like a brand new car. And that's great because I always loved her, and while she might be a 2007, she is a gal with low miles. LOL. I am a happy camper. I wouldn't have wanted to get rid of her, and she should have a few more really good years left in her. She only has 30,000 miles on her, and besides, she takes me to see beautiful things like Golden Gate Park and the Monarchs in Pacific Grove. I love my car. She's my Lilith. So the key you see above... that is the key to a lot of happiness.
Although I did read not too long ago that the Saturn ION is one of the worst cars ever made. But I don't think I will dwell on it. LOL.
"If you as what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn't ask me, I'd still have to say it."
-George Burns
Easter, as it turns out, was a plan "B" kind of day. Elvis and I did make cookies, and had a pretty nice time, and then he and I went on a hunt. No, not an Easter egg hunt, no we went on a "where-the-HELL-did-mommy-put-her-keys" hunt. The last time I had seen them, was the wee hours of Saturday morning when I made a late night run to Taco Bell for nibbles. It's not good for me to eat nachos at 2:00 a.m., but you know, sometimes it just feels good to go for a ride, when it's dark, and I can just play the CD player loud, and sing my brains out. I have really good neighbors, for the most part, but even they don't want to hear me singing in the middle of the night. Nope. So, I took my voice elsewhere, and when I got home, I could have sworn I put my keys on the desk next to Alan's laptop computer.
Yesterday afternoon, I decided to take a drive. It was a pleasant Easter day, and I was hoping to perhaps, maybe, see a bunny or two, flopping about up here in the hills. When I went to retrieve my keys, they weren't in the last place I remember them being. Nope. Gone were they! So, I spent the rest of the day, looking under things, looking over things, looking in the oven, refrigerator and on top of the water heater. I looked in my unmentionables drawer, my purse, my scrunchies purse. I looked under the lemon tree, no small feat there, and I even looked in my spice drawer. No keys. I gave up looking at about 7:00 p.m., and sat down to have a good cry and watch Dateline.
A good long cry it was. I was missing my keys, and the silly items I carry on that ring. Items that would mean nothing to anyone else but me. The cross a friend gave me when I was going through a difficult time, which she said would ward off emotional vampires. I feel like Buffy when I look at that thing. The serenity chip I got when I graduated from Adult daycare in 2001, the year I went all "eccentric,"LOL. I accidentally cut it in half one day, when I slammed it in the trunk of my car. I cried that day too. It was so symbolic, imagine cutting your own serenity in half! Still, half a serenity chip is better than no serenity chip at all! LOL. As you can see, I also have a Stuart Little on my key chain, a gift from a tiny friend... so I would never be alone. A silver butterfly, which was a gift from Alan, and a Winnie The Pooh, that I bought myself. I don't know, just made me smile.
I think the tears were about more than my lost key chain treasures.It was about some lost friendship treasures as well, and I needed to let some sadness out. My friend Pam died last year on Easter. It wasn't the same date on the calendar, but it was Easter, so I guess I will always think of her on that holiday. I miss her. Sigh. I wish I could email her and ask her for some of her recipes for pet food, because I am worried about feeding Elvis his usual prescription food. Pam would know what to do. She loved animals and devoted a lot of her time to them. Sigh. I hate Lung Cancer's guts! :(
After the second commercial of Dateline, I decided to dry my eyes, and try looking one more place, the bag containing the decorations and accessories for Elvis's birthday party. We are doing a SpongebobSquarepants theme, for his party this year, and I had just bought the items on Friday, at Dana's Party Planet. The bag was on the floor, in my office, next to my desk. Hmmm... could they be there? Yes! OMG... I found them! :) I have a feeling Elvis may have found them on the floor, and placed them inside the bag. He knew the bag had things for him in it, as I chased him out of it several times. Each time he scampered away with a silly grin.
He always knows when something is especially for him. I don't know how he knows, but then again, he is just special. So, I think he was trying to pick up my toys for a change, and of course he put them in an important place. He is fussy about things being just so. He is Elvis. And with the finding of my keys, came relief and happiness, and a few minutes later my pal H.P. called to wish me a Happy Easter. :) All was well with the world. I just know Pam would have laughed.
SpongebobSquarepants Theme Song
Are you ready kids? I said are you ready? Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SpongebobSquarepants Absorbant and yellow and porous is he SpongebobSquarepants If nautical nonsense be something you wish SpongebobSquarepants Then drop on the deck and flop like a fish SpongebobSquarepants (Repeat Four Times)
-OndineMonet "Keys To Things" Berkeley, California April 8th, 2007 Evening
