Where are the keys ?

Last year, between Christmas and New Year's, due to my uncle's death, I drove my parents and my aunt north through the winters snow some 500 miles to Prince George , BC. I drove Janet's SUV and she had my truck to drive while I was away.

The roads were snow and ice covered most of the way and while the trip was uneventful, it was stressful and lots of concentration on the road ahead. We stayed at the Ramada in Prince George on Dec. 30, attended the funeral on the 31st, back at the hotel for night in the boys room (Dad and I)  and then drove back on New Years Day.

This 2010 New Year's, Janet and I had planned a nice evening out for a change and had tickets for a New Year's Dinner and Johnny Reid Concert at the new event center in Penticton.

Of course as soon as I make plans, the plans always seem to go out the window. Consequently, I seldom make plans and am criticized occasionally for this.

Anyhow, during the local snow storm, Janet went to the concert with our daughter Shannon and by all accounts the drinks out before the concert and the concert were great. Johnny came out to the crowd during the show and Shannon got a big hug from him and Janet got to say Hello and a handshake. Happy girls.

The day after I got back from Prince George, we could not find Janet's truck keys. We turned the truck inside out and the house upside down, but no keys. Where were the keys ?

Now I told you the above three stories so that I could tell you this story !

Today the phone rang and from the call display I could see it was our local grocery store calling. They asked for Janet and while she was walking to the phone, I asked Janet why the store would be calling us. She makes the I don't know face and shrugs her shoulders and says "Hello".

A pause and then "Yes this is Janet". Now a really long pause and Janet starts laughing saying " No Way" and "You're Kidding". Meanwhile, me with the puzzled face.

Finally she gets off the phone and says "The store has my keys"

I say "How does the store know they are your keys and what took so long in letting us know ?"

Apparently a customer of the store was just at another event at the event center and had parked in the back corner of the lot. This was where the snow gets piled when they clean the parking lot over the winter. I guess now with the recent warm weather the snow piles have melted away and this lady spied the keys on the pavement !

Now for the keys to get to us, this woman recognizes a small customer tag from the store that Janet has on the keychain with a barcode that is scanned when she buys the groceries. The lady takes the keys to the store, they look up the barcode and our phone rings. How about that !

Apparently, Janet had both my keys and her keys with her and one pair must have fell out of her coat when she climbed into or out of the truck. Then when the parking lot got snow plowed into a mountain of snow, the keys were safe in this ice chest. A couple of months of warm weather  and there's the keys !