Close Calls

6:45
I've already been up since 5:30, first reading over at Bruegger's and then back home to take care of a few minor to-dos before rehearsal this morning. I have "one for the road" with me, a second large cup of morning coffee that costs me nothing since I have the Bottomless Mug card. (It's going to be really hard to give this up at the end of the year.)

I sit down at my desk with the laptop and print out an application form to the PSLF program, which would potentially forgive the balance of my student loans. Feeling cheerful about the prospect I sip my still mostly untouched coffee and stand up to get a stamp out of our mail box. I print the letter, address the envelope, and check on the other side of the desk to see if there's anything else that requires the laptop on my to-do list. One line says "Look up possible dates/activities with J for next week." I swivel back to my chair to do a google search, and as I move my hand, this happens.

The world stands still. I can see individual drops of coffee sloshing into the laptop keypad and a slow moving puddle spreading from the j-k-l cluster over towards asdf and down towards the arrow keys. In that paused moment in time I snap out of my shock and yank the coffee cup back upright with one hand while flipping the laptop on its side with the other and emptying the coffee onto the carpet.

Idiot, don't spill it on the carpet!
Better the carpet than the laptop!
Turn the power off!
The power is off...it needs to dry.
How do I dry it?
Turn the fan on, blast the fan!
What about the carpet?
Worry about the carpet later, take care of the laptop!
Make sure it's upside down so that if anything is left in there it can drain out.
Where's my phone?
Look up what to do if you spill coffee on your laptop?
What about the carpet?
Where's the carpet cleaner?

An agonizing 30 minutes pass. With two fans cranked to their highest setting beside the laptop. I almost call J, then decide against it. This is no way to start your morning.

7:15
I put the laptop back on the desk and press the power button. It turns on. I open up a word document and press all the keys that might've been affected by the spill. They all work fine.

8:00
I can't find my wallet. I can't find it anywhere. It isn't on the desk. It isn't in my pocket. It isn't in the basket by the door. I didn't leave it on my dresser or my nightstand. Did I leave it at Bruegger's? I had it with me at Bruegger's, even though I didn't buy anything. It can't be in the car. It's not in my trumpet case. It's not in my jeans from yesterday. It isn't in my tux coat from yesterday. It isn't on the bed. It isn't on the ottoman. It isn't anywhere? It must be at Bruegger's. I have to get over there, but it's sort of cold, so I'd better....put on a jacket. It's in my jacket.

8:15
I'm leaving a little later than I want to, but I should still get to rehearsal in plenty of time. I grab my keys out of the basket by the door and stuff them in my pocket...at least I had no trouble finding my keys. I pick up my trumpet and my lunchbox, and step outside. I set down my lunchbox to close the door, and just as it's about to latch I realize that I heard a tiny "clink" sound as I put my keys in my pocket. I open the door again and look on the kitchen floor. There, somehow separated from everything else on my key ring, is my sole house key, which I was just about to lock inside the house.

11:45
I'm on my way back from rehearsal, which was fine. I'm just passing the Batavia exit on the thruway, and there's been some slow-up because of the construction. I have a podcast playing from the LSE, and after 15 minutes of brake-lights and a jogging pace I'm ready to go the speed limit again. Finally we reach a spot where there are two lanes of traffic, and everyone speeds up to 65 again. Ah, the open road. I see off to my right that someone was enjoying the open road a little too much...they got pulled over. I pull over to the left lane to avoid the pulled over vehicles. Something is happening in front of me, but I can't tell what. All of a sudden the car two ahead completely stops and pulls off hard to the left, trying to avoid hitting something in front of it. The car in front of that car slams on it's brakes, and I slam on mine, but we're still all too close together--I wrench back to my right, praying that there's nothing speeding behind me in the right lane and bracing to get rear-ended. Nothing happens. No one pulls off, but all three cars ahead of me accelerate again, and I shift to first, start from my dead stop, and feel my hands tremble with adrenaline. I still have no idea what made them all brake so suddenly.

12:45
I'm in downtown Pittsford waiting for a walk signal to cross the road. A middle-school aged girl with her elementary-school aged brother walk up and press the button to cross the adjacent street. They are chatting as the traffic glides by, and then they get a walk sign. The boy steps out, and a big pick-up truck turning right roars out of the red light without looking at all where he's going. The boy is still talking as his sister yanks him back onto the pavement so hard that he falls down. The truck is off onto Monroe Avenue without even seeing what happened.

Everybody take care out there today, okay?