GOOD START, CRAZY END

The day started well yesterday with the Avon Marching Black and Gold along with staff members boarding a chartered flight to Los Angeles and grandson, daughter, son-in-law and his father boarding a commercial flight headed to the same destination via Chicago. All landed at LAX safely to begin a whirlwind red carpet treatment for the invited AMB&G to participate in the Rose Bowl Parade and all the sight-seeing they and their guests could cram into five days.

While they are gone, it is my job to gather their mail and since yesterday was their garbage day, I was to put the empty garbage cans out of sight back into the garage. No problem.

I drove over to their house not five minutes away, gathered the mail and rolled the two garbage cans up the driveway to be ready to roll into the garage once I got into the house to open the garage door. I walked to the front door and got out the key I was given a few years ago in case I needed access to the inside of their house for one reason or another.

No matter how hard I tried, the key didn’t work! I tried every key on my key ring and none of them would fit. I thought that this was no problem, I’d just go to my car and get out my emergency cell phone and call California and get the combo to the key pad for the garage. My cell phone was dead!

I got in my car (by this time getting pretty frustrated) and headed home to use the phone in the house to call daughter. When I reached her, I asked if they had changed the lock on their front door and she finally remembered that they had and gave me the combo to the garage door pad.

I went back to their house, punched in the code and opened the garage door, put the mail inside the house and rolled the cans inside the garage and stopped dead in my tracks. Since the front door lock was a dead bolt and I had no key, how in the hell was I going to get back out through the garage with no visible “close door” key on the outside keypad?

Not a problem, I thought. I’ll just shut it from the inside, make a mad dash for the door, bend down and step over the electric eye beam and viola, I will be outside and the door will close.

I’m here to tell you that it is not an easy feat for a 70-year-old to outrun a garage door! After no less than three tries, out of breath and heart pounding in my chest, I made it!

The sad ending to this whole episode is the fact that I didn’t think of this until after all was said and done and I was back home for the final time. Son-in-law’s car was in the garage and I could have retrieved his garage door opener (if the car was unlocked) and used it to close the garage door.

Suffice to say, assuming that his car is locked, the rest of the mail will be gathered and taken back to my house until their return. No more garage door marathons for this old goat!