These days I have been planning to get my last belongings and some furniture out of my previous house. I was renting it for a year and 9 months, uptill a week ago, and there's now a couple of possible buyers. To make it easier to sell the place, it needs to be cleaned and possibly painted ( luckily, not by me ).Therefore, my stuff needs to go asap. This morning, two people reminded me of this and as a result I was feeling some pressure.
So, early afternoon, I reached out to a friend with a trailer, who had promised me, weeks ago, to help out.
While waiting for his reply, I freaked out a little.
Where were my keys?
Had I really lost the keys to my previous house, at this exact moment, just before the last time I would need them?
I searched my apartment, looked through all my pockets, jackets, closets, kitchen drawers, old paper, even in a bag and a bucket filled with firewood. I was about to go through my kitchen bin/ garbage but it was too dirty ( without gloves ) and I decided that they just couldn't be there.
I vaguely remembered that my Hive buddy, 
At the same time, I wasn't 100% sure if he had really returned the keys to me, back then.
What is it with our memory? Why is it often so difficult to remember these kind of details?
We tend to forget important stuff and remember the tiniest of details that either don't seem to matter at all or those that haunt us in our sleep...
Suffice to say that the idea of entering my previous place, without having to break down the door or a window and then needing a locksmith and new keys, suddenly felt very far away.
Pretty much the way it is depicted here, in a previous photo, as if we're reversing, away from the place...
The only spare keys are in The United States, where the owner of the house resides and this house stands in Portugal.
So I asked Vin #2 about the night before yesterday and he replied that he thought he had given them back to me.
If not, they might be in a certain jar in his van, where he puts these kind of things. But, he added, he would only be back at his van, that was being worked at, in a garage, around 7 PM ( 6 hours later ).
He added that I should stay calm and not look for them, until he checked for them in his car, first.
Of course I couldn't not look for them. They were on my mind all the time.
I also couldn't stay calm, I had too much coffee today and am a hypersensitivosaurus.
Perhaps I had lost the keys on a walk, yesterday afternoon?
I visualized the walk in my head and had an idea where I might have lost them, while chilling near a ruin and staring at the sky.
This is me chillin' there. I actually like the funny perspective, especially the way my clothes look. I look huge and my feet look small ( pretty much the opposite of the reality ). Not that I'm small but I'm somewhat of a skinny vinny and my feet are bigger than average.
Anyhow, the keys weren't to be found in the ordinary places where I would store them, nor in the extraordinary places where I might have put them in a moment of distraction ( and believe me, my hyperactive brain is often distracted and this leads to putting things in random places, often times ). Although I'm great at losing things, I'm usually also pretty good at finding them, again, although it might take a while.
Not this time.
I didn't find them.
I decided to go to the library and try to focus on my writing. The Internet wasn't working and my thoughts kept wandering back to the lost keys.
Two hours later, the trailer trash friend replied to my message, telling me that he might be able to make some time, perhaps even today. But - at the same time - he made it clear that if it was really up to him, he would wait till ( early next week ). He has a lot to do, is building his own house and wanted to spend some quality time with his family, this weekend.
He asked me how much I had left to move and when I replied to him that it would probably fit all at once, he sent another message back to ask if I would have time, right now?
I then had to tell him about my lost keys.
He was going to go drink a coffee, in a town a 25 minute drive away and I said I would return home and look for the keys one more time and then get back to him.
Thus I did. And once again I couldn't find them, although I had looked everywhere.
I thought of tracing yesterday's walk, but didn't feel like it. So I didn't do it.
Instead I decided to take a bath, hand wash some clothes ( I don't have a washing machine yet ), prepare dinner, make a fire and calm myself down as much as I could, while filling the hours, up till 7PM, when
Meanwhile, the trailer friend told me that he might have time, tonight, just after 7, if my keys would indeed be in Vin's van.
I didn't want him to wait or get his hopes up, so I told him that I would inform him but that he shouldn't count at the move to happen tonight.
At 7:30 I still hadn't heard from Vin, so I messaged him.
He was still outside of his van, the garage people were working on it, so I had to wait a little longer. I told him I hadn't found the keys yet.
A little later, he informed me that he had looked inside of his car and they weren't there.
Sigh
I added that then, in fact, I should have lost them.
Worst case scenario, I would have to break open the door and replace the lock.
He replied that they might be in my kitchen or in his grocery bag. He had done some shopping, two nights ago.
They weren't in my kitchen I was sure about that.
I told him the spare keys were in the USA
and added that I had searched everywhere.
He then sent me a picture:
With an emoji of a monkey putting his hands in front of his eyes and the following words:
Grocery bag
After all, it wasn't me who lost the keys.
He had taken them with him.
The good news is, he's camping about half an hour away more on his (ad)ventures, today, can be read here and will return them to me tomorrow.
The bad news is that, would they have been here, I could have moved my last things out this afternoon or tonight.
Right now, it's too late for that, his van can't drive tonight, I don't own or drive a car and cycling in the dark isn't the safest thing here.
Now let's hope that my trailer buddy can make some time tomorrow instead.
Fingers crossed.
Sometimes I wonder whether the univere makes things extra interesting for those of us who write a blog ;<)
Luckily, as is often the case, things work out, one way or another.
It was a Happy Ending, after all.
and not the one you get in a massage parlor
Anyhow, you know what they say:
Not Your Keys, Not Your ... crypto
It is not my house any longer and I'm looking forward to handing the keys over to those who will try to sell it, very soon. Then I won't need to worry about losing them, any longer. You can't lose something that isn't yours any longer ;<)