Lost Keys are Expensive!!

Right now I'm supposed to be uploading pictures from our wonderful weekend trip to the Burton Maple Syrup Festival, including the All-You-Can-Eat Pancake Breakfast. (My dad is so jealous - and wants to come next year.)

But, I'm kind of upset about how much it just cost us to get one - (1) - O.N.E. of the keys that Kevin lost replaced, that I need to vent for a minute.

(Just in case you can't tell, it cost more than I think it should have, in time, energy, effort and money.)

Here's the story:

We only had one key to his Buick, because it was such a pain to get a copy made when we bought it, due to the fact that it is a special electronic key. We kind of figured that we would get around to it sometime, but we never did. Then he lost the key, and the car was stuck in our garage.

So, Kevin called AAA and got our membership renewed. Or so I thought. He actually only renewed the membership in his name to save money, which means that AAA would not provide any service to me. So, he called them after they wouldn't talk to me on the phone, and had them send a tow truck to the house so that we could tow the car to the dealership to get the key made. (Stupid electric keys need to be programmed, and the car has to be AT the dealership for it to work.)

Well, the tow truck arrives, and it loads the car up on the truck bed by pulling it across the garage using huge chains. (We found out tonight that this process broke the muffler off of the car...so now we are going to have to get THAT fixed.) But, there was no other way to move the car, since we didn't have a key.

Anyway, after the guy loads the car up, he asked for my ID. Well, I'm not Kevin, so he won't tow it on behalf of AAA. Kevin wasn't home, so I had to pay for the tow at the regular rate.

Well, the dealership made the key, and we picked up the car tonight. That's when we discovered the problem with the muffler. So, tomorrow morning, we are going to take it to a mechanic.

I thought that tomorrow I would be able to get back to my regular schedule, instead of spending 3 or 3.5 hours in the car each day, driving Kevin to work and picking him back up,on top of my own commute, since we only have one car to work with, but no such luck yet.

Current $ Amount Spent to Replace Just 1 Lost Key:

$50- AAA membership (That did no good)
$75 - Tow car to dealership
$180 - The key, including $25 to download the code for the key, $50 for the key, and $85 for 1 hour of labor plus tax.

For those of you keeping count, that's $305.

We now need to get the muffler fixed, and we will wait around for a bit longer to see if Kevin's lost keys get returned to us.

But, if they don't, we still need to get a second copy of the electronic keys (I hate these things) for my car, and we should probably go ahead and get the second one for his. Then, there are all the various office and home keys to be redone, but hopefully those won't be quite such a pain.

Can you tell I'm totally frustrated?!