(no subject)
I'm still in California, this time just north of Los Angeles. I spent two days in San Diego and two days in Costa Mesa. So for the rest of the trip, I'll be up here.
The meeting went well and the presentation went okay, too. I did have an adventure just before I left San Diego. I was wearing a silk two piece outfit for this second formal presentation and didn't want to put heavy stuff in the pockets as it pulls the light fabric. So, I put the keys to the rental car in my purse. I loaded the car trunk as I was checking out, thinking about giving my talk, attending meetings, and then heading out. Just before I was going to catch the shuttle to the conference hotel, I decided that I didn't really need to carry my computer bag AND my purse. So I threw the purse in the trunk and slammed it shut. About 0.0000001 seconds later, I realized my mistake: I had locked my purse and the keys in the trunk.
No worry. I'd deal with it when I got back from the meetings. Did the meeting stuff, had a good time, had lunch, etc. Then went back to deal with the locked car. The locksmith got there about 30 minutes after the hotel front desk called them. Not too shabby. The guy had trouble getting the door open. Worked and worked and worked and finally got it open although the tool he used was firmly stuck inside the passenger-side door.
My keys were still in the trunk. And we couldn't pop the trunk using the little lever inside the car, because it has an anti-theft setting. To the car's built in logic, we were trying to steal the car by jimmying the door. Okay, the back seats fold down, so it shouldn't be a problem.
Trouble was, that although the back seat folds down, it doesn't fold down without unlocking latches that are located ....where???? Why in the trunk!!
So then he undid the battery thinking that the electric on-off-on would reset all the settings. No go. He then took off the driver-side door handle, managed to pop something in there that made the car believe that, when the battery was reattached, everything was okay. So we popped the trunk and I retrieved the keys.
We still have two problems. One, the driver-side door handle is off, and the jimmy tool is still caught in the passenger-side door. The locksmith managed to get the driver door handle back on with only one oops. Getting the jimmy tool out was more of a challenge. He had to take off the interior panel of the door.
What I didn't know (I've never actually participated in taking off the door panel before)is that there is a lot of black glue holding some sound deadening layers together. The black glue managed to get all over everything: the panel, the door frame, the window, the lock, his hands, my hands, etc. What a mess. We did manage eventually to clean things up, well, mostly clean things up. He then had to extricate the jimmy tool which sounds simple but wasn't as easy as I had thought it would be. He put the door back together only to realize (after I pointed it out a second time as he didn't listen the first time!) that he hadn't reconnected the electric windows. So, back off with the panel. The whole deal took about two and a half hours. (I kept thinking that a 16 year old who wanted to steal the car could have done it in 30 seconds. Oh, well.) Luckily, San Diego was no longer in the midst of a major heat wave or it would have been miserable. As it was, I was getting hot and he was soaking wet with sweat.
So, that was my little adventure although, in truth, it wasn't much of an adventure, it's the best I can do so far this trip.
The meeting went well and the presentation went okay, too. I did have an adventure just before I left San Diego. I was wearing a silk two piece outfit for this second formal presentation and didn't want to put heavy stuff in the pockets as it pulls the light fabric. So, I put the keys to the rental car in my purse. I loaded the car trunk as I was checking out, thinking about giving my talk, attending meetings, and then heading out. Just before I was going to catch the shuttle to the conference hotel, I decided that I didn't really need to carry my computer bag AND my purse. So I threw the purse in the trunk and slammed it shut. About 0.0000001 seconds later, I realized my mistake: I had locked my purse and the keys in the trunk.
No worry. I'd deal with it when I got back from the meetings. Did the meeting stuff, had a good time, had lunch, etc. Then went back to deal with the locked car. The locksmith got there about 30 minutes after the hotel front desk called them. Not too shabby. The guy had trouble getting the door open. Worked and worked and worked and finally got it open although the tool he used was firmly stuck inside the passenger-side door.
My keys were still in the trunk. And we couldn't pop the trunk using the little lever inside the car, because it has an anti-theft setting. To the car's built in logic, we were trying to steal the car by jimmying the door. Okay, the back seats fold down, so it shouldn't be a problem.
Trouble was, that although the back seat folds down, it doesn't fold down without unlocking latches that are located ....where???? Why in the trunk!!
So then he undid the battery thinking that the electric on-off-on would reset all the settings. No go. He then took off the driver-side door handle, managed to pop something in there that made the car believe that, when the battery was reattached, everything was okay. So we popped the trunk and I retrieved the keys.
We still have two problems. One, the driver-side door handle is off, and the jimmy tool is still caught in the passenger-side door. The locksmith managed to get the driver door handle back on with only one oops. Getting the jimmy tool out was more of a challenge. He had to take off the interior panel of the door.
What I didn't know (I've never actually participated in taking off the door panel before)is that there is a lot of black glue holding some sound deadening layers together. The black glue managed to get all over everything: the panel, the door frame, the window, the lock, his hands, my hands, etc. What a mess. We did manage eventually to clean things up, well, mostly clean things up. He then had to extricate the jimmy tool which sounds simple but wasn't as easy as I had thought it would be. He put the door back together only to realize (after I pointed it out a second time as he didn't listen the first time!) that he hadn't reconnected the electric windows. So, back off with the panel. The whole deal took about two and a half hours. (I kept thinking that a 16 year old who wanted to steal the car could have done it in 30 seconds. Oh, well.) Luckily, San Diego was no longer in the midst of a major heat wave or it would have been miserable. As it was, I was getting hot and he was soaking wet with sweat.
So, that was my little adventure although, in truth, it wasn't much of an adventure, it's the best I can do so far this trip.