Back the first of June, my mother was in the hospital recovering from a broken hip and all the stuff that goes with a partial hip replacement. The second weekend, little sister (who goes by "Hub" here on TE) came up to visit her, and visit the bike shop, since they apparently don't have those things in Mississippi.

That Saturday I had to work at a project we were doing to build up bikes for a youth program at the community Boys & Girls Clubs, so I checked on Mom way early in the mornig, then went over and started wrenching. Hub comes by in the late morning to borrow my house key so she could pick up some stuff for Mom and do some laundry for her. No problem... I'm up to my eyebrows in bike parts and volunteers. We finish up a little before 4 p.m., so I pack up the truck and head back over to the hospital to check on Mom.

Shortly afterward, Hub calls me to let me know that she's on the way home, back over the river into Mississippi, and by the way, she still has my house key that she forgot to give back. We'd had some issues the previous year with Dad and his Alzheimers and his tendency to want to wander around the countryside at odd hours, so had put some major upgrades to the locks on all the house doors and window. Now, there are two keys to that place -- mine, which had now wandered off to Mississippi, and Mom's, which was safely locked in the house with her car keys.

I found really quickly just how good an upgrade we had put in, as I was flatly locked out. For awhile, I was glad that I had my Civil War tent (that I used to use to go re-enacting with) in the back storage shed, because I was almost convinced that my dog and I were going to be living in it until the mail came from Mississippi. I finally found a back window into my bedroom that hadn't been replaced, got my ladder, climbed up and took down the storm screen, and got the window open, so I could go find the other key.

I didn't tell Hub for a day or so, but let her think that Sam and I were staying in the dog house.

As Hank Williams once sang, "Move over, old dog, 'cause a new dog's movin' in."