We lost a couple of things this week. On Tuesday, as Dan was driving from the parking lot on campus to come get me from my office, he and a car had a small collision as they drove toward each other on a narrow road. Nobody was hurt, you’ll be happy to hear. Even though the cars were going probably no faster than 5 mph, the damage was impressive. We are now back in a courtesy car while the garage sorts out the appraisal. We suspect the car is completely lost, but we’ll hear the final verdict next week.
How does this slow accident cause so much damage?
As if being pickpocketed in Barcelona wasn’t enough adventure for it, my wallet decided to go on a field trip on Thursday. Siena and I took a walk and bumped into a friend when we picked up some lemons at the store. I had the wallet when I paid for the lemons and I didn’t notice that it was missing until Friday morning as we left for work. I suspected it fell out of my pocket during the walk, so I retraced my steps, went all along the road, went back to the store, and couldn’t find anything. It was odd that I had everything else (keys, cell phone, etc.) but just not the wallet. Everyone suggested that we phone the police about it which is something that we learned about in our Welsh lessons. In the exercise, one of the characters in our Welsh books, Ffred, had lost his wallet and there was a conversation between him and the policeman regarding the wallet. The policeman’s side of the conversation was missing, so we had to fill in what he would say (in Welsh of course). I thought this whole notion of going to the police for a missing wallet was totally ridiculous. What were they going to do, send out dogs and a swat team for a wallet? So when I completed the conversation, my policeman had pretty sarcastic questions and answers for Ffred, such as “Why don’t you go look for it yourself? I can’t help you!” or “It’s hopeless! You must buy a new one!” But after several people suggested calling the police, I thought when in Rome… I phoned them up, gave them a description of the wallet (no, they didn’t have anything matching that description) and my phone number, and proceeded to put our credit cards on hold. In the middle of the afternoon, I get a phone call. It was the police!
The policeman said “Are you the one who rang this morning about a missing wallet?”
“Yes!” I said excitedly.
“Well, I just wanted to let you know that we haven’t found it yet.”
(long pause) “Um, okay. Thanks for letting me know.”
I didn’t really understand the purpose of the phone call. I went into an interview panel for the afternoon, and when I came out, I had a voicemail, and this time, the police were phoning to say that my wallet had been turned in and was waiting for me at the police station!! I was so relieved! Not to mention, surprised! Dan and I went to retrieve it. The wallet must have fallen out of my crammed pockets and was found near the store where I was at. The policeman told me that Mr. and Mrs. E, an elderly couple, found it in front of their house and walked all the way down to the police station to turn it in. I got their contact info. so that I could thank them properly and send them some flowers. When they turned it in, there was a form that was filled out, and I had to sign the bottom saying that I had claimed the wallet. While I signed the form, Dan was looking over my shoulder and snickering, barely containing his laughter. At the top of the report detailing what happened, in big capital letters it said “LOSER CONTACTED.”
Indeed.
