An Scatterbrain

From Nancy Nall’s blog yesterday, a righteous rant about a/an agreement, prompted by the typo in this sentence:

“Lawmakers on Thursday evening announced they had reached an budget agreement to end the shutdown.”

As Nancy puts it: “The hell you say.”

Few will come right out and say it, but this is a class thing.  When you screw up verb/tense agreement, confuse a and an, or use “your” for “you’re,” you might as well wear a “Kiss Me, I’m Trailer Trash” T-shirt.  People are going to judge you.  You can bet your bottom dollar I read all my stuff three or four times before clicking “publish” lest you judge me the same way!

On to more personal things.

I worried it would hurt to wear my bicycle helmet this morning, what with all the stitches in my scalp, but it turned out to be no problem and my friend Darrell and I enjoyed a great ride from Reid Park to 4th Avenue and back.  Still, events suggest my head injuries are more severe than first thought.

Never mind me pedaling right through a red light and almost getting hit by a car.  I might have done that anyway.  Stupid cars.  No, it’s more what happened after the ride.

When I pulled into Costco for gas on the way home, I realized my debit card was missing.  I decided I’d better drive straight home and find it.  On the way I remembered using it the previous evening to buy takeout food at a neighborhood sports bar.  The sports bar was on my way home, so I pulled into the lot and walked up to the door, only to find the place closed.  On my way back to the car I noticed the gas filler door was open … perfect, I’d left the cap on top of the pump.  Hey ho, back to Costco!

On my way the cell phone rang.  It was Darrell, calling from the restaurant where we’d agreed to meet for a post-ride breakfast.  I’d forgotten all about breakfast and left my friend in the lurch!  By then it was too late to join him, and I didn’t have a debit card anyway, so I apologized profusely.  Back at Costco I luckily found the gas cap and even discovered a backup credit card that worked at the pump, so at least I was able to fill the car up.  On the way home again I tried calling the pub, but it was still closed.

Back at home I picked through the contents of the kitchen trash can, just in case I’d put the card in the bag last night’s dinner came in, but no luck.  At 11AM, as soon as the pub opened, I called again and got through.  The safe was locked and the manager was nowhere to be found, but the nice young man on the phone promised to find him and call me back within fifteen minutes.

Half an hour later, just as I was about to call the credit union to cancel the card and issue me another, the phone rang.  They have my card.  Of course there’s no way to tell how many rounds of drinks are on it, but I guess I’ll find out soon enough.

I’m not normally such a scatterbrain.  Maybe I should stay off the roads another day or so.  Except for a quick trip to the neighborhood pub to retrieve my card.  What could possibly go wrong?