SPF: Keys, Views, and Flames

It's Stuff Portrait Friday again! See Kristine at Random and Odd if you want to play next week. The "stuff" for this week is your keys, the view from your front door, and something kept from a past relationship.

Keys:



I have two key rings; the reason is that I have a lovely habit of locking myself out of the car or the house. I figure, if I keep them separate, chances are I'll have one set or the other if I do get locked out. That way, if I'm locked out of the house, I can drive myself to another set held by Leo, my sister, or a friend. Or if I'm locked out of the car (more likely, because this has happened more often), I can get myself back in the house and get the other set.

The car keys are on the remote to Leo's car. The remote to the van? Lost, along with MY set of keys to the van. Which means right now we only have one set of keys for the van, WHICH MEANS if I lock myself out of the van, I'd better have the number for AAA handy. It's also annoying because something is wrong with the lock on both front doors, driver and passenger side; the only locks that work with the key are the sliding door and the hatchback. If the van is locked and I want to drive, I have to unlock the hatchback, open it up, and use the button back there to unlock everything else.

The house keys have special doohickey's on them. The red and yellow one is a keychain with the logo from the cooking oil made by the company Leo last worked for in China. I've had it for probably 10 years now. The other is a fake snakeskin jobber that has a picture that slides out of it. We got it at Crabby Bill's in St. Petersburg, Florida on a vacation a few years ago. I love the picture; it's one of the best of when it was just the three of us. Audrey was only 2 then, and still had some curl in her hair, intensified by the Florida humidity (it was, unfortunately, a wet week). Here's a close-up of the picture:



The View:



I read once that a good real estate investment is the worst house in the nicest neighborhood. That isn't us exactly, but it's not far off. Not that our house is so bad; it's just old (over 100 years old). I love our street because it's got many, many nice old houses on it, only one or two run-down looking houses, and lots of mature trees. When we move, probably sometime next year, I have told Leo that if we are not going to live in an older house, it still needs to have some big old shade trees on the property. I love me some trees!

Something Saved from a Past Relationship:



Every time my parents come to visit, they bring some old stuff of mine that they are decluttering: old books, photos, boxes of junk, etc. The last time they were here they brought some boxes filled with hundreds of birthday cards, graduation cards, letters, and notes passed between classes in high school. In one of those boxes I found this, along with another, letter from an old summer camp boyfriend. He wrote twice, and the next time I saw him at a youth conference, he informed me he was seeing someone else. Ah, well, the hazards of long-distance romances of youth. The humorous part of this is that his sister and I remained friends, became college roommates, and remain good friends to this day. I have seen Brian a handful of times since that conference, and though he says little to me when I do, I have no ill-will towards him. His sister, however, still teases both of us (separately!) about that "camp fling".