VIII - Strength

I Dropped My Keys In The River At The Exact Right Moment In Time

<supposedly this one is too long for email because of all the pictures, so use the web page link to finish the letter>

This is the story of how I lost my keys to the river yesterday, and why it was the perfect day to do so.

My alarm goes off at 4:45am. I get out of bed, and with all the lights still off (because for my first two years of rowing I shared a room with a non-rower, and have since enjoyed the ritual of getting ready for practice in the dark), I pull on the clothes I set out for myself the night before.

I usually wear a ski bib to practice, but it’s almost 60 degrees so I opt for shorts for the first time this season. My keys sit deep in the left pocket instead of clipping onto the pocketless bib’s pass holder.

I brush my teeth, wash my face, apply my sunscreen, and head to my car, forgetting a raincoat. It starts dumping on my 8 minute drive over. I take these photos on my walk from the parking lot to the boatyard, for no real reason.

I arrive at the boatyard and get my lineup.

I’ll be coxing a bow-loaded four, which means I will be lying down in the bow of the boat, rather than sitting up in the stern of the boat. I don’t love bow-loaders because they hurt my neck, and I can’t see the rowers - I have to rely on sound and feel alone to know what’s going on.

view from a bow loader. excuse the lack of continuity in terms of pants - the photo is from last week.

After a solid practice, we stick a killer landing into the dock.

I unplug my cox box and hop out of the boat - a tricky and rather graceless maneuver due to the fact that I’m moving from a lying position in an unstable boat, to a crouching position on a still rather wavy dock.

As I right myself on the bubble dock, my keys jingle a final “goodbye” as they slip from my open pocket into the Willamette. With two full hands, I watch them sink about three inches before the murk of the river renders them invisible.

Shit.

“How far down is it?”

“Deep.”

“Shit.”

My generous 2-seat, Jenny, offers to drive me home. I thank her profusely, and after we get the boat back on racks, I call my roommate.

My NEW roommate. Who just moved in 2 days ago. And who left for work at 4:15am the day prior, but doesn’t work until the afternoon today. Good timing.

GLORIOUS Shannon is both awake, and home to let me in.

I direct Jenny back to my apartment, having just memorized the way the practice prior. (yeah we could have used gps, but this detail reaffirms my perfect timing angle to the story) She asks if I have to work this morning. I do not. Thank god.

Successfully through the door, I thank my lucky stars and cook up an omelette while I plan how to get a new set of keys. I have a spare car key in my room, so the most pressing issue is the house keys.

Shannon offers to lend me her set so I can make duplicates at ACE Hardware. Perfect. I can walk there and back before she has to leave for work, and then I can bike over to the boathouse and retrieve my car.

As I finish my blueberries, I remember that I haven’t yet shown Shannon where the mail keys are. I walk to the entryway to grab them, and do a double take.

There’s a set of keys hanging there, right below the mail keys, that was not there before. In fact, I’ve never seen these keys in my life.

My (lost) set of house keys contained a gold, a silver, and a blue key. The single other set of house keys has a gold, a silver, and a purple key, all now attached to Shannon’s Volkswagen car key. This set of mystery keys has a gold, a silver, and an orange key, as well as another, smaller silver key.

I try the keys on our door, and they work. One for the building, one for our apartment, and one for the deadbolt. The additional small silver key is for the mail.

The best I can figure is that our landlord, Larry, dropped the keys off at some point in the last two days, thinking we needed another set for Shannon, even though he knew that she was taking over the second room, not adding to the number of people living in the apartment.

I laugh in disbelief at the weird miracle, realizing I now have all the keys I lost (except the key to my bike lock, which I am still trying to locate the twin of). All that’s left is to grab my car.

Since moving to Portland in October, my bike has sat entirely unused in the living room. That is until last weekend, when I took it to Seattle, because my dad just bought an electric bike, and I thought it’d be fun to join him for a ride. We had to pump both our tires before going out.

I realize if I hadn’t brought my bike home last weekend, the tires would be flat today, and I’d have no way to pump them. Good timing.

I map the bike route to the boathouse. Google maps says 20 minutes.

I make it in 15.

The lower deck of the Steel Bridge had been closed for weeks, forcing me to take the less convenient upper deck on my walking route. Earlier this morning, as we rowed under the Steel Bridge, our coach noted that the lower deck was back open. Good timing. I remember this and take the shorter route across.

The ride is rainy, but thoroughly enjoyable. I think to myself that the only thing better than walking around Portland is biking around Portland. I don’t know why I was so intimidated before. I’ll definitely be taking the bike out again.

I load the bike into my conveniently empty trunk and drive home still in my helmet, which I hope gave some passerby a laugh.

Problem solved, and it’s not even 9am. The story on its own isn’t particularly wild, but when I consider all the elements and events that had to happen at the right time for the solution to be so painless, I feel cosmically lucky. Any other day truly would have been disastrous.

Strength is such a sweet card :) The figure tames the inner beast of the lion, but not forcefully - like the charioteer did with the sphinxes in the previous card. Instead, this person guides the lion’s impulses with a loose rein made of flowers. The two live in harmony.

The strength symbolized by this card is the kind that comes easily. Not the conscious kind of strength that comes from willpower, but the natural kind of strength that develops with understanding. It’s calm, and it comes without being called upon. Often, it’s so quiet that you only notice its presence in hindsight.

Wishing you a lucky day as well,

Jordan