Is there a locksmith in the house?

This is hard for me to fathom, but I lost the house key to the host family’s place three times in two weeks.  The first two times were wrestling with change in my pocket for cab drivers.  In the second incident, I lost by wallet as well.  The third time is a complete mystery as I opened the door at ten that night and in the morning, between the front door and my room, I could not find my key.

Normally in the states, you would have a locksmith come out and change the pins in the cylinder and that would be that.  But in Peru, you can’t trust the locksmiths.  So the way you do it is you buy a new lock box, take the keys out and the locksmith never opens the tumblers so he can’t come back with a copy.  Only their security system, with intercom and phone and remote open button is a Chinese model that no one sells just the lock box for.  So I spent $300 replacing the entire system for them.

I could have tried to find two locksmiths, one to take the box in and out and one to change the tumblers at his shop so he wouldn’t know where to use a key copy if he made one.  But the logistics, time investment and logistical failure risk were high enough it wasn’t worth it. 

I managed to not beat myself up over this mental lapse for too long.  But it does make me wonder:  “Am I getting old?”  “Am I now completely reliant on my habits and systems to deal with day to day life details?”  It has been 20 years since I lost my wallet or keys.  I have put them through the laundry a few times, but the situation has been really frustrating.  And I pride myself on not falling into the frustration trap.  Traveling without ready access to cash is a real pain.  Even though only 2 out of every 100 merchants accepts AMEX in Peru, I must say AMEX has great customer service.  I don’t think our local credit union has much experience in dealing with foreign travel in their card department.

The funny thing is that the wallet I lost was an early Christmas gift from Murray’s sister before I left.  At least Murray doesn’t have to ask me what to get for a valentines day.