Tuesday 12/28/2021
Started the morning with resistance exercises. I have increased the resistance about 5% on several of the machines.
The big event of the day was meeting with my AV committee. We agreed on a lot of things, a very productive meeting although I don’t feel like detailing all the background now.
One conclusion was that we needed enough copies of three keys so that everyone could have them: the key to the storage cabinet in the stage right wing of the auditorium, the key to the green room behind the stage, and one other. I took the action item to get that done, and after the meeting, I went out to do it.
Not so easy. Where do you get keys made these days? As one does, I got out my phone, Maps app, search for locksmiths. First option: there is a chain called KeyMe that has automated kiosks in stores, and one in the big Safeway in Menlo Park. So I went there. Of my three keys, the machine said that two were “unusual” and not stocked in the machine. They could deliver a dup by mail in just a few days. Nah.
Back to the maps app. I went to the next nearest locksmith, on High street. Nope, gone as if it never was. So to the next nearest, on Homer Ave. Again, no sign of it. How often do they update Apple Maps?
OK, two were in Menlo Park, one on Santa Cruz ave and the other around the corner on El Camino. Walked past the address of the first, no sign of it. That’s three locksmith shops that existed recently enough to be in Maps, that aren’t there now. But the next, on El Camino, did exist. They made four copies of each of two keys, but balked at the third, saying keys of this type (the green room key, a proper door key from Channing House) required one to present a letter on letterhead stationery authorizing a duplicate. Oh well.
Walking back to the car I was passing a big Ace Hardware and thought, why not? Do you make keys? Sure! Can you make me two copies of this one? Sure! Nothing about authorizing letters. Just zip zip make the keys, take the money. The moral? Locksmiths follow rules, hardware stores don’t.
Codgerville 