I got in to work about 7 AM, and thought nothing of the ease of finding a parking spot. After all, that's why I go in early.

HOWEVER--somewhere along the way my car keys had leaped off my lap/out of my hands, ???? and ended up on the floor of the car--which I had (of course) locked.

I finally found a phone book in the library but had no luck finding Pop-a-Lock. So I called the campus cops to ask if they knew a number.

Gee--the person answering the phone sent their very nice officer (who had been trained in popping locks) over. (Gee--that never occurred to me--right.) And he got the car open. I'm not sure how the keys encded up on the floor, but they had.

We chatted a bit after (always good to be friendly to cops) and he'd been NOPD prior to retirement.

This afternoon as I was leaving he happened to be going by and gave me a big wave.

Back to the unlocking. I commented about the relative scarcity of cars and people and he said today was a holiday. MLK.

Not being part of the regular working world, things slip by me.

I headed for home in the early afternoon and ran into a bit of a traffic snarl--near the MLK bust in the neutral ground. LOTS of people around it. And there must have been some kind of accident. I could see at least one ambulance and lots of blue flashing lights.(People + cars + celebration = potential for accidents.)

After that it was clear sailing all the way home.

Once home, I did a quick clothes change and headed for WalMart--more specifically, the nail salon. My feet were WAY overdue for pampering and a clipping of the claws.

Talk about fast--WalMart already had Saint "Division Champion" shirts etc. on sale. That's less than 48 hours since the game ended.

Oh--and the adjacent rack had purple, green, and gold print Mardi Gras tees.

Let's hope that next Monday there's a fresh stack of Saints shirts, with a new message on them.