Why do you cry, little dove?

I was standing in the shower after a good workout this morning, minding my own business, when a mourning dove landed on the outside sill of the window in my shower. He didn't see me through the distorted glass, so he settled down, puffed up, and serenaded me with his sad song for the next 10 minutes. I liked it. <3 Those little guys are pretty loud when you're so close, even with a sheet of glass between you!

3:28 yesterday afternoon found me sitting at my desk poring over one of the myriad Access database spreadsheets that occupy much of my attention at work. Suddenly my phone rings - it's S, unexpectedly! I helped her edit her book last summer, and she was recently one of the premier presenters at a national educational conference.

She sheepishly explained her situation to me. She came downtown to make a visit to the courthouse to contest a traffic violation, but since she'd followed her nav system into town, she couldn't remember which parking deck she had parked her car in! I knew of about 5 or 6 decks in close proximity to the courthouse, and she had no idea where many of them were. Oh, and her phone was about to die. I quickly printed out a map, told my boss what was going down (go, go, go, she said!), and sprinted in my 3-inch heels to meet S in front of the courthouse.

It was a beautiful, cool, windy spring afternoon and I located S quickly. She continued describing her debacle; she had found a police officer earlier and had gotten into his patrol car to ask him for directions to nearby parking decks... But she had left her keys in his vehicle. And God knew where he'd gotten to, by this time. Luckily, she had flagged down another cop, explained her tangled tale to him, and he was in the process of radioing for cop #1 when I walked up.

Eventually cop #1 was located (took awhile, since S and the cop didn't know each others' names) and cop #2 went to liaison with him to get S's keys back; meanwhile, S and her suited sidekick stood and chatted on the corner, waiting for his return. When he returned, we began searching one parking deck and then another, as S pressed the lock/unlock button on her remote key in hopes that we'd hear her car beeping in the distance - which is how we found the car, in the end! Success!

So fun! I must have walked 2 miles.