500 Words a Week - I’m a Useless Handyman

Gizmos and gadgets confuse me. But like most men cursed with this affliction, I still think I can figure it out. All my previous experience of things not going well, gets forgotten about, this time it’ll be different.

This is what I thought with our car key.

Used and worn, the buttons on our key had fallen off, leaving us with just the metal key. I’m the type of person who likes to press the lock button at least 3 times just to be sure. Without it, I was left pulling the door handle to check if it was locked. Which led to many conversations with my wife of: 

“Did we definitely lock the car?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“I’ll just go check.”

Then I’d jog back in mild shame, defeated by my compulsive locking habit and questionable memory.

It was time to fix it. Hyundai quoted us something obscene to replace the car key. So, naturally, I figured we could just do it ourselves. How hard could it be?

I ordered a new shell off Amazon, and watched several youtube videos. I was ready.

The youtube video made this process seem simple and straightforward. I convinced myself it would be completed in under 10 minutes, it wasn’t. We got the key open, we were down to the last stage of dismantling the key before transferring it into its new shell. The final boss. The transponder. Which is apparently a very important part if we would like the car to start. Conveniently, it was glued in. 

In a frustrated bid to get it out, a small piece chipped off. I panicked. And then I did what any rational adult would do, I left it sitting on the table and avoided eye contact with it for two months.

Until I had an idea, there’s a locksmith in the village beside us. I’ll ask them if they could help. Thankfully they were, and thankfully it wasn’t a simple job, leaving me with some form of dignity intact. The key had to be cut, chiseled, and hammered before the transponder was freed.

The locksmith didn’t charge for his services, despite my double checking and offering to buy him a coffee. He helped me out from the good of his own soul. These are the moments that always remind me that there are good and kind people in the world. It can be easy to feel like everyone is out for themselves in the world we are in. It can be easy to feel cynical. Often it’s social media that heightens this feeling. But when we get out into the world, we see that’s not often the case.