Clemenza's Home for Expensive Stupidity

I realize that my two most recent posts in VG's Absent-Minded Thread really belong somewhere else. Last night:

Went to Waterloo tonight to see a movie, a movie I've seen approximately 30 times. Just before it was about to start, I realized my keys were missing (meaning every key I own; I keep them all on the same chain). Retraced my steps six times between the theatre and my car, parked about 90 seconds away. Not there--I had one of those War Amps tags on there, so I'm assuming someone picked them up and dropped them in a mailbox.

Took a cab home to St. Marys, an hour away: $125. On the way, I arranged for an emergency locksmith. Turns out the woman who owned my house before I moved here three years ago had a dead-bolt on the front door on loan from Fort Knox: took the guy 30-45 minutes to get the front door open. ("Crazy lock"--he said "crazy lock" under his breath a dozen times.) That, combined with the fact that it was after-hours emergency service = $350. The cab driver was great--he waited the whole time to drive me back to Waterloo for my car--so though we'd agreed on $75 for the return trip, I gave him $150 and then another $25 out of guilt. $650 for the night.

I'll continue to post in the Absent-Minded thread when I misplace the remote and spend 20 minutes looking for it until I find it in the fridge. (This hasn't happened yet--but it will.) Hopefully, that'll be it. But lately absent-mindedness has not been cheap.

I play in a band. One night after a gig I walked out to the parking lot carrying my bass with left hand and a half-finished bottle of beer along with my car keys in my right. Not having a free left hand I managed with my right hand to A: finish the beer, B: open the lid of a dumpster, and C: fling both the bottle and the keys into it. Searching by the light of my phone under a top layer of cardboard boxes revealed several feet of rainwater and grease from the bar's fryers, and no hope of retrieving the keys.

I got a ride home with a band mate, so no cabfare was involved, but extra expensive stupidity was, as I had no spare key at home. I can't remember the cost of having the locksmith break into may car the next day.

It really felt like the locksmith took advantage of the situation last night--it was obvious he was making up the cost on the spot, and he charged an extra $200 for the emergency service (I asked him what the normal cost would have been). I've arranged with my neighbour now to keep an extra house key with him.

When you're in a desperate situation they have you where they want you. Hope your keys make it back.

Loooool, I have a very recent one. I bought tickets to go see Koffee play in Nashville this week, and booked an Airbnb so we could stay there overnight. BUT. I accidentally bought the tickets through a damn reseller, because I clicked on the wrong link and was just not paying enough attention. Which means the tickets of course ended up being more than they should have been — but the bigger problem was it meant that when the show got canceled last month, I didn't get the email informing me of this that I would have gotten if I'd bought through the actual box office. Fast forward to this Monday, as I was checking into details about what I thought was our upcoming trip to see Koffee, and I realized the show had been canceled. I was able to get a refund from the ticket reseller, but we were past our cancellation window on the Airbnb. So we just had to swallow the $195 Airbnb cost. (We tried to come up with another reason to make the 2 1/2 hour drive to Nashville on a Tuesday, but couldn't really justify it.) Had I bought tickets from the right people, I would have been notified in plenty of time to cancel for free.

I have almost bought from resellers before by accident, because Google puts their stupid paid links right up top of the searches, but this was the first time I actually did it. Never again!

I was at a car boot sale on Saturday. As it was a nice day put on my sunglasses and stuck my regular glasses on neck of my t-shirt. After going around the sale and picking up a few unspectacular bargains went to put them on and they were gone, impossible to find amongst the stalls.

Even more annoyingly, this happened to me several years ago so it’s not as if I couldn’t expect it.

Just two days ago, bought train tickets for the week after I needed them. Realised as soon as I'd completed the transaction, but they're completely non-refundable.

We should keep a running tab for this thread...Just went to a dealership about getting a second car key cut and programmed, and they want over $300 (which would bring last night's tab to almost $1,000). I'm going to try to find somewhere that will do it for under $100, and if I can't find anyone, I will live with the one key (and also the knowledge that someone else out there may have the other--I lost it an hour away, so I figure it's a million to one they'd track my car down) and summon all my remaining mental acuity to try not to lose it.

I went to Amoeba with a handful of CDs to trade for credit, got $27

Lost my parking pass... had to pay $20 :/

Dealerships will absolutely rob you on that. I was able to find replacement key fobs for my son's Camry on Amazon for $30 a pair. Got a locksmith to program them for about $100. YMMV.

Thanks, will keep that in mind. It's just fucking maddening at this point.

xp I carry a spare car key in my purse.

It’s a super expensive world.

As upset and angry as I am (mostly at myself), I try to keep in mind what an awful two-plus years it's been for the cab driver and the locksmith. The car dealership, less sympathetic.

Got my keys back! They were in my mailbox today--it was the War Amps tag that got them back to me. The money I spent that night ain't ever coming back, but at least I have a second fob now. My idea for the future is to keep the backup fob buried in the glove compartment, and keep the duplicate key that I got cut--which opens the car but doesn't start it--in the change compartment in my wallet. So if I ever lose the keys again, as long as I don't simultaneously lose the wallet--AND I'M NOT RULING THAT OUT WITH ME--I'll be okay to get in the car and drive away.

Keys open doors!

Same movie theatre as above, there a couple of weeks ago for The Quiet Girl and killing (ample) time before the movie. Letter arrived today with one of those red-light camera notifications: $325! So two movies at this theatre have cost me just shy of $1,000 because of Expensive Stupidity.

Just booked some plane tickets thinking the USD price was in CAD...oof

I did this via a site that showed my flight between two Aus cities, on an Aus airline, to my Aus IP address with Aus contact details, using a $ figure. Then charged my card in USD and told me no, no dice, you can only cancel within 24 hours. I took it up with my credit card company and they refunded it, took it up with the travel site, I have no idea what happened because the booking stayed live, but I was never charged for it.

That made me check the USD/CAD rate, which I haven't looked at recently. Didn't realize the gap had gotten so big, I think the last time I really paid attention was when it was about even — 10 years ago? I knew the dollar had gone up since then, but not how much.

I just checked, seems to be around 72 cents right now...It's actually been much worse: got down to barely above 60 cents in the early 2000s.

I should never go to another movie again. Hearing aids needed a charge, so I put them back in my canvas bag. Not there when I got home--either they fell to the floor in the theatre, or they fell out of the bag as I made a mad dash to the car through the rain. Left a message and an email with the theatre, but I'm not hopeful. $3,000, about half out of pocket.

oh no :(

Thank god--they found them inside the theatre by my seat. (I thought they might when I realized last night I set them on top of the canvas bag rather than in the bag.) Lucky they didn't get swept up.

Amazed that I continue to let these things happen. It's like I need to do one of those interventions with myself: "Look--you're very scatterbrained, so you need to think about even the most basic things you do. Stupidity can get very expensive."

that's good.
i went to sell an old couch so i can clear out the storage locker – biked to the subway station, got off the subway and biked about 40 mins (uphill in light rain - super humid) to the locker. met the people, went up to the locker and then realized a left the keys in my other backpack. i offered to have the guy there cut my lock, but they were already out of patience and left super pissed. i felt so dumb and not only lost out on $270, but also have no idea how i'm going to clear thing thing out in time to avoid another $220 bill for it.

I hear you (see my lost-key adventure above)...We have a continuum now: start on VG's thread, graduate to this one when the first bill comes in.

Drove under a low barrier forgetting that my wife's racing bike was on top of the car. Bike, roof-rack, rear windscreen, all smashed.

I was in NYC recently, and dashed to the new Penn Station to catch my train back to Boston, which was due to leave within minutes. In my panic (and not being familiar with the new terminal) I got on the wrong train, which was going to Philly. I immediately purchased a an overnight train ticket from Philly back to Boston, but then the train I was on stopped for about a half hour then went right back to NYC. A train bridge ahead had malfunctioned. So I cancelled the ticket I had just bought and purchased a new NYC-to-Boston ticket at the terminal, which set me back $150 but at least I made it back home that night.

Come, tell us your tale of woe--we non-judgementally welcome all manner of expensive stupidity here.

Drove under a low barrier forgetting that my wife's racing bike was on top of the car. Bike, roof-rack, rear windscreen, all smashed.

― fetter, Wednesday, 14 June 2023 13:46 (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh fuck that

yeah jesus that suuuuuucks

A few years ago, I pulled my wife's van out of the garage, forgetting that my car--at the time, a 2013 Dodge Challenger RT--was parked much closer to the door than usual.

I think the body damage set me back about $2,000.

This thread is physically painful to me. I was so annoyed when my wife put in the wrong RV number plate (replaced a 1 for an I on the machine)…. And that was only like a $60 fine. Not my finest moment :/

In the first year of my grad school program, in addition to our academic year stipend, we were guaranteed a $6k fellowship to tide us over during the summer. The following summer, I tried to make money by teaching a class, but not enough students enrolled, so I had no income for those few months.

Turns out, we were basically guaranteed funding for the second summer too. We just had to apply for it. Somehow I didn't know this. So I lost out on six thousand dollars because I didn't do a few minutes of perfunctory paperwork.

i parked hard by a pillar in the underground carpark the day we were moving house but in reversing out in a hurry (moving day is busy fyi) i forgot id locked in hard and instead of flying back smoothly i merely smashed the side of the car into the pillar and dragged it along said impediment for about oh a thousand quid

when describing this incident to my brother outside his own house later i demonstrated the swing involved without looking and hit my arm so hard off a metal post that i had to see another seventy euro worth of doctor two days later

i did at least get to make a "pillar to post" joke about it after tbf

ugh yeah i was in a crabby mood & swung into coffeeshop parking lot and felt the car nudge the car next to me but instead of stopping at THAT good moment instead in my foul mood I just kept right on pushing and scraped the shit out of the other car creating for myself a BAD moment

had to leave a note on the other car, pay out a bunch of insurance & bump up deductible even more because i’d already been in a stupid fender bender 3 months previous

mr veg just looking at me evenly thinking like should we even LET you drive anymore?

this was a couple of years ago, i am reformed now *touch wood*

This didn’t end so badly, but I tore the shit out of a rental car fender a few years ago, when I ran over a bollard in a parking lot. I was totally shamefaced when I returned the car, but the assistant looked at me and was, like, “oh that’s nothing” and walked me down the lot to another rental car - the entire driver’s front door had been pulled off.