I have retired from my job and we have changed the locks at our house.
I have attended a number of events lately, and may sort them out or discuss them in the near future: blur of retirement dinner and party and my final meeting. We blundered into a nearby block party featuring a Celtic/Maritimes folk band called OMFG. The band's name stands, of course, for Old Man Flanagan's Ghost. I found a tiny figure of some kind of sprite on my walk, so I gave it to the band at break.
"Where'd it come from?" one asked.
"Wherever strange sprites come from, I suppose."
"Looks like a a Dungeons and Dragons thing." They accepted the tiny gift.
My story, "Concerto," finally appeared with the release of the summer issue (#64) of Vestal Review.
The life-changing news, of course, is that, for the first time since 1989, I have no job. I can write, rest, and travel. I shall probably pick up part-time for the next couple of years, pocket some extra money. It's five more years until I can add the Canada Pension to my generous work one. By "generous," I mean that it was expensive to pay into all of those years, but it really pays off for anyone who doesn't die before they retire.
With the passing of my day job and the changing of our house locks, I can now unveil a secret we have been keeping for half a decade.
About five years ago, I walked home from the job, tired. I fumbled with my keys at the door, put one in the lock, and walked into my house. A moment later I realized what I had done.
I went back out and checked. Yep. That happened.
My work key had opened the door to my house. Even in a life marked by odd coincidences, this strikes me as wildly improbable. Two matching keys? Sure. Two matching keys that end up in the hand of the person to whom they benefit?
More correctly, they nearly match. My home key did not open the work locks: the work key has a tiny bit extra on the end needed to open the work locks.
Just to ensure that I hadn't fallen into some waking dream, I had a trusted friend from work try his key. Rarely does one see eyes go that wide upon opening a wooden door. I also made a video. It received its delayed premiere at the end of my retirement speech. Since it's no longer convenient to use the same key for home and a position that I no longer hold, we have changed all of our locks. The video has been posted on YouTube.
I don't know what the odds of this happening are but, if I was going to beat them, I on the whole rather wish I'd won a lottery instead.