Lock Out

I would like to have a moment of silence for my 'Ace Hardware' padlock that died doing its job Monday...

It has taken until now for me to be able to write about it.  It was my own carelessness that led to its demise.  I wasn't thinking clearly Monday after my workout. I was thinking about candy or chocolate milk or how the pressure in the locker room shower was fantastic. I got my shower stuff out and instead of putting they key in my gym bag like I should have, I put it in my book bag which was still in the locker. Idiot.  As a gym employee at the University of North Carolina, I always made fun of people that locked their padlock keys in their locker.  "You silly sally," I would think to myself, or "You goofy gary," or "you moron," and so on.  I would go to the hardware closet and get the bolt cutters and execute the padlocks quickly and painlessly. 

This time, the lock joke was on me.  And this time, the lock cutting wasn't quick and it wasn't painless.  There were two dudes sent to cut the lock.  I believe you really only need one dude for this task, but neither had done it before.  I offered my help, but they said they couldn't let me do it because of liability reasons.  Garbage.  If my sentimental padlock had to be put down, they could have at least let me do it myself. 

Anyway, they started compressing the bolt cutter and they failed to give the proper amount of man-force and torque so instead of a clean cut, the metal bent oddly and then snapped.  It was ugly, and it hurt my soul to watch.