Where Art Thou, Keeper of Ye Angle Grinders?
My bike is locked to the pole behind my apartment. It has been this way for over two months now, ever since I lost my keys traveling to Virginia for Christmas. It was my least favorite Christmas thus far. My grandparents are getting up there in age, so it’s extra important to make an effort to see them for the big holiday get together, but my lord, is it ever an ordeal.
The lock is one of those Kryptonite U-locks. A hacksaw has little effect on it. I can pick locks a bit, but this one seems to have pins on the top and bottom of the cylinder. I don’t have the gear or knowhow to defeat such a device.
The lock originally came with two spare keys, but after four or five years, and several different apartments, they are no longer to be found. I’ve torn the place apart several times in my efforts to rediscover them. It’s no use. I think I need a new place. Something roomier or at least closer to my office.
A friend of mine was supposed to drop by after work with an angle grinder to cut the lock free for me. That was weeks amounting to months ago. This particular friend has something of a habit of overextending himself when offering to help others. His generosity is at once admirable and frustrating. I can’t get angry about it though.
I was going to ask another friend if his father might have an angle grinder that I could possibly borrow for an afternoon. His father, having done a lot of general contracting work in his spare time, was one to keep these sorts of tools around. Unfortunately, he passed away a couple of weeks ago. It was sad to see him laid low in a coffin like that. All said, he died a reasonably good death, as such things go, which is more than most of us can dare hope for in life.
I suppose I could buy an angle grinder of my own. The tool and prerequisite safety-gear can be had for relatively cheap. But it’s not the kind of tool for which I’m bound to have any future use. Except maybe in the unlikely event I have to help someone else who has lost their keys cut a darn U-lock off a pole. Purchasing my own would be a bad investment and take up storage space I don’t have to spare. Perhaps I can rent one from somewhere.