Adventures in bereavement

.....or should I call it “misadventures?”
Since I drove all the way to Altoona, PA and back over the past weekend (blog coming), my car was slathered with road-dirt.
I decided it needed to be washed, so yesterday (Tuesday, January 15th, 2013), after working out at the YMCA in nearby Canandaigua, I decided to run my car through a car-wash.
It only costs eight bucks, and I use my credit-card.
The car-wash has a computer interface with an interactive touch-screen.
“Welcome to Car-Wash,” a disembodied female voice bubbled. “Select car-wash, basic or ‘The Works.’”
I must have hit something wrong. It wanted a code.
Start over, but get back to that point.
Now, “Select method of payment, cash or credit/debit card.”
I hit “credit-card.”
“Insert card.” I did so, forgetting to immediately retrieve my card.
(It hadn’t read it before, when I took it out too quickly.)
The machine crunched my payment, and raised the gate.
I drove into the car-wash, inadvertently leaving my credit-card in the machine.
Car-wash complete, I drove down to the supermarket to get groceries.
Groceries selected, I processed everything with their U-scan.
“Select method of payment.”
UH-OOOHH; no credit-card in my wallet. It’s still in the machine at the car-wash up the street.
My groceries were only $14-something, so I paid cash; first time at a U-scan.
Back to the car-wash. My credit-card was no longer in the machine, which was processing a line of cars.
I went to the car-wash office, and after poking around I noticed my credit-card on a desk. (No-one was there.)
I retrieved my card, and notified a car-wash employee.
Now, anything different here since my wife died? Did I leave my card in the machine because I’m distracted?
I think not. A mistake like that could happen to anyone, death of wife or not.
And did I pursue my credit-card similar to before my wife’s death?
Probably.
Although it would have been fairly likely it would have been she pursuing the card.
Although I was more likely to retrieve the card myself, and would have done so even if she were alive.
Thank goodness I didn’t have to call the bank to cancel my card, an act I would have delegated to my wife — although I could have done it.

• I drove to Altoona to chase trains. I’m a railfan, and have been since age-two (I’m almost 69).
• I work out in the Canandaigua YMCA Exercise-Gym, appropriately named the “Wellness-Center,” usually three days per week, about two-three hours per visit. (“Canandaigua” [“cannan-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city to the east nearby where I live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” It’s about 14 miles east. —I live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield, southeast of Rochester.)
• My beloved wife of over 44 years died of cancer April 17th, 2012. Like me she was 68. I miss her dearly.