Yesterday at work I was asked to bring two portable police scanners to Radioshack because they wouldn’t work. When you turned them on, a message would come up about all the channels being locked.

Problem: I’m terrified of driving, especially an unfamiliar car in an unfamiliar city. I haven’t operated a motor vehicle for more than six months, and I haven’t been behind the wheel consistently for almost a year. So then I asked Libby to do it as a way to fend off afternoon boredom, and she agreed to drop them off later because she drives that direction anyway. But I felt bad and had my own case of afternoon boredom, so I googled the problem and found out how to unlock and fix the scanners myself. It was actually really easy, but for some reason not included anywhere in the instruction manual. Then everyone thought I was quite clever.

The point of the story is that my fear of driving is not always bad because it forces me to improve my courage or my problem-solving skills.

By the way, if I ever had a cat that wasn’t spayed (and I can’t imagine why I would) I’d totally name her Necessity so I could name all her kittens after inventions (like Cottin Gin and Sliced Bread).