I’ve had a few near-miss normal accidents this year that’s put the fear of entangled complexity into me. Came within a hair of extreme clusterfuck.
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Strongly advise people to be extra careful during chaotic activity spikes like moving or dealing with a family medical emergency. That’s exactly when you’re also likely to lose bags with documents etc. Compounding snowballing crises.
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Not the sort of thing I am normally comfortable sharing but feels like a public-service thing so I will. Short version of my 2 near misses.
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Case 1 was moving to LA. Wrangling 6 suitcases, 2 carry ons and an ornery cat out of LAX, I forgot my messenger bag with ALL our documents (which we were hand-caring for “safety”) in luggage cart while boarding shuttle driven by driver who didn’t help with luggage.
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Luckily I noticed within 1 stop, yelled at driver to let us off, we tumble out with all our stuff and I sprint back to previous terminal. Checked baggage claim first, wasn’t there. Got police, lost and found number from security, then just before calling, thought of luggage cart.
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Incredibly it was still at shuttle stop with my bag in it. Whew. Not only was all our documents in it, but (and this was super dumb of me) also our crypto hardware key AND wallet passphrase card in one bag. Massive single point of failure. Very very dumb. I got lucky.
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Case 2: My father-in-law-law is currently in ICU, sedated and on ventilator, seriously ill. Wife and I got all HIS docs from his rural, somewhat insecure home for safety. She puts it all in her handbag. This morning, she lost it. All our cards, car keys, all FIL’s stuff.
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