I went out to wash the windows. Plain water wouldn’t cut it. I came in after the swabbing brush and the Dawn dish detergent. And I headed out again to hose down the windows and scrub.
“I’ll help,” says Jane. The wind is blowing a gale. She comes out of the house.
The door slams.
We are, yes, locked out. We have a 6 foot fence around the back yard, and we believe the back door is open. But—it requires climbing skills to get over that fence. The ladder is lying, yes, inside the fence. All the locks but one are locked, and the key is, yes, IN the house.
So…”We have a ladder,” say I, dump the bucket (5 gallon) and head for the gate with the open lock. But it’s not tall enough.
Poor Jane has to get up onto that inverted bucket, on uneven ground, and climb on to the empty (and tippy) rolling city garbage bin, which I am holding steady with my right hand, while my left foot is hooked around that bucket trying to prevent it tipping.
Up goes Jane. And she got it. Yes, the back door was still unlocked. And Jane managed to get back down off the rig without breaking her neck.
Sometimes you’re glad the camera is also locked in the house.
Remer, you must live in a place like where I live. Very remote, no near neighbors, and ALL of the people in the area know each other. If someone was to steal a vehicle, they’d never get off the county road before being caught. We never lock doors, but we do shut them to try to keep the bears out. Every vehicle always has its key in it, so we never have to look for keys. Honestly, I don’t think I even HAVE keys to the house doors any more, and I sure wouldn’t know where to find them if I had to lock up! We also have several loud and imposing-looking dogs, mostly to control wildlife, but also to keep people at bay. Hell, we even leave the keys in the cars with the motor running on cold days when we go to town. And you’re right, it’s a hard habit to get into, taking keys out of the vehicles when we go to the big city. Gotta love country living!!!
On the plus side for living in a town or village, you can leave extra keys with friends, neighbors and/or family within a reasonable distance (less than half an hour walking, in case the car keys are also inaccessible). I used to lock myself out fairly regularly, so I had a few extra front-door keys made and left them with 3 sets of neighbors who will also look after my cat when I’m away, as well as with a friend on the other side of town who’s home a lot, in my office in the town center, and as a last resort with my parents over an hour’s drive away. Those last ones are more for when they come to visit and I’m late getting home, but in a real emergency I’m sure they’d drive over to help.
That way, when I lock myself out I’ve a reasonable chance of finding a neighbor at home who can let me in, or if they’re all out to work it will still be office hours and I can get my spare key at work.
Perhaps you could leave a set with OSG and OSGuy, and/or your skating teacher, as they seem to live not too far away?
We even got a key for Joan (OSG has one) but hadn’t gotten around to it. OSG was at work, and Joan, two-three blocks away, hadn’t gotten a key yet. But we are going to do exactly that. 😉
That, or try the Harry Potter arrangement. I have a box of about 50 dead keys. We could set that in the garage, and only we would know which one is real.
The catch-22 is that the garage also locks. 😉
I have a key to a friend’s place. Haven’t had to use it yet; it’s mostly so I can cat-sit. (At least two of the cats would be deliriously happy to have me there for more than ten minutes.)
Heh, One of those Laurel and Hardy moments eh?
Yeah, I’ve had a few…
Wind? Check
Freezing? Check
Nighttime? Check
Garbage bag? Check
Dumpster behind 7-11? Check
Locked car and got keys in hand? Check
Toss garbage bag and keys in great, big, deep dumpster? Check…
I know how you feel Wayspooled!
Twice in the last 4 months I have thrown an important card into the garbage of a fast food restaurant. One was a credit card in a Panda Express here in Vegas and once was my driver’s license in the airport on the way home from visiting my daughter in Kentucky.
I have keys planted all over the city after a few really bad mishaps. Car keys and apartment keys as last year I thought it was a good idea to lock my car while it was running…during a rainstorm. I also keep “equipment” with me that I can use to unlock stuff. If the deadbolt isn’t drawn I can rip a magazine into the right shape to bend into the door crack and then loop back around and pop the lock. Ah, the things learned through desperation.
I can remember getting home from babysitting with my best friend [it was a New Year’s eve] and I didn’t have a key to the house, the parents had been at the same party as the folks I had sat for, but were likely asleep — since we had pushed my friend’s car with the dead battery a good 1.5 miles home. I scaled the 6 foot tall picket edged fence and prayed the cuffs of my jeans didn’t hook on the fence, made it to the living room window from the back yard that I knew you could slide open with the key to the sprinkler system, cuz the window didn’t latch real well. Good plan, didn’t work — dad had apparently fixed the window. Soo, back over the fence to tell best friend we were going to sleep in her car, a multi-rust colored 40 coupe. After about 5 minutes of trying to become a contortionist, I said the hell with this, and rang the door bell. Mom instantly appeared, chortled, oh you’re home, and wanted to make us breakfast. First time I can remember seeing my mom three sheets to the wind.
As a functional adult I’ve had better luck, since it seems everyplace I’ve lived required using a key to lock the door behind me. However, several years ago we got back from a long trip to find the door from the garage to the house locked. We never lock this door. We didn’t have any house keys with us since we have a thingie that makes the garage door open and close and that took care of the problem [all exterior doors locked, don’t need no stinkin’ keys since we can open the garage]. Sure we could have called the friends who had been checking on the cats while we were gone, but they had left for Australia the day before. We finally found drove over to work where husband had left his keys — which included the front door. I had left mine at home assuming I didn’t need them. Now on a trip, those get left in the car console so I can always get back into the house. I keep the friend’s house keys in my car [we reciprocate on the critter watch] and I know where they keep our house keys at their place. It’s worked so far.
Where I currently live the only lock on the outside door is a deadbolt. On the inside, it has a knob; the outside requires a key. I can’t lock myself out there, but I can if I forget to take the key when I take out the trash, because the gate to the parking area closes and locks itself. (Well, it’s possible to get it to *not* lock, if you very carefully close it. But don’t bet on it.)
Living in a forest provides many rocks,trees etc. for hiding spare keys. Providing one remembers said rock or tree. Try this at midnight by the car headlights in the middle of winter:)