The Porch Light copyright by Revka (2006-2010). All rights reserved.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Locked Out

I try to be careful and think about what I'm doing, but I cannot tell you the number of times I have locked myself out of my own house. The worst time was shortly before Mr. Incredible and I got married. (This happened sometime during July or August of '99. We closed on the house during the first week of July, and Mr. Incredible moved in with me only after we were married in August.)

I was the church pianist at the time. One Sunday morning, I left the house, intending to make it to Sunday School early so that I could play a short prelude before the service began. As usual, I made sure to turn my Schlage lock before exiting the house. Unfortunately, when I got in my truck, I discovered that I had left my keys inside the now locked house. I had neither a spare truck nor house key hidden outside and did not have a cell phone. What on earth was I going to do?

At that time, Mr. Incredible lived with his parents approximately 3 miles from my house. I glumly decided my only option was to walk to their house and hope that he hadn't left for church yet. (He was usually late for Sunday School.) I started walking - church clothes, high heels, and all. After about half a mile, the heels hurt my feet, and I took them off, walking barefoot on the warm asphalt. I had tough feet from running around barefoot (still do), and the asphalt hurt my feet less than did the heels.

After I had walked about a mile, a nice car (made me think of a Cadillac) pulled up, and an elderly lady asked where I was headed and offered me a ride. While a bit doubtful about accepting a ride from a stranger, her church attire, nicely coiffed hair, and spotless car reassured me that she wasn't a kidnapper or psychotic killer, and I gratefully accepted her offer. In about three minutes, she had dropped me off at Mr. Incredible's house. I thanked her, and she drove off. To my knowledge, I have never seen her again.

I rang the doorbell and was relieved when Mr. Incredible answered the door. He was understandably surprised to see me there. We rode to church together, and he informed me that I would have a spare key stashed outside for just such an emergency. Ever since then, I have always had the comfort of knowing that if I locked my keys in the house again, I would still have a way to get back inside.

Have you ever done something like this? (Actually, I'm pretty sure everyone has a story of their own they could tell.)

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh I can top this on two accounts. Ever been locked IN before? In college I lived in the top half of a house w/my girlfriend. One day she went to leave for class and discovered she couldn't get the deadbolt open. It had come loose from the door and was stuck in the lock position. There was no other door! We had no tools to get the lock out and no idea what to do. She called her prof...who laughed! We called a locksmith...who laughed! We called our landlord, well you get the picture. We discussed jumping out a window. We ended up just waiting a few hours for the locksmith. But man, we were feeling cooped up!! The second story is about our new doors. Like 2 weeks ago I went to shut the door behind me. Having forgot something I put my key in the lock and left it to re-lock on my way out. After re-locking it, I pulled the key out. The key and lock fell out. PIECES. Tiny springs and dots and metal shavings scattered everywhere!! The handle wouldn't turn!! I panicked. I had no idea how I was ever going to get back into the house! Both doors are new and previously the front one never opened due to paint and a lost key. Finally I realized I had a key for the front door and I wasn't really locked out. But I really didn't know where my son was going to nap for a minute! Ok, sorry for the long post, I just didn't want you to feel like you were the only one who had crazy things happen!