Mar 11 2008
Singular Thinking
I was visiting some neighbors a couple of nights ago and the phone rings.
Their phone always seems to be ringing. The wife usually answers. Now that I think about it, she has always answered the phone when I’ve come by.
She answers the phone. She begins to frown.
Unlike me, she and her husband seem to get a lot more telemarketer or “surveys” calls than I do. Since it was the dinner hour, I thought someone might be asking if she was willing to take a “short 10 minute survey.”
Yeah… I’m willing to take a survey in the middle of dinner. Not that we were having dinner. We were sipping red wine poured into massive glasses (”saves on all the trouble of refilling”).
My neighbor’s frown deepened. She says, “No. I am not Cindy.”
Pause.
“David?”
Pause.
“Oh! Of course!”
Pause.
“I’ve done that myself!”
Smile. Laughter.
“No problem!”
She punches a key on the phone.
She looks at me. “That was David! He locked himself out!”
David is another neighbor. Cindy is his wife.
She settles herself back into the couch, hitching up her legs and crossing them tailor-style.
“I do that all the time and then I have to call home so my husband can let me in.”
She reaches to get her glass of wine.
“Anyway, David thought he was calling Cindy from downstairs and he accidentally called me! Don’t you find our phone system confusing?”
Our complex uses an electronic key fob to unlock the front doors and a phone system to let guests in. The phone system has a small screen that doesn’t show any names, just unit numbers with a code that will ring a resident’s phone.
I reply, “I don’t find our system confusing. But then, I never have to use it myself.”
She looks puzzled.
I say, “I’ve never locked myself out.”
“Never?”
“I always make sure to have my key with me. I live alone. I don’t have anyone who can let me in.”
“Oh.”
There are big things in relationships and there are so many little things.
………………………………………….
Haha ah singleness…that’s definitely not what I expected from this post!
Derek: I found it interesting to learn that 2 of my married neighbors have locked themselves out. I wonder if any of my single ones have!
Of course, I am one of those organized/prepared types! I wish I were more organized (need to get some file boxes) but I am considered to be very organized by most people.
Yes, I have done my will and living trust thing and there are copies of both with a friend in another state. Just in case.
I think you fall under the category of a little anal retentive my dear. But, as you said, you have never locked yourself out. I have on several occasions and once when my husband was traveling. I had to crawl as far as I could into the pet door and reach up and unlock the door. Is that safe you ask? If I could do it, so could others. Not with the dog that we have – they would have run long before they got that far – he is a little scary…I digress – anyway, good for you!
I used to lock myself out of my apartment all the time, but I had nice neighbors and grumpy landlords and somebody had a key, always. Then I discovered carabiner clips and kept one on me at all times via a belt loop. Now that I’ve added a few more keys, I am adding to the visage of Janitor. hahaha.
Beth: Yes, I am A-R! It’s my response to my chaotic upbringing. My mom suffers from OCD and hoarder-cluttering and ADHD. When I was a kid, stuff was always lost, left behind or buried under something.
Sue: I have been locked out of my old apartment – the wind shut the door behind me – twice! That was fun. I was in my jammies both times. May write about those episodes some day. Or not.
Caribiner clips are cool.
I’ve become TOTALLY compulsive about my keys. I lose keys, lock myself out, lock keys in the trunk of my car so that I can’t leave the grocery store while milk swelters in the trunk along with my keys…
I have a long boring marriage story where my ex husband wouldn’t part with the $60 for a duplicate key for my car (my car was used & had only come with one key) & the kids ended up missing a day of school & me a day of work ’cause I couldn’t find the one key & didn’t have a spare. First thing I did after getting a divorce was…oh…wait…I think it was get a belly button ring. But the SECOND thing I did was get a spare key made to my car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Meanwhile I have a special hook in my purse where I keep my keys almost without fail if I am not home. If I am home I keep them in one of two places. OR if I’m trying to remember to bring food with me, sometimes I keep them in the fridge. :-0
LOL… I know what you mean. I don’t have any to rely on in case I leave my keys. Of course, it helps that I don’t have a slam lock.
Jill: I’ve rented a LOT of cars which got me in the habit of always keeping the keys in my hand and using keys to lock up (as opposed to counting on some auto-locking system). I have had the “must remember this…” when I’ve had my hands full and am putting things in the trunk and have to lay the keys down. Usually I try to put the keys in my pocket instead of IN the trunk!
UT: My front door has a slam lock (is that what it’s called?) which is why I am so careful. I also set the deadbolt. Prior to a few break-ins, my neighbors wouldn’t always set their deadbolts.
That’s exactly what its called. My previous home, to the one I have now, had a slam lock. You know I checked and double checked that I had my keys before I left.
We also had a front gate and they wouldn’t let you in until someone authorized you. Of course I was the first one in and last one out of the apartment so I would have been waiting a long time for someone to get me into the building.
I locked myself out recently. Fortuantely, my parents had a spare key. Unfortuantely, they live over an hour from where I work. So, I did the drive out to see them, borrow keys, make more, drive back to work thing. Not fun.
Of course, this was the one time I didn’t check to make sure I had my house key before I shut the door. At least I discovered it in the middle of the day, rather than after going home at night.
An apartment I used to live in had a gate with those remote gate openers. Every so often, something would happen and they’d have to clear them all out, and program them in again. Invariably, they would put the sign about this going on up the day of doing it, after I had left for work. Or else, Friday morning, that it was going on over the weekend, and I was gone for the weekend. So, I’d come back, and the gate wouldn’t open. The small gate for people on foot – locked usually, so I couldn’t get in.
I had to wait a couple of time for people coming or going.
Yeah, I only did the trunk thing once. It was ENOUGH!
UT: Learned something new! Cool.
Ack: I left a spare key with my mom. I also have a spare key in my condo’s rental offices. They are always having to check things like the fire sprinklers and after a while I got tired of leaving my keys in the office and then picking them up again and figgered the property office was a safe backup location!
Jill: some lessons you only have to learn once! Usually those lessons aren’t all that fun…unless you like nails in the eye (haven’t used that one in a while, may as well dredge it up again..)