lock out: x3
Un.believe.able.
I know I’ve been saying that a lot lately but, man, today kinda sucked. I was locked out of things three times today. The day’s not even over yet, I wouldn’t be surprised for it to happen again, knowing my luck!!
one.
It was this morning and I was getting ready to shower. Elijah was being, well, a butt, so I told him he was going to have to take a “nap” while I showered rather than being free range. So the second I’m not looking, he thinks it would be an awesome idea to lock his door and close it so that he can use the excuse “but my door’s locked.”
My first response was, “no it’s not, keep trying,” because the door knob has been known to stick and not turn. But then he gets the butter knife and so I went to look at it. Yup, it’s locked. Tried the little flathead screwdriver in the hole on the end. Nothing.
Finally, giving up on that, I realize I have to take the door knob off. So I get a bigger screwdriver. I’m getting more frustrated the whole time because (well, first, I can’t find a bigger screwdriver) the stupid things keeps slipping and it’s taking me forever to get anywhere.
Nearly the whole time, too, Elijah’s over on the couch crying, “I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean to!” Yeah, like you didn’t mean to poke the dog with a fork last night…
So, anyway, I finally get the door knob off after many moons of messing with the dang thing but the other side is still on. That takes a bit to knock it off. It’s still locked, the little piece inside refuses to let go. It takes me about two minutes of messing with that to finally get the stupid door open.
At this point, I also must admit that there was a second where I lost all control and slammed the screwdriver into the door. I’m actually surprised that it didn’t leave a bigger mark than it did. I immediately felt stupid, that’s not me (I make fun of people who hit things in anger), but what’s done is done.
two.
I order Elijah to the bathroom then to lay in his bed and be quiet while I take a shower and get dressed. He actually obeys me, at least for then. I get dressed and let him up and we’re getting ready to go. “Go put your sandals on,” I say.
Seconds later, he’s yelling. He’s locked himself inside his room!
This time it took me even longer to do that third piece of getting the door open. I would have been considering taking the hinges out, but they’re on the inside, too.
Of course, he’s in there crying that he’s stuck in his room and he wants to go to grandma’s. Furthermore, his sandals were in the living room the whole time.
three.
So it was up to my mom’s for a little mini-graduation celebration for my sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law (N). Er, mini on the part of the celebration, not the graduation. That was nice, we had a little meal with some of his family there, too, talked, yada yada. After all the others left, it was time for me to get ready to go.
I saw it was starting to rain and since it had been nice when I’d gotten there, every one of my windows and my sunroof were open. So I hurried Elijah up and we started out the door. Only he ran ahead of me and was opening the driver’s side door before I got there. “What are you doing?!” I called, “Come give your grandma a hug and kiss.” So he turned around and headed back to the house (dancing in the rain all the way).
I got to the Jeep, put my purse on the passenger’s seat, put the key in, turned it slightly (didn’t start it up), then put all the windows up, closed the sunroof, and… shut the door. Normally I would, at that point, leave the door hanging open since I was going to be turning around and getting right in after Elijah returned. But because it was raining, I closed it. And in that last split second before it closed, I realized the doors were locked.
I actually screamed, “Nooooo!!”
I could see right there that all doors were locked, despite my, as is typical, unlocking them all with the remote unlock key as I was walking up. Elijah, when standing there at my door, had simply pushed down the button and locked them all in one swift move. And, of course, all the windows were up!
The last time I locked my keys in my car I was in my first year of college. Before that I was in high school. And both times the windows, at least one window, was open just barely enough for someone to reach in and unlock the door.
I wasn’t so lucky this time.
Oh, and remember when I said I turned the key forward? Yeah, that’s where it still was, the radio was playing.
And, apparently, asking Elijah “why did you lock the doors?” translates to “please, show us how you’d scream if you stepped in a bear trap.”
My dad and N got started almost immediately, trying to get it unlocked. They tried on several separate occasions while the rain started coming heavier and heavier. By the time they finally gave up, they were soaked.
In the meantime, we went over a few scenarios. My house is 40 miles from there. Should someone drive me home, get Steve’s keys and return? Or should we wait for Steve to get home from work, then have him come up? My in-laws’ couldn’t help, they were another additional hour away from my house at the moment. I called the dealership where we leased the blasted thing from, all their mechanics were gone for the weekend. Finally my mom starts looking up locksmiths and sees someone familiar in there.
Apparently, the father of my brother’s friend (the guy who was his best man) and the friend, do a business where they tow and such. I didn’t know this at all but apparently my family has used them many times in the last years for towing and repair. They were also listed under locksmiths.
So he came out and saved me. Who’d have thought, when I first met him when I was in the 6th grade and he in the 3rd that he’d be unlocking my Jeep for me more than ten years later, haha. It took him all of two seconds, too, it was awesome. They also were going to do it for me half price. However, with our insurance and such, we’re still going to submit to them so that they can get all their money they normally get for that. Our insurance should cover it but if they don’t or they are going to give us a price increase, I’ll just send them the rest of the money myself.
So there it was, #3. And after nearly an hour of all this, I was glad that my battery was still fine. No dead battery, very nice. That just would have been insult to injury. Er, injury to insult. Or something.
Of course, too, while all this was going on, everyone’s trying to give me advice. Stupid stuff, like, never leave your keys in the ignition. Well, duh. Like I said before, normally the door would have been hanging open but this was just a one time out of hundreds that this has happened. Not to mention that Elijah’s not usually in my door like that. Dad told me always to carry a spare key… between my teeth and gums. Yeah, dad, okay, because I really need help getting cavities. Mom suggested a magnetic key holder to put under the Jeep. Yeahhhh. They act like I do this every day. :P
