Today the office was open with liberal leave and I worked from home again. My hubby started digging our cars out and I helped him out during lunch and after the workday was over. At the end of the afternoon both cars were freed from the snow and ice. Did a quick inventory of the food supplies and made a shopping list for my hubby who had offered to take care of replenishing the groceries. Nothing extraordinary until the s**t hit the fan in spectacular fashion.
A little over a year ago we replaced the front door of our house with a energy efficient (and draft free) door and decided to go keyless: We got a all in one lock and deadbolt keypad technology marvel. No key! Well not unless you count the little override gizmo that came with the lock. No key is cool... no keys is awesome, no fumbling for keys when you get home arms loaded with laptop bag, groceries or say your 3-year old kid kicking and screaming because she doesn't want to go home... See where I'm going ?
As my hubby was leaving to go to the store I went out without a coat to grab some soft drinks from the trunk of my car since I was going to get right back inside. The hubby locked the door behind him out of habit. Kid is watching a movie in the living room. I grab the drinks, turn around, get to the door, punch the code and push the handle, the door doesn't unlock. No matter i thought, this happened a couple of times, I'll reset the lock position and punch my code again. And again. And again. Try 5, I'm getting nervous. Hubby has been gone a few minutes only, I grab my cell phone out of my pocket and call him. Voicemail ! Ack!
Miracle though: I look around and notice my hubby got stuck on the unusually narrow access road by another car trying to do a U-Turn. I know he's got the override gizmo on his key ring. I just got to get to him before he gets un-stuck. So I walk as fast as I can on the ice/snow/slush mix that the parking lot/access road is covered with. Thankfully, hubby sees me and wait for me, hands me his keys and drives off. I turn around, get the the front door, try the keypad once more for good measure ... still nothing. Time to override the lock. I stick the gizmo in there, turn it, push the handle down. Nothing. Now my daughter is on the other side of the door calling me. PANIC MODE ! My 3-year old is locked inside the house and I'm locked out on the front porch, with 25F out and no coat. Not good at all.
Maybe I'm not maneuvering the gizmo properly. After all it's the first time I had to use it. Cell phone, call the hubby again. Voicemail. Wait 2 minutes. Voicemail again. Now I'm starting to suspect he left the house without his phone. Wouldn't be the first time *sigh*. Little voice behind the door "Mama". Breathe in. Keep cool. What to do next ? Thanking myself for insisting on getting an iPhone, I lookup the lock's manufacturer on the internet and call them. I quickly explain the situation and tell them I'm not able to open the lock with the keypad or the override tool. They walk me through a couple of procedures - no luck. The lock is totally jammed! PAAAAAAAANIIIICCCCC!!!!!!!!! I've been out there almost 20 minutes now! I'm not really noticing the cold though. The guy on the phone tells me I should break a window to get in then board it up with plywood for the night. Woot! It's below freezing and the temperature will dip under 15F overnight (Did I mention the manufacturer is in California - duh). This is NOT an acceptable solution.
My next door neighbor, Al, who is out shoveling and happens to be a policeman notices something is not quite right. He walks up to me and while still on the phone with the lock's manufacturer who is telling me there is yet another way to open the lock other but a locksmith has to do it, I quickly explain the situation to Al. I need a locksmith NOW. Al runs back to his house to lookup one. "Mamaaaaa!"
Now is the time to explain a very import detail. We are a bilingual household. My mother tongue is French and I speak exclusively French to my daughter. So she is learning French and English at the same time. Side effect: she speaks both at the level of a 2-year old rather than a 3-year old. Communication is a daily challenge. I'm not too sure of how much she actually understands versus what the figures out by context. As it turns out, my kid is much smarter than I give her credit for. And I know she is very smart.
So I'm there on one side of the door, and she is on the other side. Suddenly I think kitchen window... it's on the front of the house, no matter the heaps of snow in the front yard. I can get there. And if I can get my daughter in front of the window maybe I can get her to open it. There I am in front of the window, calling my daughter and knocking. And she gets to the window. "MAAAMAAA!!!". As calmly as I can, I show her the window latch and tell her to open. She understands the idea and started pulling on the latch. Halfway. I insist on it, showing her again that she needs to lift the lever all the way up. At last the latch is open!. Now I got to get the window screen out of the way. Too tight a fit to do it without damage. Well too bad for the screen. I grab my husband's key ring and tear the screen open, at last I have enough grip to yank it out of the frame, And I'm now able to slide the window open. All I have to figure out is how to get in. It's kinda high up and narrow, and there is all this snow in the way.
Al is back from next door. Gotta love a 6-foot tall neighbor that is in the force and in shape. For Al, climbing there is no challenge. He give me a leg up and my baby girl can sob in my arms.. and I can break down too. Al is the best! Al rocks!! I'm finally feeling the cold. 45 minutes. I'm exhausted. It's over. Well almost. I call back the lock's manufacturer. He's overnighting a replacement of a newer model. As I hang up with the guy, my hubby walks in. Now I can melt down. I didn't cook diner. We ordered pizza. Al and my baby girl are the best :)
Al, the hero of the day
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