You can take all the precautions in the world. . .

We've had a week straight of 98-100 degree weather. Today is "only" 95. The difference isn't all that noticeable, but I'm still thankful for it!

I tortured myself today by looking up the temperature in East Glacier. The high was 46. 46 degrees! I would be in heaven. Their warmest day this coming week will be 58 degrees. Oh, what I would give to go back to Montana!!

Yesterday was a 99 degree day, which made what happened even worse.

I got locked out of the house.



The reason that is SO irritating to me is that I am obsessive about not locking myself out. Every time I walk the dogs, I triple check the knob before I close the door, and I carry my cell phone and keys just in case. I do this because we've been travel nursing for three years, and if I lock myself out on the road, I'm in trouble. It's next to impossible to get in touch with Brandon when he is in the ER, and we never have friends or family around with a back up key.

So how did I lock myself out, despite my obsessive precautions?

The stupid lock broke.

I had been in town running errands (finally got the TMO paperwork faxed!) and came home during the hottest part of the day. I was driving our second vehicle, which doesn't have AC, so I was literally dripping sweat by the time I got home. I couldn't wait to walk into my air conditioned house and down a tall glass of ice water.

I put the key in the deadbolt, turned it, heard the lock switch. . . then nothing. The key wouldn't move. I couldn't pull it out of the lock. I couldn't turn the lock either way. The deadbolt was unlocked, but the lower lock wasn't, so I couldn't open the door. The dogs could hear me and started crying and trying to get to me, which stressed me out even more. I yanked and yanked on the key and couldn't get anywhere. . . and the sweatier my hands got, the harder it was to get a grip on the metal, so I had to pull up my shirt and use it to hold onto the key. Eventually, I started trying to pick my lock with a hairpin-- I mean, it does work on tv, right? Oh, it was bad. I'm just hoping none of the neighbors were witnessing this.

Thankfully, I had my cell phone (seriously, what did we do in the days before cell phones?!) and my parents live just down the road, so my Dad came to the rescue with his tool box. Now I just have to get the deadbolt repaired. It locks properly from the inside-- you just can't unlock it from the outside.

I guess the positive note in all of this (other than the fact that my Dad was home from work, and I only had to spend a few extra minutes in the heat), is that I now get to learn how to remove a deadbolt. The last time Brandon was out of town, I got into his tool kit and did all sorts of interesting and new-to-me home repairs. He about had a heart attack when he called and heard me using his electric saw. At least this won't require power tools!