Chilly Hallowe’en

The day started pretty early as has been the recent trend. There was no big push to get going and to get out of bed so I didn’t. After the torrid pace I’d set this past week I was in the mood to relax. I had big plans for the day. I wanted to get the next load of laundry done, make a video for my playlist, cut the lawn and do roughly half of my work. I figured I’d be done the video by noon and then I could work a few hours and use the lawn as a reason for a break and get back to work after. The day went much differently. The video and breakfast intertwined as I made my breakfast burritos for the playlist. I used three different cameras so the editing took a bit longer. I do it all on my phone still but I’m getting a bit more precise each time. I had to go on the computer to change the thumbnail and by the time I’d finished learning and customizing it was two! I decided to cut the grass at this point since that was about when I visualized doing it anyways. I figured I’d have the laundry done by then but hadn’t started it. I grabbed my charged headphones and phone and did the lawn. I’ve gotten into the habit of using the keypad on the garage as my means of egress to the overall home and not bother with keys when doing yard work. I also tend to close the garage door when I’m in back of the house. Partly because someone stole my socket at and entirely because I don’t trust people anymore. I finished the lawn, cleaned the mower’s under carriage off and removed the dying petunias from the various planters. No use dragging out the existence of those failing annuals. I went back to open the garage and nothing. I tried a couple more times and nothing. Didn’t seem like the lights were illuminating the buttons or anything. I wasn’t sure what happened. I often will open the back door when outside in the yard as a backup. I had opened the screen but apparently, upon checking, hadn’t lifted the lock latch enough to unlock the door. No amount of jostling could free it up. I tried for too long. So the garage is inaccessible, apparently the keypad is run off a battery and not wired like I assumed. After more than eight years it finally died. The front door was never unlocked and the back door is not opening. I was completely locked out with no keys, no wallet, no mask. It was luckily I decided to bring my phone to listen to.

My spare key that is hidden on the property is in the garage. I never thought that the keypad would fail me like this. I had pinned all my hope on it working forever. My other spare was with the Chef. After trying to gently persuade all the doors, including prying the garage door with my gardening shears, I had to suck it up and call for help. I either needed the spare key or a new 9V battery and I wasn’t sure if changing the battery affected the code or not. If I’d known and had money and a mask I’d have walked to the nearest store. But I didn’t know and I had to risk ruining their holiday plans to get back into the house. It was getting colder by the minute and by this point I’d been outside for nearly two hours. It took him over an hour to call me back and when he did they dropped everything and started heading towards my rescue. It was going to take them another ninety minutes or so to get to me. He called back minutes later with suggestions to get in but I’d tried all those things and more. I decided to while away the time with podcasts and trying to warm the battery. Sometimes if you get a battery warm enough it can access a bit more power that wasn’t there in the cold. I alternatively rotated it from armpit to armpit and to my crotch. Those are the warmest points! This went on for about an hour and it was feeling warm. I put it on the contacts and quickly entered the code and sure enough, it opened. I called the Chef and he’d made it back to his place but no further thankfully. I felt bad for interrupting their plans like that but also happy that I have such a good friend who would drop everything in a heartbeat to help a friend in need. In the end I didn’t need the help but it’s good to know there are people who have your back. I’ve bailed a few folks out over the years myself like that but still feels good.

Once in the house I dressed warmer and had a long overdue lunch. It was about six when I finally got in and eating so I was outside for around four hours. Those were the hours I’d planned to do my work in so now I’d have to go extra hard tomorrow to catch-up. After eating and cleaning up it was nearly seven so I decided to descend. I crawled under my warmest blanket and turned on the Office. The next thing I knew it was after midnight. But I knew that the time changes so we’d fall back and gain an hour so I kept on. I didn’t realize that the time changed and it was actually 2:30am on the “new” time when I went to bed and not 1:30am like I expected. Oops, slight miscalculation. Like getting locked out of your own house on a brisk fall afternoon. On the bright side, the lawn looks a lot better.