Locked out

Last evening as I was putting on my coat and leashing Jordan for her evening walk, Spouse called out from the TV room "Take your keys."

"I'm just taking her for a short walk. Don't lock the door." I replied.

"I might lock it out of habit. Better take your keys." he urged.

"Spouse, you're walking out the door 3 minutes after I do. How could you 'forget' and lock the door out of habit? Don't lock the door!" I repeated.

Then I suddenly remembered having spoken with our neighbor Claudia earlier in the day, and began telling Spouse about her son's house burning down and his family losing all their possessions, just a week before Christmas. Spouse recalled reading something about a similar incident and we tried to piece together whether or not the two incidents were actually one in the same. Meanwhile, Jordan was barking and pacing, eager to go for her walk.

"Alright girl, let's go" I said as I walked out the door, forgetting to pull my keys off the key holder. A minute or two later Spouse left the house for his personal trainer appointment. He should have seen my keys hanging on the key holder when he picked his keys off of it. There are 4 hooks and 4 sets of keys. He should have easily seen that all keys were present and realized I did not have mine with me.

But, presumably "out of habit", Spouse locked the door when he left the house. I couldn't believe it. Had the weather been moderate, I'd have simply stayed outdoors with Jordan until he returned an hour and 1/2 later. But it was barely 30 degrees and I didn't want to presume that my neighbors would let us "crash" for a while until Spouse got back.

So I tethered Jordan to one of the rocking chairs on the porch and went to our neighbor Brenda's to use the phone. I called the gym where we both go for personal training and Spouse had just walked in the door. (All those years working at the phone company left me with an uncanny ability to remember phone numbers, even ones I don't use often.) We spoke briefly and he agreed to return to the house to let me and Jordan in, forfeiting his personal training appointment.

He was a little angry about having to miss his appointment, especially after having already driven 20 minutes to get there. But his anger was tempered by the knowledge that I had told him - not once, but - twice not to lock the door, so he was civil the rest of the night. Later Rick called and offered Spouse a vacant slot this evening. He'd just had a cancellation due to illness. Spouse gratefully accepted.

We've agreed to do the same thing here that we did when we lived in VA: hide a spare key outside, and give another spare to a neighbor.

Drag Queen name of the day: Cheyenne D'Mure