January 6 STUPID me

Monday:  I received a text last night from Kelly asking if I could pick Cal up from his preschool at 3:00 today. Dylan had a scheduled video conference from 3-4:00, and she had clients until late afternoon. Yes! I could certainly find a way to squeeze little Cal into my extremely busy schedule (I am joking here)!

I have no pictures to show you the following hours, so this narrative will have to suffice. I picked Cal up at 3:00 and we drove to his house arriving at about 3:20. The temperature outside was in the low 20's, so I kept the car running with Cal strapped into his seat while I went to unlock the front door.

UNLOCK THE FRONT DOOR?

How on earth hard could that be?!?!? I'll tell you what--I have been UNABLE to unlock their front door for months on end! It hates me. Truly.

A few weeks ago, we discovered that someone at their house (perhaps Cal) had gotten into the habit of locking both locks on the front door. The bottom lock is kind of a weird lock with NO key. So, even if you have a key to the top lock you still cannot open the door. This proved to be the case several times in the last couple of weeks. Dylan, Kelly and I have talked about this problem and they have made a valiant effort to make sure that bottom lock is left UNlocked for me.

BUT ... when I tried to unlock the door, it did it's usual unopening routine for me. I went back to the heated car and explained the situation to Cal--who is surprisingly easy-going during these times of stress for me. He just smiled at me and reminded me that Brendan would be home soon and maybe he could get the door to open. Yes.

BUT ... when Brendan returned home at 3:30, he couldn't get the door to open either. I was so bummed. And I was angry too! The little kids wouldn't be home until 4:15 and we were stuck sitting in the car for 45 minutes waiting for them only to tell them we can't get in the house! Frustrating.

I sent a text to Dylan with my complaints about his front door. I wasn't very nice either (sadly). I requested that he come right home after his video conference was over.

Brendan and I got into the back seat of my warm car with Cal and I played cute animal videos off of YouTube (on my phone) while we waited. I couldn't get the sound to work, though. I later discovered (while driving home) it was because my phone and my car are "synced" together and for some reason, YouTube was playing through my car speakers (which were turned off).

Dylan drove up the driveway almost in sync with the little kids' bus dropping them off at the corner. Dylan had the garage door opener and everyone got inside the warm house. Whew.

Here's the kicker though:  I asked Dylan to demonstrate opening the locked front door for me, using my key--and ... VOILA' it opened right away for him. He twisted the key to the RIGHT. I had been turning the key to the LEFT; but in all fairness, I had tried turning it RIGHT quite a few times (not today). When I did, nothing happened at all. Turning the key to the left? At least the key TURNED in the lock and it sounded like it was UNLOCKING the door. So I didn't bother turning it to the RIGHT again. 

Humbling and humiliating that at 71 years I can't open a simple door with the correct key.

Thankfully, I have an understanding and merciful son! He really needed to stay longer at work to finish up some business and I guilted him into coming home immediately because I was too stupid to open the front door. I stayed and played with the kiddos for an hour, which did allow Dylan to "remotely" finish up some of his necessary work. I played one game of "Sleeping Queens" with Brendan and Erin, and then just Erin and I played a second game. Brendan won the game he played, and I won the second game. Erin was not pleased, but she recovered. I brought over my new Mo Willems book: "Don't let the Pigeon drive the Sleigh" which we read and laughed about too.