That's enough adventure for one day
Jan. 21st, 2011 02:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve11Temperature outside: 20F (-6.6C) and mostly sunny.
Six inches of newly fallen snow on the ground.
12:15pm
Cue me taking 30 seconds out of my work-from-home day to take out the garbage, in my t-shirt, flannel pj pants and duck boots hastily thrown on with no socks. Cue me being an idiot and not double-checking the lock on the door when I went out. Yeah. That was unpleasant.
I went to go back in and the door was locked. No keys, no phone, no jacket, hat or gloves, nothing. Assets: whatever was in the unlocked garage (with a heated workshop, thank goodness), and my unlocked car.
Plan A: Call for help. Went up the street to my neighbor's (the only house in sight and within a quarter mile) to see if they were home to ask them to use their phone and call D and come rescue me. Knocked on the door and endured loud barking from their massive St.Bernard staring me down from the other side of the door. They weren't home. It was windy and a bit chilly on the road. I was cold and this was a bust.
Plan B: Break in (hopefully without breaking anything). From the last time I did this (yes, sadly I have done this more than once, though last time if I recall I at least was dressed for it), I know that I have still not put the screws back in to one side of the outer basement door to firmly affix it to the concrete steps. This means that while the red pull-out doors themselves are bolted shut from the inside, the entire rack (metal doors and frame) can be levered up from the concrete and I can slip inside. Last time I did this there was not 6 inches of snow and ice all over it though, and I was better dressed.
I search the garage for warm clothes and find a craftsman quilted jacket D left on his motorcycle seat (yay) that is covered in stinkbug carcasses (boo). I brush off the jacket and put it on. Find some work gloves in the workshop (yay) that I also need to divest of stinkbug carcasses (inside the fingers! boo!). Put them on.
Grab the snow shovel from the porch and start clearing off the outer basement doors. Remove an iced over grill cover (also covered in dead stinkbugs, woohoo! I love living in the woods!) and experimented with levering up the basement doors. I can lift them up 2 feet or so which is great because last time I did this I remember having to shimmy in with less space.
So I lever up the doors and prop them up with a chair from the patio. I am extra cautious in this step and double check everything before attempting this entry, because no-one can see me from the road and if I hurt myself or knock myself out in this attempt to slip into the basement, I will have no hope of discovery until about 4 or 5 hours later when D gets home, unless he happens to check the security cameras via his phone.
Slip into the basement successfully! There is a 6-foot snakeskin on the concrete steps (O.o yay, woods), and I have to muscle the large insulation foamboard away from the doorway in the basement to get in, but I succeeded! Have since showered (ugh, stinkbug smell, also I had just emptied the catbox before taking out the garbage) and sent D a message saying "If you do check the security cameras and see me locking myself outside, don't worry; I got back in."
Total time locked out: Approximately 20 minutes? Not too long, anyway, thank goodness.
If Plan B didn't work, Plan C was to flag down a passing car (they do come by about every 5 minutes or so despite it being a rural road), use their cell phone to call D, and then wait in the garage until he came to let me back in. Rather glad it didn't come to that though.
Lesson Learned: We really should make another key set and hide it somewhere outside. While the basement entry method is proven, it is risky. Either basement entry or a hidden key would make a vulnerable entry point for true intruders, but we know from experience that if someone wants to break in they will just break our door down or probably break a window.
Also I should not be a complete idiot and should double check the door before I close it behind me when I'm in my PJs in the dead of winter. I don't know why I thought it was unlocked. *headdesk*
Six inches of newly fallen snow on the ground.
12:15pm
Cue me taking 30 seconds out of my work-from-home day to take out the garbage, in my t-shirt, flannel pj pants and duck boots hastily thrown on with no socks. Cue me being an idiot and not double-checking the lock on the door when I went out. Yeah. That was unpleasant.
I went to go back in and the door was locked. No keys, no phone, no jacket, hat or gloves, nothing. Assets: whatever was in the unlocked garage (with a heated workshop, thank goodness), and my unlocked car.
Plan A: Call for help. Went up the street to my neighbor's (the only house in sight and within a quarter mile) to see if they were home to ask them to use their phone and call D and come rescue me. Knocked on the door and endured loud barking from their massive St.Bernard staring me down from the other side of the door. They weren't home. It was windy and a bit chilly on the road. I was cold and this was a bust.
Plan B: Break in (hopefully without breaking anything). From the last time I did this (yes, sadly I have done this more than once, though last time if I recall I at least was dressed for it), I know that I have still not put the screws back in to one side of the outer basement door to firmly affix it to the concrete steps. This means that while the red pull-out doors themselves are bolted shut from the inside, the entire rack (metal doors and frame) can be levered up from the concrete and I can slip inside. Last time I did this there was not 6 inches of snow and ice all over it though, and I was better dressed.
I search the garage for warm clothes and find a craftsman quilted jacket D left on his motorcycle seat (yay) that is covered in stinkbug carcasses (boo). I brush off the jacket and put it on. Find some work gloves in the workshop (yay) that I also need to divest of stinkbug carcasses (inside the fingers! boo!). Put them on.
Grab the snow shovel from the porch and start clearing off the outer basement doors. Remove an iced over grill cover (also covered in dead stinkbugs, woohoo! I love living in the woods!) and experimented with levering up the basement doors. I can lift them up 2 feet or so which is great because last time I did this I remember having to shimmy in with less space.
So I lever up the doors and prop them up with a chair from the patio. I am extra cautious in this step and double check everything before attempting this entry, because no-one can see me from the road and if I hurt myself or knock myself out in this attempt to slip into the basement, I will have no hope of discovery until about 4 or 5 hours later when D gets home, unless he happens to check the security cameras via his phone.
Slip into the basement successfully! There is a 6-foot snakeskin on the concrete steps (O.o yay, woods), and I have to muscle the large insulation foamboard away from the doorway in the basement to get in, but I succeeded! Have since showered (ugh, stinkbug smell, also I had just emptied the catbox before taking out the garbage) and sent D a message saying "If you do check the security cameras and see me locking myself outside, don't worry; I got back in."
Total time locked out: Approximately 20 minutes? Not too long, anyway, thank goodness.
If Plan B didn't work, Plan C was to flag down a passing car (they do come by about every 5 minutes or so despite it being a rural road), use their cell phone to call D, and then wait in the garage until he came to let me back in. Rather glad it didn't come to that though.
Lesson Learned: We really should make another key set and hide it somewhere outside. While the basement entry method is proven, it is risky. Either basement entry or a hidden key would make a vulnerable entry point for true intruders, but we know from experience that if someone wants to break in they will just break our door down or probably break a window.
Also I should not be a complete idiot and should double check the door before I close it behind me when I'm in my PJs in the dead of winter. I don't know why I thought it was unlocked. *headdesk*
