Outsmarted By A Dog

I locked myself out of my house tonight.

Well, okay. I didn't lock myself out, per se. My dog locked me out, when I went to take out some cans for recycling. She jumped up on the door to see just what I was doing outside, and in doing so shut the door. And I was locked out.

My friend has a key. But my phone was inside, and I don't know anyone's number - they're all stored in my phone. Not super helpful in emergencies like this.

So being locked out, I started thinking about the best way to get back in. My first thought was property damage (natch). So I tried to kick down - yes, I just said I tried to kick down - our back door. We live in an old house, and I would like to report to you that those old wooden doors are actually pretty damn sturdy. The plaster around the doorframe, not so much. But no dice. So then I tried to put a brick through a pane of glass in the door. After all, replacing one measly pane of glass is a lot cheaper than replacing a whole door, right? Well, the glass is also pretty sturdy.

I finally did what should have been my first step - went next door and called Speedy. He had the brilliant idea (which is why I should have called him first) to use my neighbor's ladder, climb onto our porch overhang, and go in through an upstairs window. Fortunately for me and my non-handy self, cooler heads prevailed and my neighbor suggested I go out his window to get to mine (we live in a twin). So he and I are standing on our porch overhangs, basically breaking into my house. Fortunately, this time it worked, and even more fortunately, no police cars drove by as we were doing it. Of course, I had to push my dog back inside when she jumped up on the upstairs window to see what was going on and why I was outside.

So in the end, all is well, I am inside before it gets really cold tonight, and property damage is minimal. All in a recovery day's work.