Going out the back door.

Pa, Ma and Jon left very early today to go to the Veterans' Hospital in Quezon City. This will be the first time I would be locking the house before I leave since the front door lock was changed ... as there's always someone left in the house lately whenever I go out.

So, I dutifully locked the bedroom doors, the kitchen doors, the lanai door, and the terrace doors. When I was already at the main door, where a key is needed to lock it (no push button lock here), I realized that my key gets stuck when turn to lock it, and the only way I could pull the key out is when I have unlocked the door. After repeated attempts, I gave up.

As it was getting late, I was tempted to just leave the front door open and walk out the gate. The cautious person in me shot that idea down. I had to leave by the Terrace whose door and grill I could easily lock. Initially meant to leave by the side gate too, but after looking at all the possible places, I couldn't find a key to that gate. The only alternative was going out to the terrace, passing through the grotto gate that separates the dogs Harry and Heidi, and leaving through the main gate.

As Harry has been "after" Heidi for some time, allowing them to be together is out of the question if we don't want to be feeding puppies after a few months. Passing through the grotto gate is near impossible if Harry is nearby because he has never learned how to "stay" or "sit". So, I had to persuade him to enter his house and lock him there first. Locking Harry meant that the part of the house near 3rd street has no guard dog. I decided to keep the grotto gate open so Heidi's roaming space will include the 3rd street side. With the dog problem solved, I was finally off to work.

Need I say I was late?

When I got home, I told Ma that my front door key is not working well. It turns out that although it is not a good duplicate key, I could still use it applying the technique she showed me.

Lesson? Next time someone hands me a key, I should immediately test if it works.