The Key factor

Now, anybody can tell you there are some key factors to success. What they don’t tell you is that you also need a lock that works. Any key is useless otherwise!


Yesterday the lock on our bathroom door got jammed, with daughter on the inside of the door. I was sitting peacefully in the living room, finally catching up on my bindings, when I heard this thumping sound. Hmmmm? I found the source when she started calling for help. Now, I am of the liberated, self sufficient generation of women who are used to do almost everything themselves, so I did not panic. I got my tool kit, picked a screwdriver and ran around the house to climb in to help her. Wait a minute! It might be a bad idea both of us getting stuck in there. Maybe it’s better to give it to daughter through the window, and do this sort of by remote control? Great idea, wrong screwdriver. Back inside. It was raining heavily, so I had to take off and put on shoes and a rain jacket every time I went inside or outside. Again and again and again.

We finally got the thingie that is outside the key hole off, and I could see where the lock was jammed. Well, in my world, sewing machine oil is good for things that are stuck, so the lock got oiled but it still would not budge. There was no way we could get the door open or off the hinges, so we had to get her out through the window. Well, that was fun! The bathroom is fortunately on the ground level, but still around 7’ up on the wall on the outside. We have triple glazed windows in our house so they are heavvvvy! Thank goodness I have been working out; otherwise I would not have been able to hold it up the long time it took her to climb out. Luckily she is on the slender side!

Waiting for a locksmith to call me back, my knight in shining armour (AKA husband) came home to try to fix the lock. Getting him inside through the bathroom window, was however not an easy task. He’s 6’ 7” and not so much on the slender side. With the help from my fabulous toned arms holding the window (again), he finally made it inside, turned the key, and opened the door…

Seems like the oil did its job after all; it just took some time. We now have a new lock on our bathroom door.