*Latchkey Adult*
I was never a latchkey kid. My mom was a stay-at-home mom. But when I went out on my own, I soon found I needed to be a latchkey adult. I seemed to follow a pattern of locking myself out of my house at irregular intervals. Once, while I was very skimpily clad.
Not 5 minutes before writing this, one of the dogs needed to go out. Not one to open the door and let them out by themselves, I went out with them. My front door faces north and currently, there is a stiff, slightly misting breeze coming out of the North. The door didn't want to close and I had to pull it tight twice before it latched.
I walked with the dogs to the driveway, watched while they took care of business, looked around for my horse, then called to the dogs to come back in. After walking up the ramp, I reached for the door knob and it wouldn't turn! It had locked. Not sure how that happened. Normally my front door only locks with a key on the outside or from inside. A loose mechanism, perhaps.
This is exactly the reason why I keep my house key on a chain around my neck - always. It goes in the shower with me, when swimming, dressed up or dressed down - that key remains around my neck. Had it not been for that key, I would have had to use tools to get into the house. My tools are in my locked garage.
Tools do not fair well in Florida with the high humidity here. It is pointless to leave such things on the porch for a lockout. By the time I may need them - they would have rusted over and been nearly useless for the task.
A key worn on a chain around my neck spares me the trouble (and embarrassment) of hiking to a neighbor's place to see if they had any tools I could use - if they were even home. This may not seem like much in the way of preps, but it saves me every time I have an unfortunate run in with Murphy's Law.
It pays to be a latchkey adult. And it's one of the easiest ways to start "being prepared."
AFarmer
www.alpharubicon.com
All materials at this site not otherwise credited are Copyright © 1996 - 2005 Trip Williams. All rights reserved. May be reproduced for personal use only. Use of any material contained herein is subject to stated terms or written permission.