Day 13 of Thanksgiving: November 13, 2011

I am writing this a day late because my weekend ended on a completely chaotic note.  I am thankful that we somehow managed to get in contact with a friendly, honest and efficient locksmith last night!

You know what they say about hindsight, right?  Let me tell you, if you don't have a key to your house somewhere outside (or with a neighbor or family), DO IT NOW!!  We went out to eat last night and when we came home, the garage door wouldn't open.  We have an automatic garage door opener, and we could hear the motor running but the door wouldn't budge.   I didn't have my keys because hubby drove, and hubby left his key ring in the house (his new truck has one of those crazy new keys that's not really a key, so he didn't have a house key with him).

This happened to me once before - I came home in the midst of a violent thunderstorm and the power was out - therefore no electric door opener.  Luckily I did have a house key on my car key ring, so I was able to get in the house that way.  Even though we have the passcode keypad for the garage, I usually always bring my keys (even if someone else drives).... just in case.  I didn't even think about it last night, though, because I never bring keys when hubby drives - he has his own keys!!!

We tried every key my father-in-law and brother-in-law had, and none of them were our spare.  Of course all of our windows were locked, too, so we had no way in.  Thankfully before hubby gave in to his urge to kick in the door or break a window, I suggested we call a locksmith.  That's not as simple as it sounds.  The first one we called, which said on their web site "Serving Abilene, TX" (hence the name Abilene Locksmith) told hubby they no longer serve Texas.  Huh?  The second one, Pop A Lock, which lists under services on their web site "Residential lockouts", told hubby they don't do residential.  People, there is obviously a boatload of false advertising online.  Thankfully the Pop a Lock people gave hubby another number.  This guy a) answered his phone on a Sunday night, b) came right out to do a RESIDENTIAL lockout, and c) only charged us $65.

All's well that ends well and we got back into our house in under two hours after we initially got home.  On a positive note, the garage door mechanism had not crashed down onto my car.  Unfortunately, the thing is kaput and we'll have to replace it.