So, Katie and I have been walking quite a bit lately. We've gone every day this week, sometimes in the evening and always in the morning. Fall mornings in Franklin are cliché: bright, crisp, and still. It's seriously something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. We love it. Of course, it's ridiculous (for us) to try to get up early enough to get a walk in, fix a quick breakfast and coffee, and for her to get to work on time. But I have to say, we've done a pretty good job of it. So far.
We had a revelation a few weeks ago that any day we walk in the morning, we are totally alert and energetic for most of the day. I would hardly call what we do "exercise," but it definitely gets the blood flowing. Now there's a phrase that makes no sense to me: "gets the blood flowing"--as if our blood has been sitting in our veins motionless throughout the night. I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure one of the bedrocks of biology is that our blood is always moving. But again, I'm no doctor.
I was the first one up this morning and put on my warmest approximation of "active" clothing (does H&M have an outdoor line?) and opened the front door. Frost. Uh-oh. This won't be pretty. Katie and I have very different temperature tolerances. I have a bit more of a laissez-faire relationship with weather and temperature. My beloved, however--any sudden change in temperature has some sort of effect on her brain where she feels like she's being either broiled or cryogenically frozen, depending upon the up or down movement of the mercury. I'm not saying she's overreacting but that her brain actually triggers her fight-or-flight mechanism. In warmer climes, she's been known to stand up and strip down to the bare necessities in a blink leaving behind a small pile of clothing on the floor as if the rapture has occurred. And in colder times, she can simultaneously ball herself up and pull a blanket across her, perfectly tucked, faster than santa eats cookies.
Knowing this, and seeing the frost, I knew I needed to start scraping off the icy residue from her windsheild. Since I'm an awesome husband, I did this without provocation or bribery. But since I'm an idiot, I did this without mentioning it. She proceeds to walk out after me, door locked behind her and says, "you've got a key, right?" Uh, no.
At 29 degrees, the Rockwellian fall morning became a frozen circle of hell as we looked around the house for an unlocked window or anything to jimmy the door with. Since the attempted break-in, though, we've been vigilant to make sure all the windows stay locked and have put extra measures in place to keep things locked tight. It's funny how in only 90 seconds I let panic start setting in. I began imagining that we may never get back in the house, that we'd freeze to death sitting comfortably in our rocking chairs on our porch. They'd make a Lifetime movie about us--the moronic couple that froze to death instead of breaking a window to get back inside. Then I remembered our landlord only lives a few blocks away and the panic subsided.
About then a friendly neighbor came outside on his way to work and saw us wandering aimlessly in the middle of the street. It's funny, the things you do when you don't know what to do. We looked like people who mindlessly meander while talking on their cellphone, except we didn't have any gadgets up to our ears. It was a confusing feeling. What do we do? Where do we go? Starbucks? Our neighbor Chuck thought we were in the beginning stages of hyperfrost-induced dementia and invited us in for coffee. As the feeling came back into our faces and other extremeties, we explained our situation and asked if he had a gift card or library card, if so we could get into our front door. He let us borrow his Kroger card.
I love Kroger cards.
Big savings and unlocks our door.
(rw)
It's WATERCOOLER WEDNESDAY time
I've got Def Leppard stuck in my head now (blog title.)
Hope you're well, my friend.
Posted by: Thom | November 01, 2008 at 05:25 PM
First time I've heard of a Kroger card being used in that way.
Posted by: AmandaT | October 29, 2008 at 11:23 PM
The frigid, sub-zero temperatures are typical of what we experience here in Canada 9 out of 12 months, it seems. Who needs coffee with *that* kind of jolt every morning!!
Remember the pine and spruce scented air you had in Moncton? That's only because it was September... Right now, a mere 6 weeks later, everything is frozen solid, there is no scent... or if there was, your nose would be so full of frost, you would find it almost impossible to inhale with it!
DH is leaving for California for the entire month of November for work, while the kids and I will stay here and shiver all by ourselves. I will make a mental note NOT to lock my keys in my car!! Our house has one of those nifty keypad locks... Invest the $140, they're SO worth it!! NO KEYS!!!!
Posted by: JD | October 29, 2008 at 06:13 PM
A wonderful Christmas idea for your bride- HIDE A KEY! I thought it was a marvelous idea until I realized I do not have a house key to my very own house....GO FIGURE....
Posted by: Amy Michel | October 29, 2008 at 03:02 PM
this is so funny, I just locked myself out of my house this morning leaving for work, as soon as I pulled the door shut I let out a oh crap, I don't have my keys, looking around panic set in thinking I don't have any spares nor my car keys and no one else has them, plus it's freezing out.. so $69.06 later they opened up the front door and I was in! it's funny you pay someone to break in and it's so easy, I'm thinking I need some locksmith tools!
Posted by: Keri | October 29, 2008 at 10:29 AM
Just like college laundry cards....good for keeping your clothes clean AND breaking into your roommate's bathroom to use her shower when yours decides to spontaneously combust in the middle of the night on a weekend when maintenance is off duty. Man I miss college! :p
Posted by: Kelly W | October 29, 2008 at 10:05 AM