A New Bloom

It wasn’t funny. At least not at first.What had happened was, about two years ago, the lock mechanism on one of the doors in my house had decided to give up. Turn the knob and the thing that goes into the wall part stayed there. Solution? Duct tape, of course.Duct tape was used to secure the thing inside the door and the deadbolt was then used to lock up. Easy-peasy.Until the duct tape got tired. And then ran out, as in no more duct tape in the house. So paper tape, then electrical tape was employed.But today — epiphany! I decided to dismantle the knob and remove the offending piece of hardware. Everything was going along swimmingly, until I let the door close all the way before having removed the hardware in question; the door closed and I couldn’t open it (remember — turning the knob had no effect). At this point, I went outside, round the back, unlocked the side door to gain entry to the opposite side of the door (at which point I discovered a secret food storage spot for a spider … but I digress. Because I was grossed out. Anyway …), and proceeded to fight with the door from another angle.Since I’m writing this, you can rest assured of the following:

• I managed to get the pokey hardware thing opened,
• gained entry to the house through the door (this time I turned the deadbolt so it couldn’t shut all the way),
• took all of the components apart, and
• replaced the doorknob (that is now there for aesthetic purposes).

The layers of duct, paper, and electrical tape that had been used to secure the offensive doorknob tongue (I’m sure it has a proper name, but this works) was removed and all was again well in the world.If you are a fan of duct (or other) tape to repair things, you may have found this little adventure through my home amusing. And it actually is.But it’s also unlikely, which is why I wrote it. As in, unlikely that one would get locked in his or her house. Which is what it all boiled down to.

Yep, there you have it. The final item, #2 on the selfishsomethingist list, something unlikely.