Yesterday, while pumping at noon, I checked in with my iPhone and saw that the house cleaners had called and left a message.  Damn, I had forgotten to leave the door unlocked and they could not get into the house.  Of course I was annoyed with myself, but you know those things that you screw up that you immediately blame something or someone else for rather than taking the full blame.  This was one of those situations.

I was irritated that Andy and I had been talking about getting some new front door keys made for literally over a year and we still hadn’t done it.  If we had done it, we would have given one to the house cleaners and I would not even had to remember to keep the door unlocked on their specified day at our house.

It is a little more complex than it sounds.  We live in a house that was built in 1922 and more than likely still has the original door on it.  When we first purchased the house, we had a locksmith come out and rekey all of the doors and that was the only time we have successfully procured copies of the front door key that actually work.  When we moved back from China, we had two keys left.  I blame Andy for losing one of them, but perhaps it could have been me…unlikely but possible.  Andy has now taken to parking in the alley and coming through the back door since he no longer has a front door key.  Seriously, when your behaviors start to change because of something like this, it is really time to do something about it.

And we had tried on numerous occasions.  I think we have ordered copies of the keys on at least three different occasions from vendors like Home Depot and other random places.  Each time, we would bring the keys home and they would not work.  Because of this, we both had it in our minds that we needed to have a locksmith come to the house for us to successfully obtain copies of our front door key.

So yesterday I am standing there pumping, in the handicap bathroom that I have taken to commandeering and using as my lactation room when I decide that it is bullshit that we haven’t taken care of this in over a year.  I do a voice-activated google search on my iPhone and find a local locksmith, Baldwin Lock & Key.  I call them and ask them if they can make a copy of a key for a very old lock and they say, “why of course we can.”  Then I proceed to explain that I am skeptical because every other time we have done it, they key has not worked.  They asked me which type of key I had and I looked at the key on my keyring and told them and they said, “no problem.”  I asked them if they needed to come to the house to do it and they said that they were pretty confident they could do it from the shop.  I asked them what time they closed, they said, “5:30″ and then I hung up the phone and headed to the YMCA to swim laps (horray, I can still swim a mile after all this time.)

I warned you that it is a mundane story…you are holding out for the two morals aren’t you?

I left work at 4:45pm and picked up Belén.  I thought that would give us enough time to get to Baldwin Lock & Key before 5:30, but then when I got to daycare, all of the babies were crying and it turns out Belén had a dirty diaper that her teacher/care giver needed to change before we could leave.  When I got into the truck, I made the decision that if it was past, 5:12pm, I wouldn’t be able to make it in time, but if it was before, we would go for it.  5:11pm.  I stepped on the gas and booked it to Baldwin Lock & Key.

I parked, grabbed the baby, shuffled to the store in the rain and entered Baldwin Lock & Key.  Walking into the store was like entering a time warp where time at work moved slowly and three people were working in a shop with no customers.  I immediately wondered if it was a family owned business and I was meeting the brothers Baldwin.  They cheerily heard my story again and said they were 98% confident they could make the key without coming to my house and if they did not, they would give me my money back.  When I said, “but all of the others we have made did not work.”  their reply was, “but did you get them made at a lock and key shop?” Apparently the tools are different.

I asked for five copies of the key and within five minutes and for under $10, I had the copies in my hand.  The presumed Baldwin brothers wished me on my way and I could tell that they were amused by my distrust with my new keys.

When I arrived home, Andy came out to the truck to grab the baby while I grabbed my other 49 bags I carry to and from work each day.  He was skeptical that the new keys I had speedily had made would work, as they surely couldn’t with such a minimal effort put into getting them made.

They worked like a champ, all five of them.

Now for the morals:

1. When you need a hard or unique job done, hire the true professionals…in this case, Baldwin Lock & Key

2. If something is bugging you, put forth the effort to deal with it and mark it off your list

I know…those morals weren’t nearly compelling enough to read this mundane story.  I hope you enjoyed it anyway…

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