Last Friday night when my house key broke off in the lock of the door, I thought to myself, "Can this really be the second time that this happened to me?"
I am not sure what the average failure rate on keys should be, and likely it is very low, but the number of those incidents which has been inconvenient? I imagine that number to be quite high. My two experiences certainly didn't come at opportune times.
Some 20 odd years ago, I got home to my parents house one night after being out with some friends, and when I put my key in the backdoor and turned, I felt the key sort of snap off, and I pulled out the useless part, leaving the business end inside of the lock. Door still closed. Neat.
Of course, my parents were out of town (I think was house-sitting or home for summer break or something), but I had not remembered which neighbors (if any) held a second set of keys to the house. Because of the rather late hour, I was not about to wake up ALL of the neighbors to try and find the replacement keys. Unfortunately, the only other option was to call my grandmother, hope that she answered the phone, and then drive to her house and pick up her set of keys to the house.
That meant I had to drive to the nearest payphone (note - that sentence you will NEVER hear in Europe, unless it is someone telling a story) so I could call my grandmother. Again, the lateness of the hour was not very convenient, but I was glad that my grandmother is a light sleeper. She answered the phone cautiously, and I quickly explained my predicament, then drove across town to her house, picked up the key, returned home, and went to sleep.
It really wasn't that big of a deal, but for what it's worth, I kept that little part of the broken key that attaches to the key chain.
The second this happened, it was still late on a Friday night, but through a stroke of luck, the key broke off AFTER the house door had opened, and furthermore, the key was no longer in the lock. This enabled me to safely enter my house and go upstairs to enter my flat. The flat itself has a different key, which is all well and good, but without the front door key to the house, you have no immediate way to enter the building. More on that in a second.
Last Friday, my immediate need was to go sleep, and when I woke up Saturday morning with a rather fuzzy head, I didn't remember what had happened until I entered the kitchen and looked down at the broken key on my counter. I took a photo of the broken key and sent it to my friend who has the second set of keys to my flat. "Help!"
Well, it turns out that she was out of town, but since I look after her second set of keys, I had a way to go over and retrieve my spare set. However, I was pretty sluggish on Saturday, so it took me most of the day to get myself in gear and ready to go over and pick up the key.
The key point here, is that without this front door key, I was not able to get back into my building. Even though I am acquainted with my neighbors, I cannot just ring the doorbell and expect for someone to buzz me in, especially late at night.
I consider my neighborhood to be quite safe, but that being said, everyone typically has their own security
plan. By security plan, I mean how one handles their personal safety. For example, as children most of us were taught not to talk to strangers. This was easy enough to do in suburban USA, but what about in the crowded weekly market in downtown Frankfurt? Urban living is noticeably different.
Locking doors is a given. I always lock my flat when departing home, and I usually make sure that the front door to the house as fully closed (it locks automatically) before I walk down the street. However, as I mentioned, to gain access to the house, one either uses a key or the doorbell.
When the guys come to pick up the trash, they sort of hit all the doorbells at once, and a few seconds later, they are buzzed in as half the people in the house have just "buzzed" them in. Usually the guys shout "trash guys," or something to that effect. They tend to come at the same time, and when I have ever buzzed them in, I usually step out on my balcony to make sure that they are actually taking the trash out.
Likewise, the DHL and UPS drivers, when delivering their packages, ring the bell of the particular resident, but as we often realize, these drivers deliver during the day, which is precisely when no one is at home. The drivers then start ringing ANY bell, in hopes that someone will answer. That way, they can complete the delivery. Yours truly works home office, so am regularly signing for packages that come to my neighbors. That is all part of the experience, and again, if I buzz someone into the apartment building, I tend to find out who they are, or what they want to do. I am not nosy, but I am cautious.
That being said, because my little intercom doesn't work so well (it sounds like the teachers do from the Charlie Brown specials), I tend to buzz someone in, then open my door and check who they are. The other day, it was a guy delivering flowers to my next door neighbor. Last week, it was something from Amazon.
Only twice in the past decade have I opened the door to someone that I probably shouldn't have.
Once, thinking it was the trash guy, I buzzed someone in, only to have to get into a conversation with a Jehovah's Witnesses. No disrespect intended, but that is really not my thing.
The other time this happened, it wasn't actually me who answered the door, nor was it really a big problem.
During my second year in Germany, I took private language lessons on Saturday evening in my flat. One night, the doorbell rang at about 9pm, and I was prepared to ignore it, but my teacher wanted to see who it was. As it were, I was learning vocabulary about kitchen items, including pots and pans and cutlery. As I opened the door to see who was coming into the flat, I found a couple walking up the stairs carrying a bottle of wine and some flowers, presumably on their way to a dinner party.
What I didn't realize was that my teacher was standing behind holding one of the carving knives from my kitchen block. The guy coming up the stairs sort of startled, then I realized what had his attention, and after a few brief awkward moments, we clarified that the new arrivals were at the right house number, but on the wrong street, which basically meant that they were not in the right house. My teacher explained how they could reach the correct street, but her credibility was blown because of the knife she was holding; the couple never took their eyes off of it.
As they departed and we resumed our German lesson, I asked my teacher if that was how she always answered the door, knife in hand. She responded, "Well, you can't be too careful."
Fair enough, but for me, I personally prefer a less threatening way of greeting someone.
At any rate, I need to sign off and go get a replacement key made today, and also find a place for my second little broken key...a souvenir of another little experience.
see you out there, but leave the cutlery at home.
bryan
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