So, I got out of the shower the other day and made a cup of coffee and went and sat outside on my balcony – barefoot and wearing a pair of pajamas and a sweater. Everything was fine, right up to the point where I noticed a bug flying into my house, at which point I shooed the bug and closed the door. Of course it was locked. Why a third story balcony needs a lock on the door, and why this particular door was locked (this isn’t the first time this has happened, and I make a point of keeping the balcony doors unlocked) are all good questions. Another good question is what do you do when you are locked outside on a third floor balcony in your jammies? My options were pretty limited – jump down to the second floor balcony and hope it was unlocked – not fun when barefoot considering the walls are stucco and the landing zone is a gravel covered tar roof. I could try to get the window open – which I did, try that is – not as easy to open a locked storm window in real-life as in the movies. I could break the glass on the door and reach up and unlock the door. An excellent idea which also proved to be much harder than breaking glass should be, even without a suitable tool. Ultimately I broke down the door, destroying the door jam in the process, something that will surely cost me a bunch to have fixed. That was just about as easy as it is in the movies. Sure glad there is a lock on that door.
But while I was stuck on the balcony, I reflected on how the situation was an ironic caricature of my real-life situation… here I am stuck in Santa Fe, with several options, none of which are particularly enticing, all of which require some pain to accomplish