A few days ago a salesman came to my door. When I answered it, his eyes widened and he visibly stepped back. I don’t love salesman and I would prefer that he was not at my door, but I also don’t love people stepping back upon first glance of me in terror. After a second of confusion, I realized of course, I was holding a giant pair of pliers in one hand. Answering the door with giant pliers is just what we do at my house and anyone who knows us, knows this. It seemed odd in this moment that the salesman was not in on what I thought was a general understanding.

E is a bit of a runner. Because of this, our house is guarded and locked to the nines. I forget this is not normal until a new person comes over and I unlock every door, appliance and cabinet in the house with a key or code. For our front door, we took the set screw out so the door handle can just pop off. Then we put the door handle in the lock box where we also keep our keys. This lockbox was established after the time E stole my keys and started my car and tried to drive away. Well, in our complacency, we left the lock box unlocked and the handle disappeared. We checked everywhere and we bribed E with anything and everything, but he would not show us where he put it. So now, we were locked in our house. We tried a myriad of options, and the large wrench pliers proved to be the easiest way to open the door. We had plans to replace the doorknob but it proved harder than first thought, to find one that matched up to our door. As of writing this entry, Eric did finally install a new door handle that we can take off and once again put in the lock box. It was after the salesman’s fresh terror that we decided maybe it was time to figure it out and get a handle. For a year though, opening the door with a wrench was our normal. I am still getting used to the handle. It almost seems too easy. Like not having to use brute force to open your door seems so luxurious. I suppose, I’ll eventually adapt and then one day it will be me stepping back in terror when someone opens their door holding a large pair of pliers.