It’s about 6:50am, and already this Friday has been interesting.

I’m sitting at my brother’s PC in his office in his house … which is a great accomplishment given the course this morning was on only about an hour ago.  I suppose I should start at the beginning … last night …

I came over last night as planned so that I could spend the night and babysit my nephew Ethan in the morning.  Doug had to catch an early morning flight and Jana wouldn’t be home from work until about 8am.  So my job was simple: babysit Ethan in the morning.

I went to bed just after midnight or so – an improvement from the 2am that was the norm for this week – so that I wouldn’t be too out of it should Ethan get up really early.  Unfortunately I woke up at 1:30am-ish with a KILLER headache.  It was really bad, I thought sure it was the start of a migraine (which I haven’t had to endure in quite some time actually) but some pain killers and about and hour or so of misery seemed to do away with it mostly.  I got back to sleep sometime just after 3am.

At 5:15 or so Doug came in and woke me up.  He needed to be out the door to the airport but my car was  blocking him.   Half asleep I get my keys and go out to move my car, and Doug waves as he passes me on his way to the airport.

I – still half asleep – get out of my car and turn back to the house … and realize that Doug had closed the garage door as he left.  This was a nightmare I had lived before .  I had no keys to the house and the only unlocked door was behind the garage door he just closed (and I had no opener for).   This was even worse than the last time however, because this time there was my nephew in the house all alone.  I reached for my phone, but of course didn’t have it … I didn’t even have shoes.  I was out in the dark of night – the world asleep; and I had no way into the house, I had no phone, and my nephew was all alone in there.  Doug couldn’t be more than a few blocks away, but without a cell phone I couldn’t call him to get him to turn around.

In reality Ethan wasn’t in any immediate danger or anything – he was sound asleep in his bed a matter of meters away – but I couldn’t get to him and I was the one now in charge of him.  If anything had happened to him or the house I would have been helpless – unable to get to him.  I absolutely freaked out.  Maybe too much so … but I have to think it was understandable.

I ran around the house through the muddy grass and over the rough wet pavement looking for something – anything – I could use to break down a door or through the glass patio door.

This time, all of this wasn’t as comical as the last time I got locked out of the house … I was really freaking out about not being able to get to Ethan.

I broke something – I’m not even sure what it was – pounding it against the patio door trying to break the glass.  Whatever it was – despite seeming to be a large, heavy, and solid thing in the dark – shattered into a million pieces on the third or fourth hit cutting up my hand – but leaving the patio door intact.

I grabbed a plastic and metal grill scraper from the grill and started pounding the business end of it into the glass over and over again – no use  (Damn those patio doors are tough – who knew).

I ran around to the front of the house again – seriously freaking out.  I had no key, couldn’t manage to break the patio door glass, and I didn’t even have a phone … what was I going to do?!  I had my car but I couldn’t actually drive away from the house and leave Ethan, I just couldn’t do it.  Besides I have no landline phone at my place so its not like I could have gone home to call Doug even if I was willing to drive away from the house (and I wasn’t).

I ran across the street to wake up one of Doug’s neighbors to use their phone.  If there was another option at this point I didn’t see it.  I chose the family right across the street as I know they have several children and thought they might be the most sympathetic to a panicked and largely inexperienced guardian suddenly unable to get to the child.

I rang the doorbell and their dogs went crazy.  Eventually the owner came to the door, and I surely had a look of desperation or panic upon me.  I wonder if he noticed the small amount of blood on my sleeping attire.  I tried to calmly explain that I was locked out – and failed.  He interrupted to try and make sense of what I was saying “So you need to get back in?”.

“Yes his baby is in there and I’m watching him!”

“Ok ok let me get you a phone” he said.  He got me a cordless phone and I called Doug’s number.   No answer.   I called again.  No answer.  I finally realized I’d been calling his house number rather than his cell phone number … but I couldn’t remember his cell phone number (I usually just hit his name in my contacts list on my cell phone and hit “home” or “cell” – and I couldn’t for the life of me remember his actual cell number).  I don’t know Jana’s cell phone number by heart, and so I had to call (and wake up) my Dad in order to get Doug’s cell phone number (geeze).

A few calls later, I ‘d reached Doug and – trying not sound as guilty and panicked as I felt – told him “You closed the garage door I cant get back in and Ethan’s in there.”  Doug of course remembers the last time I got locked out of his house, and knew I wasn’t going to be able to get in unless he or Jana (or someone with a key/garage door opener) came to let me in.

Doug (now nearly at the airport) said I should call Ted (my older brother who would be much closer to me than Doug or Jana) as he should have a spare key – but I reminded him I didn’t have my phone or my address book, and I was standing on his neighbors porch using his portable.  “OK” he said, he’d call Ted and I was to call him back in 5 minutes.  Knowing that I would forget his cell phone number again, (and not wanting to keep the kind neighbor up while I nervously bled on his cold wet porch), I again reminded him I was at his neighbors house.

So Doug finally let me off the hook and said he or Ted would be back at his house shortly and I just had to wait for whoever it was.

I handed the phone to the neighbor, thanked him, and sat in my car waiting.   I still wasn’t what you’d call calm … I wasn’t sure how long it was going to be, really.

Thankfully, only a few minutes later, Ted showed up with a spare key and all was well.

There are shards of something broken on the deck, and I have a few band-aids on … but I’m inside and as I type this (now just past 7am) I hear Ethan is starting to wake up.

When Doug gets home I’m going to force him to program his garage door opener into my car’s garage door button, and take him to a hardware store to get a copy of his keys.

I’m gonna have to send that neighbor a thank you card.

Formats available: Flash Video (.flv), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v)

Music: “So Happy So Hungry” by Jordan Yaruss (available at music.podshow.com)

… and I’ll cry if I want to. I don’t want to, but it’s my Birthday and I am afforded by the rules of Rock n’ Roll to do so if I please. I was going to create another Birthday vlog (last year was my first … and somewhat trying … birthday vlog) … but I’m still kinda in my “I don’t want to vlog” phase.

I’m not sure why I’m posting so much less lately, except that I’ve been really busy and that what little down time I have has been going toward other hobbies.

It is of course Doug’s Birthday as well. Happy Birthday, Doug. Be sure to go wish Doug a happy birthday at his site. (Wish me one here first … I’m 10 minutes older and should get the birthday wish first.)

Thanks for checking today!