Oops, I think I scared my neighbors!

Just before midnight I went outside with our dog to let her do her final business of the evening. She took her time playing in the odd April snow that we had on Monday and then we headed back to the house.

When I got to the screen door and tried to enter it wouldn’t open! Was it locked? Had my coat sleeve accidentally hit the tiny latch on the screen door handle on the way out?

So there I was standing outside in the cold wondering how I was going to get back into the house. Chris had gone to bed earlier and surely he was asleep. How was I going to get his attention? I mean, it’s not like I could access the inner door … I was standing outside our enclosed front porch so there was three doors between me and the warmth of the house.

Oh boy.

So I started rattling the screen door in it’s frame and calling out Chris’ name. Considering the time I didn’t want to yell too loud, but I had to call out Chris’ name in the hope that he’d hear me, didn’t I?

I’m not sure how long I was out there calling Chris’ name and rattling the screen door, but I don’t think it was any longer than five minutes. Finally Chris appeared at the front door in only his underwear. He couldn’t understand why I wasn’t in the house. I had to rattle the screen door again to show him I couldn’t get into the front porch. He reluctantly came forward and opened the door – he didn’t want to get cold!

I asked him if the door had been locked and he said it wasn’t. I guess the condensation inside the porch must have frozen on the screen doors latch and it quickly froze shut when it closed behind me when I took the dog outside. Funny … that never happened when it was really cold during the winter or, for that matter, ever before!

Once I was inside I started to calm down. I guess I got a little rattled at the thought of being locked (or frozen) out of the house at that time of night.

Once I’d put our Lab Midnight to bed in her crate I happened to notice some car lights outside as I passed the front window. I seemed like the car was parked or idling on the corner, so I parted the curtains and guess what?

It was a police car!

Oops!

I went upstairs to change for bed and told Chris that a police car was in front of our house across the street. As I told him the police car moved forward, did a U-turn and headed back towards the hospital where we both work. There’s almost always police in the Emergency Department so one of them must have taken the call that was so close. Good response time if they were coming for the “disturbance” I was creating.

I’ll bet that one of my neighbors heard me yelling for Chris or rattling the door and called the police. The neighbors in the house adjoining ours might have heard the door rattles and thought someone was trying to break into their home, perhaps. Or maybe someone thought my calls of Chris’ name were really cries for help?

Either way, I’m pretty sure someone close by must have called the cops. Sorry! My bad! < blush >

I think I might just slip the cellphone in my pocket from now on when I go out late at night – just in case something like that happens again!

Strange, isn’t it that the door seemed to freeze closed – I mean, it’s cold out, but not all that bad.

Have you ever been locked out of your house? Or frozen out as in my case?