December 13, 2007

I had my first "I can't find my keys and I can't get into my house" event today. :) I went into town for our last ladies group study of the year, and that went great. Then I stopped by the store to get some food, and took the bus back. Th 1:45pm bus is the best one I think, at least these past few weeks, because the sun is so beautiful on the fields at about 2:10 when we are driving through them.

Well I got home at 2:35, and realized I didn't have my keys. I had no idea where they were. I'm obsessive about locking doors and windows, so I knew there was no way that I'd be able to get in that way. The landlords weren't home. So I called G, in hopes that he might be able to catch the next bus. But then I remembered that the bathroom window doesn't latch right, and although it is on the second floor, inside our landlord's little courtyard they had a long wooden ladder. So I decided to try it. I called him first to let him know I was going to do it, just in case something bad happened. :)

I grabbed the ladder (which by the way is like 100 years old) and navigated around their plants and into the rose bush. I climbed the ladder and sure enough, the window was unlocked. So I pushed it open. Not 5 seconds later this is what I saw:

Nelly the ever faithful, greeting me when I came home. She wanted me to pet her right there on the windowsill. :) She was clearly happy to see me, although I think she wondered why I was coming in the window. :) Anyway she was like "Oh hey it's you! You're back! What's out here? " I had to shove her off the windowsill into the bathroom because she wouldn't get out of the way for me to climb in. :)

The window only opens about 2 and a half feet, and the ladder didn't reach all the way and was out from the window by at least 2 feet.

I took a picture of my view down from the ladder. :)

Well the situation was just so funny to me, imagining someone on the outside watching me scoot through the window and pull one leg in to leverage against the wall, and trying to not fall onto the radiator which is just under the window...I laughed so hard the entire time. :) The window sill is very thick, so it was harder to get in.

After I climbed in I took a picture of the ladder disappearing over the roof edge.

You can see how deep the windowsill is...and my footprint on the left side next to the windowsill above the plant. :)

Anyway, I'm sure many of you are thinking "You should be careful! What if you fell!" I should tell you that I was full aware of the potential for falling, and was very careful climbing up the ladder, after having first shoved it well into the ground to make sure it didn't move. I also very very carefully climbed in the window and didn't let go of the ladder with my feet until I was sure my weight was full transferred safely onto the window sill. That is in fact what made me look so funny, with my stomach on the sill and each end sticking in or out. :) But I was very very careful, and thought through what I would do if the ladder moved and I had to grab the window. Fortunately our roof is sloped.

Nelly was very glad to see me, but she scolded me for doing something unusual, which is her way- she doesn't like strange, and she doesn't like change either. :) But I made it in, and one of the virtues of blogs is that you can record an experience just after it has happened, with all the freshness of feeling and excitement.

On a side note, it has frosted for several nights in a row here- it's interesting because we're farther north here so the sun doesn't come up very far before it goes right back down. Many patches of things have been frost covered for days and days, and they look like they were snowed on, because the frost doesn't melt like it does everywhere else. People have been complaining about it being -1C here (30F). That seems like a warm day for a Michigan winter. :)

We are not yet packing since we don't leave for another 8 days, but we are already thinking about the interesting packing job we're going to need....Detroit where it's like 20F, to Sydney where it's summer and 85F. :)

Some of you might be wondering what we're doing without a car. Well, to quote a military phrase, we're "improvising, adapting, and overcoming." We take the bus during the day, or several (I have to take 2 buses to get to my women's group.) If there's something in the evening, we either don't go, or we get a ride from someone (we got a ride to our home group last night), or we take a taxi. We took a taxi back from the performance Tuesday night and we got this great Scottish driver- he was so nice, and really friendly, and he said he and his family had lived in Cambridge for like 20 years, and they sold their property here and with that money bought a 10 bed enormous house on the seaside near Inverness! Housing is crazy expensive here. Anyway they've just moved and he's spending 2 weeks here, 2 weeks up there learning the roads and stuff, and driving the 11 hours to get between them! He said he thought he'd be set to stay up there by February.

We've decided to just get by without a car until we get back in February. We rented a car for the weekend (a really teeny one that was very cheap) to go out to Wimpole, and this weekend we're going up to see the xmas decorations at Chatsworth in the Peak District, which might actually have snow now, and would be great for photography. And we can take pictures inside there, so I'll post some up for you all to see.