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Sense of Direction

Only to me

June Donohue
Posted 7/30/21

This wouldn’t happen to too many people. It could only happen to me. Around 11:30 last night, I was watching TV and I heard thunder so I switched to the weather channel and sure enough we were …

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Sense of Direction

Only to me

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This wouldn’t happen to too many people. It could only happen to me. Around 11:30 last night, I was watching TV and I heard thunder so I switched to the weather channel and sure enough we were due to get rain overnight. I had left out a bucket containing leaves and since it’s hard for the garbage collector to dump out wet leaves, I felt the need to put that can in the garage. What a mistake!

I had on shorty pajamas and sandals. It was okay to rush outside in that attire because my driveway isn’t visible to my neighbors in case any of them were awake to behold such a sight. Luckily I made it to the garage before the rain but then as I exited, I got rained on and was anxious to get back into the kitchen door.

There’s a small latch on that storm door that I had slid open but in a panic I discovered that somehow it had relocked. I pushed hard against that door to no avail. I knew the storm door on the other entrance was locked also but at least that entrance had an overhang where I could stand out of the rain while I pondered what to do.

I didn’t have many options. I didn’t have a medical alert button hanging around my neck where people say “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” to say “I am locked out and I can’t get in.”

I hated to go to my next door neighbor and ring her door bell at that hour. By now it was close to midnight. The alternative would be to go out on Fifth Ave., stop a car and ask if I could use their cell phone so I could call my son to rescue me by crawling into a window. I didn’t have the air conditioning on so all of my windows were open.

Of course I chose to get Kris out of a nice sound sleep to accommodate me.  I rang her door bell and Gracie started barking.  Then I wondered if her door bell was working so I started tapping on the window of the door and then I heard her.  “Aidan, call 911.” She thought someone was trying to break in.  I yelled to her that it was me (her crazy neighbor).

Aidan is her son, who gets up at 5:30 AM to get ready to go to work. “Never mind, Aidan, go back to sleep.” Now Kris was trying to help me get out of my predicament. “Let’s see- do I have a key to your house? No I don’t. Maybe we could just slide in a credit card to open it.” “No don’t forget this is a storm door. I need to call Michael who can crawl through a window and then open the door.” She had Mike’s number on her cell and called him. Later he told me how alarming it was to get a call from my neighbor at that time of night. He thought something must have happened to me.

While waiting for my son to get here from Nyack, Kris was asking me if I wanted cookies and milk or a nutrition bar. She brought me a bottle of water and put the TV on. I finally convinced her that I didn’t need anything and that she should go back to bed, which she did.

When Mike got here it only took him about 5 minutes to get in through a window and then let me in. It wasn’t that bad. It was about 1:15. I could watch one of my favorite shows which is “Mom” that is on from 1:30 to 2, and it also gave me a good idea for my column.

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