Thursday, June 05, 2014

When I was still in school, the idea of summer stretched before me as a sea of possibilities.

In actuality, I continue extremely busy, though with relatively little of the stress of the school year.

Last weekend, Old NFO came to town, along with Hols and JPG and Sylvilagus Aquaticus and his Mrs. and we had a lovely visit, and lots of good eatin'!  It's such a treasure when we can get together with friends, and it's so restorative to have time with people you love.  Plus I got motivated to put at least part of my house in order, and herds of dust buffalo succumbed to vacuumed air. WHOOSH!

I'm working part time at the old company, and I'm grateful for that opportunity. I applied also for a job at the local hospital, but didn't hear from them, which turned out to be for the best, since my knee was banged up.  My meniscal tear is healing quite nicely, and I have very little pain. I hope to be worked back up to wearing my hooker shoes by the time school is back in session. Anyway, the work is not 40 hours a week, so it's not tiring or boring, and some days I leave a little early, depending on call or paperwork volume. I find it a very satisfactory arrangement.

I went to yoga yesterday morning for the first time in 2 years. I can't believe it's been that long, but it's been an extremely busy two years.  It felt great, but it was the hardest yoga session I've ever done, because I think this is the most out-of-shape I've been in quite a while. I'm going again tomorrow, and we'll soon put this to rights. What's great is the Wednesday class is 7:45 AM, and I go to work at 10 on Wednesdays, so it works well for my schedule. Gives me enough time to get home, shower and go to work. I'll go to yoga tomorrow and Sunday, and I'll start Spinning class on Tuesday.

Oh! When I came home from yoga yesterday morning, I found someone had tried to jimmy my front door open. I always lock the deadbolt, but someone apparently tried to pop the knob unlocked with the button lock.  There were gouge marks in the metal and the rubber was sliced of the weather strip thing around the door frame by the doorknob, but the odd thing is that there was no gouging or indication of wear on the door itself by the knob.  Whatever gouged the metal of the stripping would logically have also made marks on the door. It's a mystery.

It's an unsettling mystery.  I trotted my self down to Home Depot and ordered a door measurement for my house, and chose some pre-hung steel doors, along with security doors.  I live in a small town that's relatively quiet, and though I think of myself as generally situationally aware, I think I may be complacent. I hate to think that putting security doors on (with screens so I can let the breeze flow through during nice weather) will make my house look ghetto, but I feel like I need to take extra measures. Does that sound like overkill?  The front door apparently was forced in some years before I bought the house, and I don't think it would take a tremendous amount of effort to break it in again.

I priced doors and my first instinct was the custom door with the three deadbolt lock mechanism, one at about 18" above the bottom and the third about 12" from the top, but that door is $500 more than the steel door with the standard knob/deadbolt.  Again -does this sound like overkill?  My one care is my own safety and that of my pups.  I don't want my stuff stolen or anything, but my universal truth about stuff is they're always making more, whereas there's only these three pups in the world who are these three pups- their well-being is my one care. I'm leaning toward just having the security door and the steel door and hoping that the two in concert will be sufficient-- that will save me about $1000 overall, which is nothing to be sniffed at. What do you think?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's not expressly addressed in your post, but don't forget hinge bolts!

Old NFO said...

Go with that (my opinion), and get a steel door for the back too. The problem with the high and low locks is that you get tired of bending over to get to them or reaching up, and they don't get used.

Evyl Robot Michael said...

Oh wow! I didn't read this until just now. Anyway, I agree with Old NFO. The extra locks just seem like overkill. If the BG isn't dissuaded by a steel door and security door, the extra bolts aren't going to slow them down much. Just my $.02, of course.

Steve said...

Late to the party, but make sure all the screws into the frame (both jamb and hinge sides) are 3" or longer, and go into the house framing. Otherwise, the door is still just as easy to kick in as a wooden door.