h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think we can all agree that going shopping on a Saturday afternoon is one of the stupidest things to do.

Thus, breaking your garage key inside the lock when you get back from shopping on a Saturday afternoon, is probably THE stupidest thing to do.

You are then left with two choices : calling a locksmith straight away, or calling your Mum first and then the locksmith.

This being - as we might have mentioned - a Saturday afternoon, the good news is that your Mum will be home to answer the phone and tell you to call the locksmith.
The bad news is that the locksmith will charge you weekend rates.
And payday is still two weeks away.
And of course, you've just spent much of the previous pay an hour ago by doing your shopping (on a Saturday afternoon, would you have guessed?).

The phone call goes something like this :
Hi Mum! How are you?
I'm fine, how are you, dear?
Errrm... I'm fiiiine, except for the half of the garage key that's stuck inside the lock...
Completely stuck ?
Yup.
Not even a millimeter out that you could grab?
Nope.
Ok, have you got pliers? Or a sharp pointy knife? Or tongs of any kind? Or tweezers? Or, or, or ?
Yeees, I've got that.
Ok, go out and try to get the bit of the key out using one of those. Do NOT push it farther in. call me in five minutes to tell me how it went.


Going out with a handful of pointy things when it's starting to get dark is an interesting experience. Thankfully, not a lot of people walked past.

Two minutes later, thanks to my trusty pliers, here I stand, half key in hand, smile on face.

Mum? I got it ! You're the best!


Knock, knock, knocking on the neighbours' dooooooooor...

Hi! I have two favours to ask you. First, I'd need you to lock the garage door for me, please. And second, I'd like to borrow your key at some point in the coming week, so I can have a double made since i've broken mine.
Oh, sure, no problem, we had that same problem a while back, so yeah, any time. Tell you what, we've got two garage keys, so you have mine and give it back whenever you've managed to copy it, and in the meantime we'll use my wife's, no problem.

Yeah !

Great mum, great neighbours. Well done!

But shopping on a Saturday afternoon? What were you thinking!

Deb

"oh my god oh my god my fridge is empty I need some food for the weekend".

"oh my god oh my god my fridge is empty I need some food for the weekend".

Really? I know I am out of touch with the real world as I spend an awful lot of time inside my own head. Think DisneyWorld with a touch of Lewis Carroll, and a large helping of Laurel & Hardy.

I have enough canned, dry, and frozen food to survive the first month of a zombie apocalypse. I even have spare gas cylinders and very large bottles of water. Not to mention enough alcohol to make having my brains sucked out a pleasureable experience.

That's the problem with you young people (engages miserable old git mode) you just don't plan ahead.

[Amy P]

>>very large bottles of water<< That reminds me - I must make a trip to France to load up the boot with those large bottles of water.

Probably one Saturday afternoon!

I love stories with happy endings.

And yes, I too went shopping today, a Saturday afternoon. The crowds were huge, and the traffic was awful

thank god you were able to pull the broken bit of the key out. And you've got good neighbours (but I suspect you've been good to them in the past, being neighbourly works both ways)

It's a terrible sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when something needs an emergency repair.

My worst getting locked out story goes back to the time when my son was only 18 months old. I returned from shopping with a buggy loaded with bags, a handbag and my little boy. I left my son and my handbag in the hall and stepped outside to get the buggy. My son slammed the front door.
I discovered that my keys were inside, in my handbag and there was no way into my house. I prowled round, even borrowed a ladder from a neighbour and climbed it in the hope of getting in through the bathroom window. It was too small. The garage was open, however, and I finally resorted to taking a hammer and smashing a window.
My husband wasn't too pleased when I told him I'd broken a window but what was I supposed to do, when I was stuck outside and an increasingly tearful toddler was inside?

Reddit<----don't break this key, you'll go thirsty.

"It's a terrible sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when something needs an emergency repair." [Lanzababy]

I had that sinking feeling last night after my furnace went out and wouldn't respond to anything I tried . It was nine o'clock on a Saturday night, and I worried that nobody would be available to fix it before Monday . But when I called the emergency hot line, I got right through, and someone came around 11:00 p.m. I turned out that the nozzle was blocked. The furnace works fine now, thank Bob!

Thankth BMT.