Déjà vu!!!!!

I am sure once I moved out of my mother's place, she didn't know what hit her.  It must have become SO, SO quiet all of a sudden.  When I lived with her for six weeks, there was never a dull moment.

My Mamacita had an old, decrepit lock on her apartment door that was getting harder and harder to open with the key.  I warned her that she wouldn't be able to get in one day, and she needed to advise her landlord. She did call him but he put her off by saying that he had ordered a BRAND NEW DOOR, with a BRAND NEW LOCK, both of which were on back order, but would be arriving soon.

Soooooooo.... I advised Mamacita NOT to lock her door. Absolutely TOTALLY POINTLESS advice. When you are elderly, you need to feel secure, so you lock your door; all of which is fine when you are inside your apartment, but NOT so fine, when you are trying to get in.

Two weeks later the door is still on backorder, but Mamancita and I haven't really gone anywhere together, so we haven't had to lock the door when no one is home. One day we decide to go look at a house for rent.  A waste of time to remind Mamacita NOT to lock the door, so I scoot out the back patio doors on the pretext of checking my laundry on the clothesline, just as we are about to leave.  I come back in and deliberately leave the patio door unlocked. I foolishly say to myself, "We are good to go!"

We visit the house (too far in the woods) and upon returning, Mamancita struggles with the key to open the front door.  I am about to zip out back and go in through the patio doors when she informs me that she had LOCKED those as well! Which means she surreptiously snuck up behind me and locked them as we were leaving.

No point in being upset with her. It isn't her fault she wants to protect her home and belongings.  However, I am SO TICKED off at her landlord, Dufus, that I could spit.
She calls him. He is in town.  His wife assures my mother that he will be there lickety-split to get the door open. 

I don't want to be there, because I will tear a strip off him and Mamacita has already warned me to NOT say a word to him. Being the good daughter that I am, I ask to borrow her shoes so I can go for a run with my dog, and blow off some steam.  I am wearing opened backed mules. You can't run in those.  Off I go, and my mother goes to grab a quick lunch at Tim's.

When I return about 45 minutes later, I see her landlord driving away.  I think, "Awesome, he fixed the door!"   No, no, no! He can't get in EITHER. He has gone to get a sledge hammer. I decide to park myself in my useless car that is sitting in the driveway. It has to be good for something since it blew a gasket, and is essentially worthless. I least I have a place to cool my jets.  Dufus returns... with a sledge hammer.  I don't trust myself to keep my mouth SHUT, so I go sit on the back step and wait.  Rather quickly, I see my mother in the apartment and she lets me in.

"So, we are all set now?  We can go out and lock the door?", I ask.  "Not exactly," Mamancita says sweetly.  " He put in a lock that works, but there is no key."  WHAT?  THIS BEGGARS BELIEF!  The cheapo has put in an old lock, left over from another apartment, probably, which you can lock from the inside. HOWEVER, we are exactly where we were when this whole story STARTED!  We can't open the front door if it is locked. This time because we DON'T ACTUALLY EVEN HAVE a key.

I cannot believe this. I am totally gobsmacked!

For a week I make sure we don't go anywhere together, and I watch Mamancita closely.  When she is away one day, I call the landlord's wife and give her a piece of my mind. Very nicely, mind you, but nontheless, a piece of my mind.  "How would you like to go out in the evening, and have to leave your front door unlocked?", I ask you.  She tells me I can call her husband on his cell and tell him this, and I say "No, you tell him!", thereby keeping my promise to my mother.

This was Thursday.  Monday morning Maman had her new door and fancy new lock with KEYS, installed! 

Payback? Six weeks later my mother moved OUT of that apartment and into a newer one. Her landlord is a woman.  Hopefully she won't stress out her tenants by being so cavalier about replacing a simple front door lock. A good landlord who pays attention to the needs of his/her elderly, faithful tenants is worth their weight in gold. Take heed if you have elderly parents living in an apartment.  Make sure their needs are not being ignored by their landlord.

This was the second time in less than nine months, that I have been locked out of my abode!  I and everyone else - thank goodness for sledge hammers!