Lock swap

Saturday



Lainey’s birthday is next week but her party was today. Last year she received a pony. This year the theme of her party is horses, which is why they planned to have the party in the barn at their farm.

The first text of the day came from Tessa just after 7 a.m. Cody wasn’t able to finish the office space in the barn so they were moving the meal and present-opening to the house and then we would go to the farm to have ice cream and the birthday cookie, and the kids could ride the horses.

The second text came a couple of hours later. The party was starting at noon instead of 3 p.m. so family from out of town could get home before the weather turned.

All week the meteorologists warned there would be snow this weekend. The amounts have inched upward until the forecast this morning was for 4-7 inches and heavy winds. Rain was supposed to start in the afternoon but now it looks like it will start round midnight.

I went to Mica’s after the party. She was taking care of Chloe for the day, and we took her and the little white dog to the dog park. It was in the fifties all day and I was wearing a sweatshirt without a jacket. It didn’t take long to regret that. As soon as the sun dipped, the wind came up and the temperature dropped. I was icy by the time the dogs were out of energy.

I stayed at Mica’s only long enough to annoy the little white dog with kisses on his ears. A quick stop at the grocery store for something to eat with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (my I-won’t-starve-if-the-power-goes-out plan) and then home to hunker down.

It was a good plan too, if only the lock on my back door hadn’t decided I had procrastinated long enough and it was ready to retire now. It has been wonky for over a year. I bought a replacement and replaced the deadbolt part but had never had the courage to replace the lock itself.

I let myself in through the front door, found the new lock in the bottom of a drawer and got busy. If I had known how easy it would be to swap out locks, I would have done it long ago.

I just realized that it was after Lainey’s birthday party last year that I met Blaine. Her party was on December 3 last year, so on this day last year I was still living my normal life--watching a lot of British TV shows, trying to find more romance authors I liked and helping Eve figure out how to convince Paul to let her get a collie puppy.