I've been in my new place for over a month now, but one thing I'm still getting used to is the lock on the front door. Both the main lock and the dead bolt are mounted in such a way that the "locked" position puts the... I don't know what you call it -- the part on the inside of the house that you grasp and turn... in the horizontal position.
To the best of my memory, every place I have lived -- home, apartment, condo, you name it -- have all had door locks where the locked position is vertical. As a result, I've too often found myself going to head out the door only to find it locked. Or double- and even triple-checking the door when I want to lock up.
This isn't my first encounter with door oddities, though. There's this friend of mine who (I suppose) had lived in places all his life where the teeth on the key were always inserted upward into the lock. I remember when he moved into a place with a few roommates where suddenly the reverse was true, we were always coming up to that door and having to say "mountains down" for his benefit. Well, not even for his benefit, really. We soon got so used to saying it that it was "mountains down" almost any time someone came to the door, whether it was actually locked or not.
I don't have anything quite as catchy as "mountains down" for "turny thingy sideways," though. I'll have to work on that.
Anyway, I suppose my point is: you know the little things you never think about? Well, when you suddenly do have to think about them, it's a bit jarring.
4 comments:
my place is a special kind of tease in this same respect. I have two deadbolts that,when locked, are opposites. One is vertical and one is horizontal. It does make for fun times watching people try to get out sometimes...
I once lived in an apartment where the kitchen sink was plumbed backwards -- the cold water handle was on the left and the hot on the right. Until I got used to it, I tended to run a lot of water down the drain waiting for it to get hot enough to wash the dishes...
It seems like each time I move into a new apartment, it's different. I get used to "horizontal = locked" for years and the next place is "vertical = locked" or vice versa. I don't even notice it anymore.
My dead bolt is the same way.
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