El Cheapo Security System

So you're looking at this picture of an exercise ball up against a door and thinking, "what's up with that?" Well, I'll tell ya...

It goes back to my college days when I lived alone in Rio del Ghetto apartments. One summer I'd gone home to visit during the break between spring and summer semesters. Over that break, I'd called in a work order to have my AC fixed. As I was driving back home, I felt like God was telling me to check on my jewelry when I got home. Jewelry that was hidden in the back of my closet and I never wore.

So when I got home, I checked and sure enough it was gone! Stolen! Long story short... the maintenance man had stolen it when he came to fix my AC! I was later able to recover two pieces of it.

Fast forward to 2007... I still have a fear of maintenance men and their place in my "home."

I am enjoying our new apartment but the one thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't have a dead bolt. This is a problem because the maintenance men can come in whenever they want, which makes me feel very vulnerable.

The second day that we lived here, I had just showered and was blow drying my hair in my unmentionables. I thought I heard a knock at the door, so I turned off the dryer and listened. Then came a second knock, to which I responded, "just a second!" Then I heard KEYS and so I screamed, "JUST A SECOND!!!!!!" It was in fact the maintenance man coming to check the connection on our washing machine. Turns out it was leaking down stairs and I'm glad he caught it, but it scared the crap out of me.

The next scenario occured after I turned in our inventory form of what needs to be fixed in here, another maintenance man came a couple days later. It was in the afternoon, so I was fully clothed this time. My problem with that visit was that he knocked once and I quickly responded, "Just a second!" and the next thing I knew he had unlocked the door and was peeping his head in! No sir! That is not okay! You need to knock at least twice!

Well, I wouldn't call for these guys if I didn't need to and I needed to this week. The faucet in our sick had almost no water pressure, so there went another work order. This time, I was determined to gain myself a few more seconds. I wondered if I wedged my exercise ball between the door and wall if that would do anything.

In fact, it does work! I found out not by the maintenance man, but by Wes! He unexpectedly had 3 hours free in the middle of his day yesterday and came home to surprise me. He was the one that got surprised. I heard keys and then I heard him laughingly exclaim, "WHAT THE HECK?!?" It was quite a site and although he was able to get through (he's pretty lean), it did take him a few seconds of a good struggle.

So don't mess with those expensive security devices... break out those exercise balls and put them to good use.