It’s a long weekend for most folks here. Ireland observes Easter Monday as an official public holiday that most people have off work while Good Friday is observed only as a bank holiday. I start Good Friday off with a toasted hot cross bun, slathered in some butter, of course. My weekly SuperValu grocery delivery arrives on the early side without incident.
At the top of my agenda for the day is dealing with a window in the apartment that won’t close. Yesterday evening, the locking mechanism on one of the window handle latches engaged while it was open, making it impossible to close. The button to release the lock did not work, and the landlord has never said anything about a key for the windows. Since it was already late, I closed the window as far as I could then stuffed a towel in the remaining gap to block the cold air from coming in.
This morning, I text Brian the building manager to see if he might have a universal key for all the windows, but unfortunately he doesn’t. Next I text my landlord, Ciaran, with whom I had just traded messages yesterday to confirm my rent payment for April. It turns out he is out of the country on business (I have no idea what kind of business he has abroad and haven’t asked). He suggests asking my next door neighbor Irene if she might have a key, and if not, then to try a locksmith down a few blocks on Dame Street. Wary of bothering Irene, I decide to try the locksmith first… I call ahead to explain the problem, and they tell me to stop by the shop to see what they have. It’s a quick walk, and they happen to have a few keys for window latches… the older of two gentleman (father and son?) offers for me to take a key to try, and if it works, then he’ll sell it to me. I head back home, try the key, but unfortunately it doesn’t fit. I return the key and thank them for letting me try it, then ask if they know of any other places that be able to help. They refer me to the hardware store on South George Street, where I’ve gone before for lightbulbs, smoke alarm batteries, etc. It’s also not far away, and they’ve set up a makeshift counter with plastic shield in the front door where customers can step up for service. They don’t have any window latch keys, but I ask if they sell a complete latch assembly, hoping that perhaps window locks might be universal and that any key might fit. The hardware shop clerks says the locks are different across makes and models, but he sells me one anyway for €20.
I return home, and while the key included in the latch assembly looks more promising than the one from the locksmith, it still doesn’t fit. Having exhausted these possibilities, I begrudgingly knock on my neighbor Irene’s door. There’s no immediate answer, so I try knocking a second time just in case she might not have heard the first rap, and then a few moments later she opens the door part-way, standing behind it because she’s dressed in a bathrobe. I apologise for bothering her and explain my predicament. Alas, she too does not have a key, or if she did she wouldn’t know where it would be. After engaging in a brief chat, I say thanks anyway and sorry again for bothering her, then go back inside my apartment.
As a last resort, I try unscrewing the top part of the latch from the window frame to see if I might be able to turn or remove the latch… in the process of trying to pop a screw cover off, I end up dropping a mini screwdriver out the window. Sigh. I head down to the street, where a few people are hanging out in front of a vinyl record shop that’s directly below my window, and I start scanning the ground. I ask one of the guys if he had noticed anything falling from above, which he had.. thankfully it hadn’t landed on anyone, although it’s small enough it wouldn’t have hurt anyone. Looking around his vicinity, I spot the shiny metal of the mini screwdriver against the dull grey street cobblestones, relieved that I hadn’t lost it for good.
Back upstairs, I carefully remove a couple of screws without dropping them, which enables me to loosen the window handle and rotate it part way, but not enough for the latch to clear and the window to close fully. In a last ditch effort, I try forcing the handle, increasing the pressure slowly, and then suddenly something inside the lock snaps and the handle becomes unstuck! Fortunately, only the internal mechanism appears to have broken and the latch itself is still securely attached, and most importantly, functional. Whew! I trade a few more messages with my landlord to let him know how things panned out. He says he’ll stop by to take a look once things open back up. Apparently, he had to replace some of the latches before, at great cost, and the contractor told him that they were no longer manufactured.
Before and after:
Having resolved this crisis, I am freed to resume my day. I heat up some leftovers for lunch then head out for a walk. The weather is surprisingly bright and sunny, but still a bit chilly with highs only in upper 40s F / low 10s C. I stroll down Grafton Street to St Stephens Green, where throngs of people are scattered around the park sitting on benches and the grass in small groups. Many have lidded plastic cups containing take-away pints of beer.
Until next time….
