Immeasurably More

Right before I left on my most recent trip to the US, I received a letter from British Gas. This letter informed me that it was time to schedule my landlord's annual gas safety inspection. I put the letter in the "to do when I get back" pile and went to Boston for two weeks. I believe it was the day after my return that I received a second letter from British Gas informing me that I had not yet scheduled the gas safety inspection, and it was due to expire on Oct. 6th. Upon calling, I discovered that the earliest appointment I could get was for Oct. 6th - sometime between 12pm and 6pm. Conveniently, I was recovering from a cold and so had a reasonable excuse to work from home and await the coming of the gas man. The land line rang around 11 am and I ignored it; no one calls that line except for British Telecom trying to sell me more phone services. The gas man never showed. The next morning, the landlord's agent called because they had also received a letter from B...

The US has long given up serious usage of skeleton keys except in places like the old farmhouse where we lived for several years while I was a child. In that house, finding an old key in a drawer and then going through the house testing it on all the interior doors was fun and exciting. Skeleton keys are still very popular in the UK and there are 4 of them associated with my apartment. One of them the landlord refused to give me as my neighbor doesn't have a copy of it, and he wanted to be sure no one (me) would lock anyone else (neighbor) out. Another is for a storage closet outside my apartment door. The last two, together with a normal key, actually give me access to my apartment. One benefit of skeleton keys, of course, is that you are never at risk of hearing the front door click behind you as you suddenly visualize your keys lying on the kitchen table. A second benefit is that once a door is locked, it can't be unlocked without the key or a good lock pick. Let's s...