I can think of two times in my life where this advice really should have been followed. The first time was on a cruise. My second and as of now, my last cruise. We took this particular cruise in early November. Though technically considered “hurricane season,” November is not usually prime time for major storms. It was a short cruise, only 3 nights. They seemed to last forever. It was the first time we went away alone after our second child was born.
Did you know that cruise ship have stabilizers that emerge from the side of the ship? I was blissfully unaware of these stabilizing fins. Did I mention that we were traveling at the tail end of hurricane season? Long story short, we sailed through a tropical storm, the waves were so big that all dining rooms were closed, all shows were cancelled and it we never left the ship as it was too dangerous to pull into any ports. We were stuck in our room, flopping back and forth feeling pretty miserable. The bathroom, similar in size to an airplane bathroom (yet somehow defying the laws of physics and fitting a shower into the same space) had a latch securing the door on the outside, allowing it to remain open. I didn’t think much of this latch until we were pitching and rolling, attempting to use the bathroom, undoing the latch and then SLAM went the door on my husband’s finger. We should have left that hatch battened down.
In the search for ice to place on his finger, my husband ran into the a nice woman on the elevator who told him that she was the captain’s wife and that he would not let the ship sink if she was on it. This news didn’t reassure me as much as I think she intended it to. I would hope the captain wouldn’t let the ship sink even if wasn’t his personal Love Boat. We survived, which bring us to many years later…
The second time I should have “battened down the hatches,” would have been the last time we left the farm. I’m not sure at which point in the farm journey that we unlatched the barn boor. I am not speaking metaphorically of an unzipped fly, that would have been much easier to fix. The double, heavy, barn door was shut, the wood was pretty warped and it seemed to be a secure fit, at some point the padlock was removed. I had brought a new lock with us, but somehow in all of the popcorn ceiling excitement, we never put it on the barn latch.
We drove up to the farm this past weekend, after nearly a month since our last visit. When we pulled up the steep hill towards the house the first thing we saw was a wide open barn door. One of the two doors was laying on the ground. My first thought was, “vandals!” My second thought was, “how on earth are we going to get this door off the ground?” The door is very large and it had been ripped clean off of the hinges. After further investigation of the barn, we realized that this was not likely the work of vandals. We should have battened the hatches.
One of the things I love about the farm is the constant breeze. In the summer, I am sure I will find the constant breeze refreshing. In this particular case, high winds are the most likely culprit for our downed door. With the external latch unfastened, the winds blew the door to and fro. The door banged against the side of the building until it was knocked off of the hinges, splintering the wood frame in the process.
I didn’t get any pictures of the ordeal. I was too stunned when we drove up and then we immediately sprang into action mode. We tilted the door back into position, my husband was able to shimmy it into place enough that we could fasten not only the outer latch but the TWO interior latches that we had not bothered with earlier. I am not sure how we will fix this in the long run, that’s a pretty big door jamb to replace! Lesson learned. I will likely write all about it in a riveting tale of “Reframing the Barn Door, Mind Over Matter. In the meantime, I will batten down the hatches.
