I paid $68 to have my front deadbolt repaired last night. It’s so fascinating to watch someone with the right tools be able to get right in there and effortlessly take stuff apart (without breaking it). I remember trying to sand the strike plate down with a glorified nail file about two months ago when the weather first started making our door harder to lock, and it just DID NOT WORK. All my huffing and puffing (and breathing in little powdery bits of steel) made nearly no improvement at all. In fact, it probably made the problem worse, as the surfaces where the deadbolt and the strike plate touch got all roughened up. It took Repairman Robert no more than five minutes to get the job done with his power screwdriver, crescent wrench, and power drill with sander bit. Zip! Crank! Buzz! All done! And to think that we had been “dealing” with the problem of the door not locking properly for months now! Well, at least his sanding tool probably cost more than $68. Next project: My housemate mentioned he wanted to open up his Xbox. Hope he finds the right tool…
All of this reminds me of a dorm prank I read about, where the pranksters snuck into someone’s room while he was out briefly, swiped his keys, and then disassembled and reassembled his doorknob backwards so that the locking mechnism worked from the outside of his room. When the resident returned, he closed his door behind him only to realize that he had locked himself inside of the room, while the pranksters laughed and played catch with his keys out in the hallway! Classic. Much better than tossing a garden hose over a stall door and turning on the faucet while the poor victim sits there helplessly on the toilet with his pants down. That’s just mean.