My wife currently has a job that has her scheduled to work afternoon/evenings.

She enjoys the work she is doing, even though it is during hours that many other people are home from their jobs.

This can create a challenge for our relationship, especially when we seldom get a chance to see each other throughout the week.

Another consequence of the shift that she works is that she is often arriving home after I have gone to bed. Generally that just means that she has to be quiet when she arrives home.

Most often this is not a problem.

However, now that the weather has turned to more summer like, I like to have the doors open, to allow the fresh air to blow through the house.

This is good.

Except for when I lock the screen door and forget to unlock it when I close and lock the front door when going to bed.

But there is more to the story!

Our bedroom is exposed to a busy street, so when the windows are open, I tend to put in earplugs to block out the street noise when I go to bed.

Our phone has an optional night mode, which when set, silences the ringer during the set times. We have this feature turned on.

I also turn off the ringer and vibrate mode on my cell phone to prevent being disturbed during the night.

So, when my wife arrived home from work last night, she could not get in.

I was sound asleep, with earplugs in, the ringers turned off on my cell and house phone, and the screen door locked!

She could not reach me by phone, or by shouting at the house.

Thankfully, she did have a safe place to go for the night and her mother did see the humour in the situation.