Angelic omens

Posted on by Vincent

At 8am I heard the refuse collection lorry. I dashed out, for I hadn’t wheeled out a bin to prepare for its arrival. One of the men saw my plight and kindly came back to empty it, so that was pleasing, till I discovered I had locked myself out: no mobile phone, no money, no coat. It was no big deal, just a chilly walk in skimpy clothes and flip-flops to borrow keys from Karleen at work.*

Apart from mundane chores I spent my day contemplating a restless energy. “What am I to do with my life?” At 65, I ought to know by now. I’ve been frustrated, waiting for some paid work, or even unpaid, doesn’t matter so long as it’s worth doing. I take all the rational steps to get what I want, but (I confess) when I don’t know what to do beyond that, I “ask the Universe” and wait for some angelic sign.

Yesterday evening I received an email from an agency I hadn’t registered with, urging me to apply for a certain contract. The author’s surname was Gabriel.

* PS on October 12th 2025: we put up with this locking mechanism  for 15 years until the keys no longer worked, The locksmith said they no longer made them to that design. He sold me a new mechanism which can be opened from the outside unless you lock it. Now we’ve the convenience of having parcels delivered by Amazon in our little porch, and we leave the house unlocked all day unless we’re going out together. Our houses are close together on a narrow one-way street. We remember to lock up at night, “so that we won’t be murdered in our bed”. Mostly.

6 thoughts on “Angelic omens”

  1. This reminded me of a day I was staying at my girlfriends apartment, she was out of town.

    I had just finished a shower. I threw on a pair of jeans and commenced to take out the trash. There was a chute in the hallway that you could drop the trash into.

    After dispensing with the trash I returned to the apartment to find that the door had swung shut and I was locked out.

    The door had a small glass window near the handle. I briefly considered breaking it, but thought better of it.

    I considered approaching the manager, but I was standing in nothing but a pair of jeans hair still wet and a bit hungover, so that did not seem like a good idea either.

    It was a Saturday morning, probably just before noon. Most seemed to be on about their business, and the apartment building was rather quiet.

    I went downstairs and found the exit to the backyard which faced the rear of all the apartments on that side. My girlfriends was one of them.

    There was a fire escape, but the stairs were pulled up. It was about 15 feet up and I could not jump to catch onto anything and pull myself up.

    I looked around and found a garden hose. I thought I could toss it over the rail of the lowest landing of the fire escape. I did so.

    I was then able to push the hose up and over the rail until the end was down at my level again.

    I tied a slip knot and pulled so that it became tight around the rail.

    I tested it to see if it would hold my weight (I was only 140 lbs at the time), and it did, but the hose was stretching and I was concerned that it would be ruined even if it did not break.

    I looked around to see if anyone was aroused by my antics, no one seemed to be. So I chanced it. I began pulling myself up, and when I got to the railing around the lowest level I pulled myself up and over.

    I quickly untied the hose, tossed it back in the proximity of where I had found it. I then crept up the stairs and through a window into the apartment.

    So all was well that ended well. I never heard anything more about it.

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  4. Yes, great story, I am glad you didn't edit it all out. And the pics are a delight, I like night shots, would like to experiment more with night lighting in paintings, more than I do that is.

    Gabriel, lol, hilarious Vincent, very apt indeed. Hope you find something that will work for you. I am leaving town to house sit, that is a bit of a job, something I can do, but a short term thing.

    Charles, thanks too, for the story, very good, makes me start thinking about some old times but my memory is not always so good.

    Enjoyed it.

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  5. Waking up at 3.30am and posting directly does not result in a coherent post, hence the heavy editing later! Have joy with the house-sitting, Jim. Perspectives can change easily when we are in a different environment, even if temporary only. One day when I lived in the flat, it struck me strongly that things would look completely different if I lived next door!

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