Locked Out

The perfect storm. That's the only thing I can liken to what happened to me today. I'm outside working in my flowerbed, pulling weeds and such, and need to pop back inside for a second for whatever reason it was. Picture it: I pull the storm door open and the suction created by that action pulls the door closed, which I had left barely cracked open. I go to push on the door handle...it doesn't move. That's right, it's locked.

This particular lock is one in which I do not have a key. The seller did not have or leave one. I've never used it. I had changed all the deadbolts and other door handles out. I would have changed this decorative handle except I couldn't find one just like it. Getting something else would leave unpainted holes and such in the door...it was just never worth the trouble. The inside part of the handle's locking mechanism is fairly loose...sometimes just pushing down on the lever on the outside can cause it to turn into the locked position. So I've become rather conscious of making sure it is turned to the unlocked position and/or I just leave the door slightly cracked.

Now review the sentence about the suction created by the storm door. And just like that I was locked out. Now I'm a reasonably smart guy. And cautious in many ways. I have a contingency plan for just such a situation! No, I don't have a hidden key on my property, but rather I gave a friend a key to keep. Except this friend just happens to be in Illinois this week.

It's in the mid-90's as I walk around the house to see if any of my uber-security windows just happens to be unlatched. Of course not. As I said, I'm cautious--nay, even a bit paranoid--about my safety. Garage door is down, but that wouldn't matter because I deadbolt the door inside anyway.

It's a holiday. Locksmiths are charging double their trip rate. My insurance company is closed. So I call a friend and neighbor, Mike. He comes down and tries the credit card trick for a while, but it doesn't work. He takes out some of the weather stripping to get better access. Nothing doing. Starts taking apart the frame of the door for even better access, but the construction is such that it would just take too much.

So I called my mom in Searcy. She can't get away to even meet half-way (in Cabot) at the moment. She said it would be 2-3 hours. Okay, now I'm really nervous because my ticket to the Traveler's game/fireworks is inside and if I have to wait that long, I don't think I'll make it. But she calls back a few minutes later and says she can meet us. My good buddy Daniel drives me there and back, and now I sit back inside my house typing this incredibly lame story.

FAIL!