Locked Doors
Over the past couple of weeks my Yorkshire terrier, Socrates, has been having an issue with the upstairs bathroom. He would beg to go into that bathroom whenever the door was closed. Once let in, he would sniff around the far corner of the tub and whine, and then he would sit and stare at the tub. So, I, being curious, began watching him closely. I even picked him up and let him see inside the tub and showed him there was nothing there.
About mid-week last week, I thought I heard something in the ceiling above my dressing table (downstairs) and told Eric that he might need to check it out, as the dog was acting funny around the upstairs tub and maybe one of the neighborhood cats had gotten into the garage and under the floor in that area (again)…or worse one of those blasted raccoons had gotten in! He said that he had boarded it up, so it would be hard for them to get in, but he would check it out.
Well, a few days go by and Socrates was still going crazy in the bathroom. However, I had not heard anything else running around in there, So, on Sunday I decided that he must be attracted to an odor that my human nose was not sensing, and I gave the bathroom, which Cora normally cleans, a very thorough “momma” cleaning. Socrates went into the bathroom after I was done, sniffed around all over the place looking for the scent and after a few trips around the room, he gave up and went away. I thought – well, that’s that! I’ll have to teach Cora to clean better.
Yesterday, Cora and I got home and Socrates greeted us as normal, but immediately he runs to the back of the house to the spare bedroom and around the bed to the corner. Cora followed him and looked under the bed to make sure her cat or some other cat had not gotten into the house, as has happened in the past. Nope, nothing there, so Cora pulled Socrates out of the room and they went outside for a while. As soon as they are back in the house he was back in the spare room like a shot and on the other side of the bed again, sniffing and looking.
I headed down the stairs with the step stool to access the drop ceiling in my dressing room to see if there was anything under the floor/above my head that was attracting his attention. I geared up with an 800 lumens flashlight, and my 9 iron – (I’ll take the 9 iron to a raccoon real quick!)
Here’s where this story takes an unexpected turn.
The step stool is not high enough for me to get a good visual, so I went into the garage to retrieve the ladder in order to get into the drop ceiling and find what had interested Socrates so much.
I grabbed the 6-foot ladder and put it outside the door and turned to look at my husband’s handy-work to keep critters out of the crawlspaces and garage, when suddenly the garage door closed. I didn’t think anything about it and continued to look around for a couple of minutes. When finished, I went to open the door to complete my search within the ceiling tiles, and the door would not open! I think I must have turned the lock out of habit when I removed the key, so I turned it to unlock and it still would not open. Hmmm – door handle was stuck, so I turned harder. It would not budge. I yelled for Cora, who fortunately was actually listening for a change!
I had Cora try to turn the handle from outside and still it would not budge. I was locked in and there was nothing I could do quickly. I didn’t have my cell phone on me, so I had Cora call Eric. Cora was scared because I was locked in and was trying to talk to me through a steel door, but I could barely hear her – and that only added to my mounting frustration. She finally was able to relay that her daddy would be home in 10 minutes, to which I responded, “That’s not quick enough!” My thoughts were that when he says 10 minutes he shows up an hour or so later – so she called him again…
That’s also when I realized that I was about to panic. All sorts of bad thoughts were going through my head. I started looking out the window to see if someone was around to take my Cora. Then I started to think I could smell fire – (geez the tricks your mind can play on you!). But no way in hell was I going to give in to that!
So, I began looking for ways to get out. The roll up garage door could not be opened because it had a padlock on it. And the key? Not where Eric placed it! No hacksaw was going to cut the lock either.
I finally found tools I could use to work on the door.
I worked on the door and got the handle off, but the lock actuator was frozen. I found a pry bar and tried to push the lock, no luck. Panic is sitting at the back of my head trying to force its way to the surface. I put the door handle back together and told Cora to go and get my keys, thinking that maybe, just maybe the key will miraculously open the door…panic is rising…
Then Eric arrives.
Eric – My love; my life; my other half; my knight in shining armor has arrived. All panic evaporates, completely and totally. (Slowly to be replaced with irritation – not really, I just thought that sounded funny?.)
Seriously though, Eric first tried his key, no luck. So, he got his tools out and asked me to remove the door handle again. He tried much of the same things I did, just from a from a different angle, and then a few different things; still no luck. By this time I had been in the garage for about an hour.
Then I tell him I am going to remove the hinges – something I thought of earlier, but nixed because there was no way little Cora could have pushed the door in. So, I spend about 15 minutes working to get the hinge pins removed – the bottom one was more than a pain in the butt! Eric told me to stand aside and he pushed against the doors, banged on the door, hit the door – and the only thing happening was the frame was shaking!
AAAARRRRGH! I felt like I was never going to get out of the freaking garage!
Finally, I placed the pry bar next to the top hinge and he hit the door, it popped loose; then the middle hinge and it popped loose; then the bottom hinge – and the damned door slammed back into place! We started again – this time the pry bar went to the bottom hinge first and it popped free, then I put the pry bar on the top hinge and it popped free – Eric told me to stand back and then the door hit the floor.
I’M FRREEEE! I literally flung my arms around Eric’s neck and kissed him!
I have never been claustrophobic in my life and our garage is rather large – however, being locked up in a place where I cannot get out definitely is not my idea of fun. It tends to cause the walls to close in on you a bit and makes a person have thoughts that can lead to panic attacks. It’s a good thing that I don’t have those problems.
I am thankful it was me that got locked in the garage and not Cora – and I am so thankful I have such a wonderful husband that left his client and came home immediately to take care of his wife.
Want to know what happened with my search of the crawl space?
Not much yet, still investigating that – it appears that something has been in there. What? I am unsure – but I will find out and there will most likely be a post on that when I do.
Peace Out!
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