This happened a year ago January, and was actually kinda scarey. I needed to take out the trash and as I opened the outer storm door I had to force it a bit because of ice/snow. BRUTALLY cold, snowy, and windy, so I had on my heavy jacket, boots, gloves, and also wrapped a heavy scarf around my head and neck. Guess I was at the dumpster for a couple minutes, removing snow/ice from top of recycle bin. So I walked back to my back door, and it wouldn’t open. Frozen shut!! Oh, nooooo! I pulled very hard several times, beat on it, tried to pry……..no good. It was getting colder fast. I ran to a couple neighbors but no one was home. Continued to try to pry the door. It (handle) would not budge. Didn’t have my keys so getting in the front door was not an option. My face and hands (even with gloves) were getting dangerously cold. PANIC! For a second I considered running into the street and trying to flag someone down for help. But then....... I thought of the scene in “Dumb & Dumber” where one of the guys puts his tongue on a pole. Well, I certainly didn’t want to get my tongue stuck! I took a deep breath, cupped my hands over my mouth and breathed warm air onto the handle over and over. When I saw it move a bit I licked it (yeah, I know…eeewww) while blowing my warm breath. Finally, it thawed and I opened the door!! Yay! And, lesson learned: Prop the door open next time if it's sub-zero. Amazing how creative we can be when options are limited. After my success I breathed a big sigh of relief, rinsed my mouth out, sat down and chuckled. I thought "Did I really just do that?" Do you have a Desperate Times/Desperate Measures story?
On day as I was leaving I went out the front door, setting it to lock when I closed it, I saw a Doberman Pincher across the street. I wondered about it because no one in our neighborhood had such a dog. I didn't think much about it though as he was across the street and heading away from my house. When I shut the door he turned and saw me and started running toward me at full speed. I started to get my key to unlock the door but realized there wasn't time. I was just going to have to face him and hope for the best. When the dog jumped on the porch he slid right into me. He then started whining and rubbing against me and licking my hand. I guess the poor dog had been lost for awhile and was just glad to see someone. I petted him and went in the house and found something for him to eat. I had to leave then and I never saw him again. I hope he found his way home.
I was up near the top of a 12-foot step-ladder, three or four steps from the top, in the receiving area of a big store, working on an electrical box, when suddenly, the ladder was hit and tipping over! Instantly, my heart leapt into my throat, thought "I'm dead". I grasped the top of the ladder with one hand, and swung the other arm out, luckily grasping a hanging light fixture, just as the ladder was about to go over! Managed to pull it back upright using all my strength, breathing like a marathon runner. Looked down, a young guy running one of those small electric lift trucks, had run it right into the ladder. I screamed a string of obscenities relating to his ancestry at him. His boss, the Shipping/Receiving Supervisor, hollered loudly, it wasn't his fault, he did not do it on purpose! That guy received a few choice words, too. My own boss, hearing of this, had a little "talk" with the Supervisor. I think that instant was the most terrifying of my whole life! Frank