Jack just gets under or over the wire in time this week
I finished my guest post last week about the re-roofing of our house, with a comment about the rain barrel being installed on the upstairs balcony at the back of the place. You access the balcony via a door off the landing at the top of our stairs.
This was clearly foreshadowing for Jack’s Big Adventure on Friday past… I had fitted a valve and attached a hose to eventually have the rain barrel feed our washing machine; Wendy wants to “reduce our footprint.” On Friday morning I went out in the drizzling rain to check that everything was secure and working and not sending rain straight down into the room below. As the balcony door behind me closed, I heard a click.
I had locked myself out!!
Wendy was in Knoxville, I didn’t have my phone and from this angle behind the house no neighbors would see or hear me. The rail on the balcony is fifteen feet off the ground below, which is a concrete slab. Drizzle turned to deluge as I debated what to do next.
I tried kicking the door to no avail. The nearest section of newly installed roof was wet and slippery and it felt unsafe to try again.
Then, I noticed the hose, coiled like a rope at the side of the balcony….
So I wound it around the corner post and let it dangle down, I clambered up onto the barrel and over the rail and then I grasped the hose to lower myself gently down.
A rubber hose in the rain isn’t something you can easily grasp; it’s rather like trying to hold the inside of a banana peel.
As the hose slipped through my grip I remembered my Dad stepping backwards off a painting tressle in the late 1950s and breaking both his ankles. He spent months in hospital recovering and every time it rained he had pain – – Time stretched as the hose slipped through my hands, and I wondered which bones I would break. Fate intervened. Just below was a tub full of empty cans we save for recycling. I broke the tub as the tub broke my fall, but none of my bones broke.
When I told Wendy what happened, she sent a couple of friends to check on me. We had a jolly supper together. You have to admit, it’s a funny story now that it’s safely over.
The moral of the story – always have your phone with you and friends close by!
Wendy Welch: Books, Yarn, Cats, Opioids 
I am so deeply glad that worse did not happen to you! I am only a bit younger than you, but live alone, and am now so conscious of possibilities of falls, or other mishaps when out of the house alone. I Religiously discipline myself to take my phone with me when out for a walk or only taking the trash to the shed where my landlady picks it up for disposal on weekends. I will keep this story in mind, you can be assured!
If Wendy had been home, it would have been a good laugh. As she wasn’t, it still turned out all right, but it could have been different!
Where I go, My Phone goes.
In my theory, If you take it wherever you go, you’ll be fine, if not, you’ll be in a jam
Don’t get into a jam.
Glad everything turned out alright.
Accurate!
Might be a good idea to put one of those fire escape ladders that latch onto something sturdy to climb down in the event of another lock out, fire, etc. to lower oneself to the ground.
We plan to do just that thanks for the idea!
yes Sir….as Wendy has told you, I slipped on wet tile floor and down I went…still in a cast for my ankle. (up to my knee)…guess doc wasn’t sure which end the ankle is on.
So glad it turned out ok for you.
Maybe WE youngsters should not be as adventurous as we once were???
Heal quickly!
So happy for a safe conclusion! Living with a husband with two broken ankles! SO pleased to read of a different outcome! Stay safe, Jack AND Wendy!!
Wow! Prayers for good healing