Never A Dull Moment

Upon returning to the apartment Thursday night after work, Peggy and I noticed a nearby neighborhood lit up like Christmas. She took some pictures from her balcony and I attempted to do the same from mine. I took my camera out to my balcony, careful to close the door behind me so as not to let in any skeeters. Little did I realize that the door, which I have had trouble latching from the inside before, would now automatically lock. I proceeded to fiddle with the camera until I could get a shot I was happy with. Time for bed. But no. The door was locked and I was stuck.

Here I was on the ninth floor, at 3 am, locked out on the balcony. My BlackBerry was on my nightstand since I had just taken it off before I went outside. I could not call anyone to alert them to my dilemma. Even if I could call, no one could get in. I had already bolted the front door closed. Panic started to set in. How would I get in? How could I let someone know? There was NO ONE out at 3 am and if there was would they answer my pleas or just think I was crazy. I actually peered around to the balcony next door but saw no lights. I figured that I wouldn't answer if someone came knocking at my balcony door at 3 am, so I was pretty sure they wouldn't either.

I started to run through my options, which were few. I jiggled and jimmied and knocked and pounded on the sliding glass door, hoping to somehow unlatch it. It wasn't budging. I tried to pull it out of the track but could only pull the middle panel out a bit at the bottom. I even tried to wedge myself into the small opening I created at the bottom by pulling it out of the track. That only managed to get my left leg lodged in the door up to the hip. Nothing else was going in.

I was going to have to break the glass, but it was 1/4" thick. There was no room to make a running start at it. The only thing on the balcony was the drying rack, which was not very substantial. Pounding it with my fist was only effective in hurting my fist.

I went back to the middle panel and pulled it as far as I could. Then I started working it back and forth. The glass cracked. I tried to kick where it cracked but that made no difference. I pulled one more time on the panel and finally the entire door shattered. What a noise it made! Or was that my heart beating? Luckily I was not cut at all and was able to step over the glass and back into the apartment. I put on some Deet before I went to bed because those pesky skeeters could now freely enter the apartment through the broken panel.