Can't trust that day.
Monday, Monday
Sometimes it just turns out that way.
On Monday morning
You gave me no warning
Of what was to be.....
I had NO clue that I'd end up on Monday afternoon being locked in the boiler room at church for 40 minutes! *lol*
Here's a helpful hint ... If you are in a place that has recently changed locks on ALL the doors, carry a cell phone and screw drivers with you at all times when you go into one of those rooms!
One of our Church members, who was helping move things, mentioned that the boiler room door was locked... I said that the room was never locked before, I wonder why it is now? Another volunteer there said that the building foreman mentioned that they put a new handle and lock on that door and that the "master key" would open it. I had one of those master keys, so I went down to the Parish Hall, where the boiler room is located to unlock it for them to get into.
The key worked a bit hard, but I managed to get it open, while mentioning that we probably don't want this door locked because so many people need to get into it for servicing the water softener, boiler, using the janitor sink, etc. But, maybe we could unlock it and leave it unlocked. I noticed there was no way to do that though, no lock on the inside, and only a key lock on the outside.
Sooo, I thought, well, I'll shut the door, being inside the boiler room, and those on the outside would then try to open it and see if it was still unlocked.
YEP... it still was locked, and when I tried to turn the handle from the inside, it wouldn't open!
I was inside, with the keys, and my friends were outside laughing!
One of them suggested I slide the key under the door ... good idea! I took it off my keyring, slid it under, and they tried the lock ... NO LUCK, now the key wasn't working! After repeated tries, by many on the outside, they figured they better go get the building foreman who was just going to leave!
Luckily they got him before he left, he and another builder came down to try to get me out ... they took the outside handle off, but the inside part need to come off too. After passing a small straw under the door so I could stick it in the side hole to make the handle come off so the housing for the lock could be exposed, we discovered the screws for getting the rest of the lock off were on my side... and I had no screwdriver!
And, the hinges for the door were also on my side, inside the boiler room, and I had no way to get the bolts on the hinges off.
I started looking around in some of the odd boxes in the room, filled with dust and dirt from the recent renovations ... all I found were nails, and dead bugs!
A butter knife from the kitchen was passed under the door, but what I really needed was a phillips screwdriver, the knife wasn't working and was stripping the screws as I tried to make it work.
The friends on the outside were still laughing... and said there were about 10 people there now trying to get me out... although some were sitting there, saying they were going to bring out the beer and chips soon to watch the fun! grrrrrrrrr.. *lol*
I wasn't too worried ... as I looked around I saw I had water, the sink, there were some rolls of toilet paper there too... sooo, in the event of an emergency and I needed a bathroom, the sink could be used... luckily it didn't come to that!
I was late however by this time, for an appointment that Kasey and I had to get to with our tax man. So, I called Kasey from the boiler room to tell her I may be later yet... She thought I was kidding!
After several ideas were passed around outside by others, one which they were thinking of breaking the wood louvers of the small vent at the top of the door, I noticed the screws for the frame of that were on my side, and they weren't phillips screws ... so I was able to use the kitchen knife and get all six screws out, bang on the louvers a little, and voila!! Off it came, and just in time for the fire alarm person, who was waiting to get into the boiler room to service our new fire alarm system, who happened to have a small phillips screw driver he passed me through the opening.
After unscrewing the two screws on the lock, it came off on both sides, and they pried the bolt from the wall socket, and I was FREE!!
I think that the guys trying to get me out were more anxious about it all than I was! *LOL*!!
It was a good thing that this didn't happen to someone without a cell phone, who might have been down there with NO one around!! And good thing it didn't happen when we went back tonite to take the Fire Department through the building on a walk-thru and to see the layout! Yikes!! The fire guys all seemed to get a good chuckle from the story, as we shared it!
So, for now, that door has NO lock or handle on it ... and tomorrow is another day!
