I was doing a small repair job on some steps leading up to a screened- in porch and had to remove part of the outside joist, which was also the top riser for the steps. I pulled out the rotted joist, leaving a section of the porch floor with nothing under it. Then I discovered that the flooring was rotted away under- neath the aluminum threshold, so I cut a section out of that. While pulling a few rusty fasteners out of the flooring, the vice grips fell into the dirt crawl under the porch, so I dived in after them. I streched down as far as possible with my abs squeezed down against the top step, when the screen door, which was badly out of plumb, closed and latched over the small of my back. It took a few seconds to realize I was trapped! Furthermore, the people who lived there had gone to a wedding, so it was just me and the two parrots in a cage on the porch. I tried yelling for help as there was a fairly busy street just a few yards away, but all I got was a squawking reply from the parrots. Finally someone approached and I heard a woman's voice say, "Hello, are you allright?" At that moment , every story I'd ever heard about tradesmen's cracks being exposed while stooping over, flashed before my eyes, but after 20 minutes of agony, I was free.
- posted
20 years ago