I Was Ready to Pull a Kate

I decided to take my garbage out this morning as I was leaving for work. Sounds ordinary enough, right? Our garbage area is a little alley in between my apartment building and the building next door. You enter it through a door leading out of my apartment's laundry area, and the door locks behind you, so if you intend to go back in, you have to either prop open that door with something (we don't have keys for it), or go all the way outside onto the sidewalk through a little gate, and come back in through the front door. My plan was to just drop the garbage in the bin, and head out through the gate into the world beyond, so I didn't see any need to prop open the laundry room door.
Garbage deposited, I turn the knob on the gate to head out. The handle is slippery with rain and I can't get a firm grip on it to turn. I pull a kleenex out of my pocket (I can't vouch for a lack of snot, sorry) and dry off the handle. Yes, I've got a grip now. But it won't turn! Shit! I keep trying, but it's no use. I turn back around and try to open the laundry room door, on the off chance that it decided not to lock this time. Nope. Crappity! How the hell am I supposed to get out of here?
I can't climb over the gate itself because barbed wire is strung along the top. A 3-foot-tall cement wall topped by a 3-foot-tall chain link fence separates me from the yard of the building next door. Difficult, but I think I could manage climbing over it all. Scramble up, then hop on down, hoping for the grace of a character on "Lost." It will be my last resort, though. I have another idea.
I call my neighbor Joe, hoping he is still home and can let me back in so that I can get out. Damn! His phone goes straight to voicemail. I leave a message, then proceed to wrestle with the doorknob again. Wait! I know one more neighbor's phone number! I give up on fiddling with the gate for a second, and start dialing Karen's number. All of a sudden, I hear a click. The gate pops open. I'm free! I snap my phone shut and head out. I was sort of excited abouting trying to climb over a fence at 9:00 a.m. That's okay, I probably would have just fallen over.
Moral of this story: if you live in an apartment building, it's handy to have the phone number of at least one neighbor. Also, watching "Lost" inspires athletic ability you probably don't have.