Lisa Carter Waring: When stuck without your phone, think like MacGyver – The Fayetteville Observer

Last week I went down to the barn to feed our horse, Butter Bean. When I got inside the barn, I began my regular routine. I gave her a scoop of grain, a pad of hay and her Redbird peppermint treat.

All of a sudden, a gust of wind blew the barn door shut. The door has an outside latch and there is no inside handle.

I thought to myself, Well, that's just great. I am locked up inside the barn.

I looked around and the only two visible openings were where Butter Bean gets her grain and gets her hay. Both are about 10 feet off the ground in her stall. Each had something under the opening, one being a grain bucket and the other a metal hay feeder. I knew if I tried to climb out of either I would at best break my leg and at worst break my neck. Plus Butter Bean wouldnt budge from the grain bucket.

I looked around and there were two glass windows that dont open. I surely didn't want to break one of them because we would have to replace it. Then there was the front swinging window that is made out of an old barn door. It was closed and my husband Mike had placed a lot of old boards, another barn door and a lot of other stuff up against it.

I figured I would have to call Mike to come and let me out of the barn. That is when I realized I left my cell phone in the car. Since I was only running in and out, I didnt think I would need it.

Oh great!" I thought to myself. I realized then I was really stuck in the barn.

I was glad I told Mike where I was going but I began to wonder how long it would be before he looked for me. I decided I had to take matters into my own hands. I thought to myself, What would MacGyver do?"

Some of you may remember MacGyver, the title character from a television show that aired between 1985 and 1992. It was about a government agent that had an uncanny knack for problem-solving in tough situations.

I decided the swinging window was my best bet. I moved every board, every piece of plywood, the old barn door and everything else from in front of the wooden window over the porch. I prayed I would be able to figure out how to get that large wooden window open. I noticed a rubber bungee cord with a hook on the ceiling. It took every bit of strength I had but I managed to pull up the heavy wooden window and connect the hook on the window to the hook on the bungie cord hanging from the ceiling.

It opened the large window about half way but it was large enough for me to get out. Then I thought about the bungee cord. It was obviously old and if it broke while I was not all the way out, that heavy piece of wood would swing closed and smash me like a potato.

I tugged on it a few times and it held. So I counted to three, ran and rolled onto the window ledge and then put my legs down to lower myself to the porch. Butter Bean was still eating, by the way.

I called Mike on my way home and told home what happened and I think he is still laughing. He did rig up a hay string to pull the latch from inside the barn the following morning.

Moral of the story: Always carry your cell phone, even if you are running in and out of somewhere and if you do by chance get stuck and there appears to be no way out, simply ask yourself What would MacGyver do?

Excerpt from:
Lisa Carter Waring: When stuck without your phone, think like MacGyver - The Fayetteville Observer