This Is Late Because . . .
I'm a day late posting my weekly blog--the reason being that my wife and I were driving our son back to college in New York after his spring break.
But I want to throw another reason out there, not because it prevented my blogging, but because it's never happened to me before. I was stuck on an elevator.
It happened while Wendy and I were staying at a Comfort Inn in Berlin, Ohio, where we stopped to do some shopping in Amish country before our last leg home. We got in their elevator and, after being joined by a couple other pleasant older ladies, we hit the button for the first floor. The elevator moved, dinged, stopped, and that was it.
After a few seconds it was obvious the door wasn't going to open on its own. "Push some buttons," Wendy advised the woman standing next to the elevator controls. She hit other floors, door open, door closed. Nothing. Fortunately, this was only a three-story hotel (which begs the question, why didn't we simply take the stairs, but the stairs were inconveniently located at the far end of the building).
The woman manning our elevator controls mentioned that this had happened to her and her friend on a previous trip, but in that incident they were stuck on an upper floor with nearly 20 other people. "But there were a few doctors in the elevator and they took charge right away," she added.
I pondered that for a moment, wondering what the doctors did. Did one of them face the door, yell "Clear!", then slam his doubled-up fist on the elevator door? Did they try to diagnose the problem themselves using deductive reasoning?
What I wanted to do is ask the ladies if they'd seen last year's theatrical release "Devil", a movie about a group of passengers trapped on an elevator who discover that the devil is among them. Since we were staying in a religious enclave where it's common to find prayers on restaurant menus and prayer revivals playing on television in the hotel public area, I thought my fellow passengers might see the irony in our situation. Then again I thought they may not. So I kept quiet.
More elevator buttons were pushed and eventually we called the front desk. They said they would get back to us. Meanwhile, Wendy tried to muscle the elevator door open by shoving it with her open hands. No luck there.
While we were waiting, we traded some personal information. I learned that our elevator companions were from Memphis and northern Mississippi and were on their way to Cleveland after attending some cultural event--can't remember what--in Cincinatti, Ohio. Their previous experience on a faulty elevator lasted 20 minutes and they had to climb out on a stepladder as they were stuck between floors.
Our experience paled in comparison. Our door opened after only five minutes or so, and we were on the ground floor. But it did make my wife and I a bit more reluctant to take that elevator again. But we did. "I hope this elevator doesn't act up again today," I said the next time we rode.
Hmmmmm, wonder what would happened if I said that as I entered an uncomfortably crowded elevator in some high-rise hotel in the future. Maybe it would make that elevator suddenly much less crowded. Guess I'll keep that in mind just in case.
What I wanted to do is ask the ladies if they'd seen last year's theatrical release "Devil", a movie about a group of passengers trapped on an elevator who discover that the devil is among them. Since we were staying in a religious enclave where it's common to find prayers on restaurant menus and prayer revivals playing on television in the hotel public area, I thought my fellow passengers might see the irony in our situation. Then again I thought they may not. So I kept quiet.
More elevator buttons were pushed and eventually we called the front desk. They said they would get back to us. Meanwhile, Wendy tried to muscle the elevator door open by shoving it with her open hands. No luck there.
While we were waiting, we traded some personal information. I learned that our elevator companions were from Memphis and northern Mississippi and were on their way to Cleveland after attending some cultural event--can't remember what--in Cincinatti, Ohio. Their previous experience on a faulty elevator lasted 20 minutes and they had to climb out on a stepladder as they were stuck between floors.
Our experience paled in comparison. Our door opened after only five minutes or so, and we were on the ground floor. But it did make my wife and I a bit more reluctant to take that elevator again. But we did. "I hope this elevator doesn't act up again today," I said the next time we rode.
Hmmmmm, wonder what would happened if I said that as I entered an uncomfortably crowded elevator in some high-rise hotel in the future. Maybe it would make that elevator suddenly much less crowded. Guess I'll keep that in mind just in case.
posted by Big Dave T @ 6:06 PM
8 Comments:
Elevators fit in the category with cars, phones, computers, etc., in that they are wonderful when they work and absolutely awful when they don't. I am mildly claustrophobic, and when elevators do that, I'm suddenly terribly claustrophobic!
Better you than me! You seemed to handle it well.
LYNILU--If I were up on the 57th floor or something like that, I wouldn't have been handling it so well. Enclosed spaces I'm fine with, so long as they're on the ground or close enough to it.
At least you and Wendy were together as you waited out the interval in the elevator. I worked at a hotel here in Nebraska and the elevator was near the reception desk and stairs on either end of the building. For me, it was quicker to just take the stairs. Not a big fan of elevators.
I had not heard of the movie "Devil" so I added it to our Netflix queue. Thanks for mentioning it.
TECHNOBABE--Just to let you know, that "Devil" movie didn't garner very good reviews. Not one of M. Night Shymalan's better efforts.
Hi Dave ~~ Too true 2 ears versus 1 mouth. Glad you enjoyed the jokes and I liked the leopard and the dog one best myself. Sorry your grandson is wearing you both down a bit. It
gets better in time. Elevators are
great when they work well. I rarely have to go on them now, I'm glad to say. We have a couple of Subway restaurants in Shepparton and still we get no chips. Take care my friend.
Regards, Merle.
I remember being stuck on an elevator in the State of California building in Downtown LA. I really got sort of panicked when I used the call phone in the elevator and told the guy we wwre stuck in the elevator and he said very clamly... " we;ll try and get someone up there in a half hour or so. ~ j///b
Being trapped on an elevator is wrong at many levels.
And, is there anything worse than elevator music?
I always take the stairs because I have a phobia of being caught on an elevator with a Wolverine who won't stop talking about how Ann Arbor is the center of the universe. Wait, I repeat myself; I could have just put the period after Wolverine.
LZBLOGGER--I guess if they'd told us we had a 30-minute wait, we'd have made up a story--maybe a pregnant woman in labor or something like that.
YOGA IN MIRRORMONT--You have a phobia of being caught with a Wolverine who won't stop talking about the U of M . . . yet, you still come here. Hmmmmm. Well, did you hear our hockey team is in the frozen four? How about that undefeated Michigan wrestler who won the NCAA national championship a couple weeks ago. And did you see that ESPN documentary on the Fab Five? Great piece of journalism . . .
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