Elevator Drama
Something odd happened to me this afternoon. I was riding the elevator from the basement of Tan hall to the fourth floor, as I often do, and somewhere between floors 1 and 2, the elevator shook up and down for a few seconds and then stopped. After five minutes of futile button pushing, I gave up and pushed for the "emergency call", which immediably connected me to the university's 911 service. I explained my situation and the guy said he would call the other guy and get things sorted out. So far so good.
Flash forward a half hour: nothing has happened so far. I tried and was able to pry the door open, revealing a few feet of the outter doors of the first floor, but those guys wouldn't budge. I would have been more patient, perhaps, if I hadn't of course finished a large cup of coffee immediately beforehand. So I call the 911 guy again, asking for something of an update. He seemed a little annoyed and brusquely told me he would call the electrician again, as though I'm a jerk for wanting to get out of this potential death trap.
Ten minutes pass and the electrician shows up, prys open the first floor doors and I hop out. Crisis averted. So he asks me how long I've been in there, and when I tell him "about forty-five minutes" he says "huh. I only got the call ten minutes ago."
So I ax you, to whom do I direct my rage? 911 guy or electrician guy?
Comments
Probably the dispatcher for the electricians. Chances are the 911 alerted him to this. Then he was lazy and did nothing about it. Then, he got a second call from the 911 guy and went "oops, guess I need to call that electrician ... hope nobody is dead ..."
Posted by: A.J. | October 24, 2005 11:07 PM
Blame Everybody. The whole world is out to get you, from the designers of the elevator, to security, to the electricians. Personally, I would go punch a mechanical engineer as soon as possible.
Posted by: Charles | October 25, 2005 06:10 AM
Blame yourself for not using the opportunity to climb out onto the top of the elevator, secret agent style. I'm not sure what this would have accomplished, but it seems likely to have been awesome.
Posted by: tom | October 25, 2005 06:21 AM
I felt like a fool for not jumping out, secret agent-style earlier, but I had visions of the elevetor starting again while I was halfway out.
If I had had a hat that I would drop and then need to reach back in at the last possible moment and grab, I would have considered it more seriously.
Posted by: jeff | October 25, 2005 07:43 AM
I can't believe you'd even consider blaming an electrician for September 11.
Posted by: Kriston | October 25, 2005 09:45 AM
Blame those assclowns at Otis for making substandard elevators that get stuck.
Was this the freight 'vator or the passenger one. I hate that freight elevator.
Posted by: joe | October 26, 2005 10:55 AM