OK, got thirsty about 1:30…but I have no cash, so I head down to the ATM, and pull $40, and head over to McDonalds to get a Super Size Diet Coke, No Ice. 44 oz, $2, not a bad deal for the airport, really.
However, they have no Supersize cups left. *kthxbyemkay*
Head on over to Hudson Books, so’s I can breaks me $20 and hit the soda machine down on the ramp. Buy a Reeses Stix for $1.07, and take my change back down the concourse to the elevator. Here’s where it gets skeeery.
Take the elevator down from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor. (not yet…wait for it…)
Step outside about a dozen steps to the Coke Machine, and get a Coke Zero (Scary as that is, that’s not it!)
Come back to the elevator, and it’s already been called to another level. It always is…frustrating as can be. I think “Hmm…I could take the stairs up 3 levels – it’d be better for me!”
The elevator arrives from teh third floor, and 3 guys get out. I get it, badge, press the 3 button, and the elevator starts going up…(ooh…still waiting?)
Several tenths of a second after it starts moving, it starts making an *horrific* noise, vibrating, and generally sounding and feeling like it’s jammed on something, or the brakes are out and dragging on the frame or…something. (Yeah, here it is…glad you’re still with me.) It’s also bucking up and down about an inch or so, and it sounds and feels like the spool is still trying to wind up the cable… Great…the cable will snap, and I’ll plunge 5 stories to my death after spending $2000 on new furniture *LAST NIGHT*. (though, on reflection, you gotta love no-interest-until-long-after-you-get-your-taxes-back – makes things *much* more affordable sooner than usual.)
After a long-assed time, the elevator, herky-jerkys it’s way up past the second floor, and gets stuck *almost* to the third floor. (the indicator says 3 but the doors won’t open.) I’ve already pressed the Panic button, and called maintenance control, and once they’re advised of the situation, I take stock of my life…
Everyone’s gotta die sometime, and it sneaks up on most of us.
I learned today that, as I’ve suspected for years and years and years (since I was a teenager) that I’m really, truly at peace with the thought of dying. A little bit bummed that things aren’t quite the way I’d want them arranged after the big event…If I died today, it’d be kind of financially hard on Val, and I don’t like that idea. I need to update my beneficiary kinds of stuff more sooner than later. But other than that, it’s been a good life, and I’m OK with that.
So, anyway, I decide that if the elevator *is* going to snap the cable, it’s a modern elevator and will probably just fall a couple inches until the brakes lock it tight in the shaft. But I lie down on the floor to spread the impact, just in case.
After another couple of minutes of the elevator bouncing up and down a little, and making a horrendous racket, it finally shuts off…the floor indicator and button panel get dark, and the elevator slowly descends to the Basement…
Where I get twice the exercise I would have by just taking the stairs in the first place.
Listen to that inner voice and take the stairs…trust me on this one, m’kay?
(Popping Xanex just READING about this)
Wow… I’m sure you would have been fine… brakes and all… Elevators are pretty darned safe… But that is absolutely NOT what is going to go on in anyone’s head in the midsts of one breaking down.
I’m glad you’re okay…
Thanks, Rabbit! 🙂
Yeah, I’m *fairly* sure that the brakes would catch the cab…especially since is sounded like the brakes being applied was kinda the problem in the first place?
I did keep thinking…”elevators have been safe since the 20’s…nothing to see here, move along”
Kinda hard to keep that in mind when the brakes are dragging on the frameposts, and the motor is howling and the elevator is bouncing up and down about an inch, because the cable is stretching and releasing, stretching and releasing, as the clutch on the windy-motor thingie engages and disengages…
Most of all, I was surprised at just how freaking *calm* I was about it. I told Val, and she had the same reaction you did… Said she’d have been screaming for someone to get here out….NOW!
Me? Lay down on the floor, and ponder the fact that I may or may not be stuck here a while, and if I am stuck here a while, and *then* it crashes, my last meal may well wind up being Reese’s Sticks and Coke Zero.
*grin*