Indifference in an elevator
So, I spent some time this morning stuck in an elevator. I don’t know if you’ve ever had this experience, but it’s seriously unpleasant.
feinsodville describes his experience being in a stuck elevator. While annoying, it was thankfully uneventful, but clearly created a lingering upset. I can sympathize.
I’ve had two elevator experiences. One short, one long.
The long one sucked. During a stint as a bike messenger I was stuck in an officer tower elevator near the 50th floor for about an hour. I was soaked because it was raining and cold because of the industrial freezer type air conditioning these large office towers always have cranking. It was just me and two business men. They weren’t speaking loudly in German, but they clearly didn’t want to be there, especially with the grungy bike messenger leaving a huge puddle on the floor. No one sat, because after about 15 minutes there was no dry place to sit. The elevator never moved, but we contacted the building staff through the intercom. I told them how many of us were in the elevator and gave them our names, which wasn’t real encouraging. There was no fear, just annoyance. My only real concerns were that time in the elevator was costing me $$ and hypothermia, because I was soaking wet and it was about 40 degrees in the elevator. The elevator started up without further incident, we all got off on the ground floor and I went about my business.
The short one sucked more. The elevator fell. Far. During college, two friends and I were riding an elevator to the ground floor in one of the taller dorms. After some other occupants got out on an upper floor, the doors closed, the elevator jerked hard and then dropped about 6 floors. It stopped sharply. After a brief pause the inner doors opened, but the outer doors didn’t. A few seconds later the doors closed and the elevator continued to the ground floor at a more normal rate of speed. We got out and notified the building staff what happened. I’m pretty sure I spent the rest of the semester taking the stairs.
