:: Captain's Personal Blog ::

Stardate: Thursday, January 24, 2002

Let's hear it for the affirmation that you are still alive!

While this wasn't one of those life-changing, find God, turn your life around, experiences, it certainly was fun.

I was just stuck in the elevator in my building!!! YAY ME! It was a cool story. A girl got on the elevator with me in the lobby. Once the doors closed and we started moving, we could smell smoke. The elevator started jerking up and down and stuttering. It finally stopped just above the 16th floor which was her destination. The doors opened, we were still moving slowly. She jumped out.

The poor girl hit her head on the top of the doorway and landed wrong. Later, I found out that she sprained her ankle. Anyway, the doors closed and I continued up. Then I started down. Then up and then down, jerking all the way. The display was showing all kinds of numbers. The last one I saw before it went out was 20. Finally the car stopped and filled with a fine smoke. I pulled the alarm. I also heard a noise as if a small nut or bolt or something fell onto the top of the car.

Security answered my call, told me to stay calm and called the engineer. Over the intercom I listened to them try all kinds of things, occasionally asking me if the car was moving. Each time, I answered "No."

Finally, the said that the fire department was on it's way and that I was to hold tight, which I did. I found myself surprisingly calm in this situation. Finally the firemen came to get me. They had me bang on the car so they could locate me. When they found me, the asked me to try prying the doors open. I could. Then I pried the outer doors open. There was a security guard and mechanic there to greet me. The helped me out, and told me the scoop.

It seems that the motor to the elevator died. It just burned out, which was what the smoke was from. There was no way the elevator would run again this day. They saidt hat I was lucky that the elevator stopped close to the doors. Anywhere else and they would have had to "pull me out sideways," whatever that means.

This was also when I found out about the poor girl on 16. I hope she's OK. Evidently the fire alarm went off while I was in there, and all my co-workers thought there was something seriously wrong. Heh heh heh.

Anyway, there are many more intricacies to this story, but I am WAY too juiced to go into it now, suffice it to say, I am glad I am here and OK. More on this soon, maybe.
:: J 6:43 PM [+] ::
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