(no subject)
I had promised Evan I would do a load of laundry while he was in Lexington for the weekend, so this morning I got up, got the dark wash together, and took the elevator to the basement laundry room. I got the wash started, got back in the elevator, and pressed the button for floor 3. Nothing happened. I pushed it again. I tried the basement button, I tried the "door open" button, I tried all the buttons. Nothing. Yep, I had managed to get into an elevator exactly five seconds before the entire building lost power. But I didn't know that part, then. The auxiliary power was keeping the elevator lit. All I knew is that the buttons weren't doing anything. I tried the "call" button to call for help, but was met with only a busy signal. I don't think the call button actually goes anywhere. So I pressed the alarm button, and a buzzer sounded. I couldn't tell if it was doing any good. So I pounded on the door. I alternated between door pounding and buzzer sounding for a good fifteen minutes, thinking about how I shouldn't have left my apartment door unlocked and how by the time I got out someone might have walked off with our brand-new computer. I wished I had a cell phone on me. Finally, I thought I heard voices, so I buzzed the alarm some more and called out. I heard someone on the other side reply, "Okay, okay, hold on." After another five minutes or so, I could hear some kind of mechanical operation being carried out on the other side. Someone called, "Hello?" I said, "Yeah?" He replied, "Okay, just checking." I said, "I'm still in here." I could hear a low chuckle. And finally I watched the door pried open manually with the help of a crowbar-looking tool. Low and behold, all three of the maintenance dudes who work in the building were there (I've met all of them on various occasions, and they are very nice and helpful.). I thanked them for getting me out and apologized for the trouble. "Oh, no," one said, "you did good. At least you didn't panic. Some people panic." Another told me that it seemed my energy company has planned a 3-hour outage for maintenance without telling any of the building operators. He advised me to make a very irate phone call to the energy company and tell them just where I was during this unannounced but planned outage.