I survived the Polaris 22 Inferno...Three Times!
And I have the pin to prove it. SRSLY.
The "inferno" of which I speak occurred during the wee hours of Sunday morning -- beginning at 6 AM. Yes, dear friends, I have now gone through a fire alarm in a Canadian hotel...three times. The 6 AM one confused the hell out of me because I thought my alarm was going off. It's a long beep, beep, beep type alarm. So once SoccerRef and I were coherent, we got out of bed, got dressed and then grabbed Boo who was not dealing with the loudness very well. We made the trek down the seven flights to the outside in time to see the fire company arrive. Boo thought that was the greatest thing ever. Me, not so much. After receiving the all clear, we went back up to our room and slept until I had to get up around 8 to go to a meeting.
While we were in our meeting, about 9'ish, the alarm went off again. This time I was on the top floor, but with Canadian friends who explained that the first part of the alarm is just an attention type thing to alert you to a problem. The first alarm should have been followed by an announcement, but it wasn't. The second one was. My friends and fellow concom members explained that if it was really a problem, the beeps would be faster. These were still the slow ones that sounded like an alarm clock. Just as I started to relax a little, the beeps sped up indicating it was truly a problem and the announcement repeated over and over that there was an emergency and the fire company had been called. Wonderful. My first thoughts were about Boo and SoccerRef -- where were they? Were they okay? I wanted to cry because I hated being separated from my family during an emergency like that, but I had a job to do so I sucked it up and did what needed to be done. Once we were outside and had things under control, I texted SoccerRef to make sure he and Boo were fine. They were. It was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.
We were given the all clear to go back into the hotel, but not ten minutes later the alarm went off again. For the third time the fire company showed up -- this time the Fire Marshall pulled up as well. He looked none too happy and neither did anyone else, but I suppose being rousted out of bed first at six and then at nine after hours of partying the night before probably doesn't make for happy campers, ya know? The final all-clear was given and we went back inside again. This time we were told that it was a bad sensor. 'F' for fun. Oh yes.
We managed to get the con started just a few minutes later than usual, but we were back on schedule in very short order. By late morning, one of the dealers who was selling pins at his table had made one that said "I survived the Polaris 22 inferno...three times!". It was brilliant on his part. I think every attendee, guest and concom member sported the pin by the end of the day. I felt like I was part of a fraternity -- a twisted, crazy fraternity. *g*
Though I didn't find it funny while we were going through it, I'm finding it quite amusing now. However, that could just be the exhaustion talking.
P.S. The icon is shareable for fellow "survivors". :D
The "inferno" of which I speak occurred during the wee hours of Sunday morning -- beginning at 6 AM. Yes, dear friends, I have now gone through a fire alarm in a Canadian hotel...three times. The 6 AM one confused the hell out of me because I thought my alarm was going off. It's a long beep, beep, beep type alarm. So once SoccerRef and I were coherent, we got out of bed, got dressed and then grabbed Boo who was not dealing with the loudness very well. We made the trek down the seven flights to the outside in time to see the fire company arrive. Boo thought that was the greatest thing ever. Me, not so much. After receiving the all clear, we went back up to our room and slept until I had to get up around 8 to go to a meeting.
While we were in our meeting, about 9'ish, the alarm went off again. This time I was on the top floor, but with Canadian friends who explained that the first part of the alarm is just an attention type thing to alert you to a problem. The first alarm should have been followed by an announcement, but it wasn't. The second one was. My friends and fellow concom members explained that if it was really a problem, the beeps would be faster. These were still the slow ones that sounded like an alarm clock. Just as I started to relax a little, the beeps sped up indicating it was truly a problem and the announcement repeated over and over that there was an emergency and the fire company had been called. Wonderful. My first thoughts were about Boo and SoccerRef -- where were they? Were they okay? I wanted to cry because I hated being separated from my family during an emergency like that, but I had a job to do so I sucked it up and did what needed to be done. Once we were outside and had things under control, I texted SoccerRef to make sure he and Boo were fine. They were. It was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.
We were given the all clear to go back into the hotel, but not ten minutes later the alarm went off again. For the third time the fire company showed up -- this time the Fire Marshall pulled up as well. He looked none too happy and neither did anyone else, but I suppose being rousted out of bed first at six and then at nine after hours of partying the night before probably doesn't make for happy campers, ya know? The final all-clear was given and we went back inside again. This time we were told that it was a bad sensor. 'F' for fun. Oh yes.
We managed to get the con started just a few minutes later than usual, but we were back on schedule in very short order. By late morning, one of the dealers who was selling pins at his table had made one that said "I survived the Polaris 22 inferno...three times!". It was brilliant on his part. I think every attendee, guest and concom member sported the pin by the end of the day. I felt like I was part of a fraternity -- a twisted, crazy fraternity. *g*
Though I didn't find it funny while we were going through it, I'm finding it quite amusing now. However, that could just be the exhaustion talking.
P.S. The icon is shareable for fellow "survivors". :D