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January 06, 2006
My Little Adventure
Mom continues to recover and to be a complete & total PITA. I'll spare you the details. But she's doing well, and if the rest of us can keep from smothering her with a pillow in her sleep, should make a complete recovery.
But I did have a couple of interesting.....adventures. The first happened while I was driving up to Marshall to pick up my dad. I had just passed the little town of Clinton when I casually glanced over at a pasture full of cows grazing....and thought hmmm, that's a funny looking llama in there with those cows. Then I did a double take and damn near wrecked. It wasn't a llama at all.
It was a freaking CAMEL.
Which was peacefully grazing alongside the cows, in the middle-of-nowhere, Arkansas. I cracked up laughing. I mean, a CAMEL is the last thing one would expect to see in the wilds of the Ozark mountains. I only wish I'd thought to stop & take a photo because no one believed me. I was beginning to think I might need a medication adjustment until my sis & dad saw it later that afternoon on their way home. Which made me very happy because Whew! I'm not crazy.
The other interesting....adventure happened yesterday morning. I'd spent the night at the hospital with my mom, and had gone downstairs to get some breakfast. On the way back to her room, I hopped on the elevator, hit the button for the 4th floor and the elevator started rocketing upward.....and came to a sudden jolting stop on 3.
WTH? I thought. It just sat there, unmoving. The door didn't open. Ummm, shit. Am I stuck? I hit the button for the 3rd floor. Nothing. I hit the button to open the doors. Nothing.
Great. I'm stuck in the elevator. I waited a few minutes to see if it would start again on its own. Nothing. The elevator in the adjacent shaft, meanwhile, is going up & down just fine. So I picked up the emergency phone & called the operator. She promises to send someone immediately.
A few (long) minutes later I can hear guys talking and the elevator started shaking as they began beating & banging on the doors trying to get them open. I'm starting to get a little nervous now because I'm wondering if they're going to accidentally release the emergency brakes. But I finally decided if they did, I would probably survive a 3 floor drop.....and man would I be rich when I hit the bottom. Just imagine the headline:
"Attorney Injured in Freak Elevator Accident"
Finally the door opened and 3 anxious faces peered up at me. I smiled brightly, waved and said "Hi!" They all laughed, I guess relieved that I wasn't hysterical. One held my purse & cup of tea while another helped me out of the door and down the ladder. (The elevator had stopped about halfway up the 3rd floor door) I waved off their apologies, and told them they'd gotten me out, that was all I was worried about.
One of them nicely escorted me on the ride up to the next floor, I thanked him and started down the hallway to my mom's room. I was about halfway there before it hit me and I started shaking like a leaf. Guess I was a little more concerned than I thought.
Of course I didn't stop using the elevators. A) There's no way in hell I can climb 4 flights of stairs; and B) Best thing to do when you get bucked off is to climb right back on and ride.
Shoot, that elevator was my bitch before the day was over.
Posted by Rita at January 6, 2006 04:09 AM