2 In Thoughts & Observations

Travel Log: Someone’s Jacked with the Elevator

 

Necessity - The mother of invention.

Necessity – The mother of invention.

With two children under the age of ten and the equivalent of two full-time jobs, I don’t get out much.  When I do, it’s for a wild night out with good friends in-tow…but seldom further than fifteen miles from my front door.  

Every now and then though, family vacation or one of my full-time gigs will drag me from my abode.  And, oh, the things I learn along the way!

Today’s discovery:  Someone has gone and jacked with our beloved elevator.

Elevators are genius.  They save me hiking up any floor more than three flights away.  (Whoever Otis is should get universal high-fives.)

The invention is simple and efficient:  

1) Push up or down.

2) Get on.

3) Push desired floor.

4) Stand back, stare at the door to avoid conversation with strangers (if you’re an introverted-extrovert like me) and wait for your floor to ding.

5) Get off.

Um…yeah.  If you find a bank of elevators like the hotel I’m hanging at this week, be prepared to have your world turned upside down.

Here, you enter your floor number on a keypad and it tells you (via screen) which elevator (A, B, C, or D) you need to watch for.  Then, when your assigned car opens up, you get in and it takes you to the floor you entered.  No more floors to punch inside the car.  The only options from the inside are open, close or alarm.

What?  

Yeah, process that for a minute.  My friend who’s traveling with me said, “I suddenly realize how much I’m like Pavlov’s dog.”

Can you imagine how badly this is going to screw up some poor soul who’s had one too many glasses of wine and remembers their elevator assignment wrong?  (No, it didn’t happen to me.  Yet.  But I’m a planner.  I can see this as a possible risk.)

So, the whole thing made me think about the old saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”  Is that true in this case?  There has to be a reason for it, though damned if I can figure it out.  (I’ve also just had Chilean Sea Bass, Praline Bread Pudding with rum sauce and a glass of Merlot, which probably explains the lack of mental acuity.)

Does anyone know what this new version of our trusty standard is for?  Does it server some greater need?  Or is this an evil plot designed to pull our attention away from our smart phones long enough to navigate hotel lobbies with increased focus?

You Might Also Like

2 Comments

  • Reply
    Jackie King
    March 28, 2013 at 10:03 am

    Loved the post. It made me laugh, which is good, because I feel soooo grumpy today.
    Hugs,
    Jackie

    • Reply
      Rhenna
      March 28, 2013 at 11:48 am

      I’m glad to give you a warm and fuzzy. If you can’t laugh at life, what can you laugh at?

    Leave a Reply