Trapped
In retrospect, I'm almost too embarrassed to post this one but it's too good not share...
The 6 of us (dogs included) came up to Zurich to watch an incredible fireworks display and visit our friends Jan and Margaret.
I guess it really starts with a conversation with Jan about 6 months ago as he and his family were packing up for their move here. I was a guest at their house and he mentioned wanting to take the queen size mattress I had been sleeping on to Zurich. It was a nice mattress, albeit slightly used, and my recollection is that I advised he leave it behind...however this is contested by Jan who claims I said "pack up everything you can!"...anyways on my visits to Zurich, this is my guest bed and I guess I should be grateful! Sure beats a hard cold floor...
The catch is that they store this beast in their basement cave and it needs to be dragged up 4 flights of stairs...why? Well on my first visit, their new building had not yet installed their elevator..On this 2nd visit, the elevator was functional but Margaret and I couldn't figure out how to get it in the elevator, and Jan, who had stayed home with Yashu while we had all gone out to see the fireworks, was sound asleep...
So Margaret and I lugged it up the 4 flights...
Today, as we were getting ready to pack it back downstairs, Jan suggested we just take it down in the elevator. I looked at Margaret, and said,..."Hey there's an idea, why didn't we think of that?" of course knowing the elevator is half the size of this mattress...
So as I was getting ready for the descent, Jan surprised me by somehow working some magic and wedging the mattress inside the elevator. As Jan said, "Come on in!" I was too surprised at his feat to really think about what I was getting ready to do. All I could think of was "We carried this up yesterday and look, we could have taken the elevator!"
Only after the elevator door closed, did we both realize that something was very, very wrong. The mattress was in the elevator at a perfect 45 degree angle, nicely sectioning the limited space into two triangles.
Both of us were in the same triangle.
Both of us were in the wrong triangle.
Jan spoke first as we looked at the mattress that blocked all access the elevator controls..."do you have your cell phone?"
Fortunately I did...Okay, this will be easy, just call Diana or Margaret, and get them to open up the door for us. As I fumbled with my phone, it went into a special limited use "Emergency Calls only" mode...Now how did it know? Fortunately this had happened to me once before...Don't worry, Jan, if I power cycle the phone, it should go back to normal mode.." So I powered cycled and the phone came back with "no signal"...Oh man!
So there we were, maybe feeling pretty good about having fit both us and the mattress in the elevator, but the thought did cross our mind, that some might find our predicament more funny than unfortunate.
And of course, the thought, "How long before someone will come and call the elevator?" We both knew the odds were low. Few tenants in the new building, and most took the stairs and used the elevator only for groceries...and today being Sunday, all stores were closed...
Maybe Dedi and Margaret will come looking for us? Doubt it...they'd probably figure we got distracted with something...
I was closest to the door and tried banging on it, but these Swiss buildings are pretty well sound-proofed and this proved futile (though Dedi did later comment, "Oh so that's what Telly was whining about!"). We then tried bending, plying, punching the mattress to get around it, but if anything this just tightened the seal...It was wedged in like the bow of an arrow and was not budging...
Finally, Jan, who is a formidable climber, managed to get a foot on a safety railing, and lift himself up to the top of the elevator..There was about a 6" gap at the top between the elevator roof and the top of the mattress.. Jan used his weight to compress mattress and squeeze his head and upper torso through this gap...Good thing the mattress wasn't any taller! Else I might not be writing this blog...
Finally, I heard "Got it"...Music to my ears! We were on our way down!
We promptly loaded the now infamous mattress back in the 'cave' and headed back ... And for those of you wondering, yes, we did take the elevator back up!
As we entered their aparment, Dedi and Margaret both commented..."What took you guys so long? We figured you went off looking at bikes or cars ..."
Jan and I looked at each other, "Well not quite...have we got a story for you!"
The 6 of us (dogs included) came up to Zurich to watch an incredible fireworks display and visit our friends Jan and Margaret.
I guess it really starts with a conversation with Jan about 6 months ago as he and his family were packing up for their move here. I was a guest at their house and he mentioned wanting to take the queen size mattress I had been sleeping on to Zurich. It was a nice mattress, albeit slightly used, and my recollection is that I advised he leave it behind...however this is contested by Jan who claims I said "pack up everything you can!"...anyways on my visits to Zurich, this is my guest bed and I guess I should be grateful! Sure beats a hard cold floor...
The catch is that they store this beast in their basement cave and it needs to be dragged up 4 flights of stairs...why? Well on my first visit, their new building had not yet installed their elevator..On this 2nd visit, the elevator was functional but Margaret and I couldn't figure out how to get it in the elevator, and Jan, who had stayed home with Yashu while we had all gone out to see the fireworks, was sound asleep...
So Margaret and I lugged it up the 4 flights...
Today, as we were getting ready to pack it back downstairs, Jan suggested we just take it down in the elevator. I looked at Margaret, and said,..."Hey there's an idea, why didn't we think of that?" of course knowing the elevator is half the size of this mattress...
So as I was getting ready for the descent, Jan surprised me by somehow working some magic and wedging the mattress inside the elevator. As Jan said, "Come on in!" I was too surprised at his feat to really think about what I was getting ready to do. All I could think of was "We carried this up yesterday and look, we could have taken the elevator!"
Only after the elevator door closed, did we both realize that something was very, very wrong. The mattress was in the elevator at a perfect 45 degree angle, nicely sectioning the limited space into two triangles.
Both of us were in the same triangle.
Both of us were in the wrong triangle.
Jan spoke first as we looked at the mattress that blocked all access the elevator controls..."do you have your cell phone?"
Fortunately I did...Okay, this will be easy, just call Diana or Margaret, and get them to open up the door for us. As I fumbled with my phone, it went into a special limited use "Emergency Calls only" mode...Now how did it know? Fortunately this had happened to me once before...Don't worry, Jan, if I power cycle the phone, it should go back to normal mode.." So I powered cycled and the phone came back with "no signal"...Oh man!
So there we were, maybe feeling pretty good about having fit both us and the mattress in the elevator, but the thought did cross our mind, that some might find our predicament more funny than unfortunate.
And of course, the thought, "How long before someone will come and call the elevator?" We both knew the odds were low. Few tenants in the new building, and most took the stairs and used the elevator only for groceries...and today being Sunday, all stores were closed...
Maybe Dedi and Margaret will come looking for us? Doubt it...they'd probably figure we got distracted with something...
I was closest to the door and tried banging on it, but these Swiss buildings are pretty well sound-proofed and this proved futile (though Dedi did later comment, "Oh so that's what Telly was whining about!"). We then tried bending, plying, punching the mattress to get around it, but if anything this just tightened the seal...It was wedged in like the bow of an arrow and was not budging...
Finally, Jan, who is a formidable climber, managed to get a foot on a safety railing, and lift himself up to the top of the elevator..There was about a 6" gap at the top between the elevator roof and the top of the mattress.. Jan used his weight to compress mattress and squeeze his head and upper torso through this gap...Good thing the mattress wasn't any taller! Else I might not be writing this blog...
Finally, I heard "Got it"...Music to my ears! We were on our way down!
We promptly loaded the now infamous mattress back in the 'cave' and headed back ... And for those of you wondering, yes, we did take the elevator back up!
As we entered their aparment, Dedi and Margaret both commented..."What took you guys so long? We figured you went off looking at bikes or cars ..."
Jan and I looked at each other, "Well not quite...have we got a story for you!"
posted by DFisch at 11:46 AM
3 Comments:
Actually what we said was "This sounds strangly familiar, how many engineers does it take to ...
How many engineers does it take to fit a mattress in a tiny elevator. Just one. But if you want to be able to push the button in the elevator you'll have to wait through a few debugging cycles. "
Feel free to add your own "How
many engineers does it take..."
Dedi
Oh, man! I wish I could think of a punchline for the joke, but I don't think the story needs one. Thanks for the laugh!
-chrissy
Yeah, I think you are right, the visual says more than words . We are thinking of you guys. Hope ya'll are doing well.
di
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