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Taking flight
Nov. 4th, 2005 08:15 amThe quicktime movies of plane traffic over the US on this site are pretty cool. The color ones are really quite pretty, I think.
Nov. 4th, 2005
High 'n dry
Nov. 4th, 2005 09:52 amMy company is on the fifth floor of the building I work in. There are 3 sets of elevators in this building. One pair in the central atrium area where the main entries are, and one pair in each of the wings north and south of the atrium. For security reasons (due to the kind of work my company does), only the two elevators in the atrium will come all the way up to the 5th floor. The north/south ones can get up here, but only with a physical key, of which there are very few and only used in special circumstances. You can call the north/south elevators from the 5th floor and ride down to any floor including the parking garage, but you can only ride up as far as the 4th floor.
On the first floor of the building is a little post office. Really it's just a set of mail boxes, po boxes and a stamp vending machine. I have a bill I need to pay, so just now I went out to the central elevators to head down and toss it in a mailbox. I hit the call button and waited. Bah. I'd seen one of the elevators was on this floor when I went out (they're glass elevators inside the building) so I figured it'd gotten called away just as I got there. It was taking a while so I hit the call button again. It's near impossible to tell when the button is illuminated after being pressed, it's so dim. Anyhoo, with the sun shining into the atrium, I could see the reflection off the glass/chrome car on the right as it arrived. The light above it lit and the doors went 'click.' and that was it. About this time I notice I'm hearing someone talking on a Nextel phone on the lobby level far below. 'Yeah, it just went up again. It's coming down now'
What's aparently happened is that one of the two central elevators is having some cab door issues. for some reason, the 2nd elevator in that bank is just sitting on the 4th floor, not responding to calls. This means that while folks up here on the 5th floor can take one of the north/south elevators down to go to lunch/meetings/errands, they can't get back up. Not unless the company security officer or facility manager gets out their physical key and waits on the 1st floor at the north or south elevators and basically gives people rides up. Whee!
So I'm like trapped up here, afraid to leave til the end of the day now. Good thing I brought my lunch.
On the first floor of the building is a little post office. Really it's just a set of mail boxes, po boxes and a stamp vending machine. I have a bill I need to pay, so just now I went out to the central elevators to head down and toss it in a mailbox. I hit the call button and waited. Bah. I'd seen one of the elevators was on this floor when I went out (they're glass elevators inside the building) so I figured it'd gotten called away just as I got there. It was taking a while so I hit the call button again. It's near impossible to tell when the button is illuminated after being pressed, it's so dim. Anyhoo, with the sun shining into the atrium, I could see the reflection off the glass/chrome car on the right as it arrived. The light above it lit and the doors went 'click.' and that was it. About this time I notice I'm hearing someone talking on a Nextel phone on the lobby level far below. 'Yeah, it just went up again. It's coming down now'
What's aparently happened is that one of the two central elevators is having some cab door issues. for some reason, the 2nd elevator in that bank is just sitting on the 4th floor, not responding to calls. This means that while folks up here on the 5th floor can take one of the north/south elevators down to go to lunch/meetings/errands, they can't get back up. Not unless the company security officer or facility manager gets out their physical key and waits on the 1st floor at the north or south elevators and basically gives people rides up. Whee!
So I'm like trapped up here, afraid to leave til the end of the day now. Good thing I brought my lunch.