Life as a Spectator Sport

Thursday morning at 4am, the fire alarm went off in our hotel in Maryland. We couldn't get a handicapped room there, but since the hotel had inside corridors and elevators, I said, okay, fine, we'll take a regular room. I've had a niggling worry in the back of my mind that we might find outselves on an upper level one day with no way to get Clarence down the stairs. I guess we were lucky that we were only on the second floor and that it turned out to be not a fire but some jerk who decided to light up a cigarette in the hall outside his room, and triggered the nearest smoke detector. At 4am.

We were lucky also that I'm fairly good about noting where I put things every night. I'm not a terribly organized person, but some items are overwhelmingly essential to me: computer, car keys, wallet, etc. The computer is always on the room desk, and the other things are always on top of the computer. When the alarm went off (and I stopped beating on the alarm clock to make the terrible noise stop), it took, according to Clarence, about three minutes flat to have us both dressed, the computer in its case and the other essentials in my pocket, and the two of us headed for an exit. I wasn't counting, but he's always had a pretty good time sense, so I believe him. That would have been about three minutes too long if there had actually been a fire on our floor, but in that case, I would probably have left everything behind but the car keys.

Our final stroke of luck was that three huge chartered coaches full of high school students, parents, teachers and chaperones had pulled up earlier in the evening, and the hotel was full. I still don't know whether I could have gotten Clarence down those two flights of stairs on my own, because about six people virtually carried him down.

You know who got blamed initially for the fire alarm, of course, but it turned out to be someone completely unassociated with that group.

The bottom line is that we won't stay above ground level again, regardless of where the handicapped rooms are. Oddly, we've frequently found them to be on upper levels. One has to wonder what logic was employed in that decision. We've learned our lesson, at any rate.

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RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email to liz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3 KNITTING BLOGS Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits FINISHED PROJECTS -------FINISHED IN 2006------- Peruvian Cap Tutti-Frutti Socks Shelley's Socks Carol's Socks -------FINISHED IN 2007------- Chain Link Socks Baby Surprise Jacket Valerie & Friend Baby Bonnet Rainbow Baby Socks Girls Pixie Hood Mitred Square Heart Red & White Socks Coffee Cup Pot Holder Nubbins Dishcloth Garterlac Dishcloth Suede Booties Kate's Socks Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap Half Thumbless Mittens Red Mittens for Akkol -------FINISHED IN 2008------- SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE -- Blogs and websites -- Causubon's Book Club Orlov Food Storage Made Easy From the Wilderness In the Wake Listening to Katrina Survival Topics The Modern Homestead The Oil Drum Notes from a Hillside Farm -- Mailing Lists -- 12vdc Power Living on the Land Rainwater Refrigeration Alternatives Old Ways of Living POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES The political sites have moved BOOKS I'M READING How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising ARCHIVES February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002