Closet Extremist

Monday all over the place

I got to the hospital this morning, I wasn't running late, but I was later than I wanted to be. I had my cell phone plugged into the car charger, so I was distracted by unplugging it when I shut down my vehicle and stepped out. My keys were still in the damned ignition, and I had hit the door lock just before slamming the door. I didn't have any time to get back into my van, as I had to get upstairs, and get started.

We started off the day by correcting a relevelling issue that we'd experienced back on Friday. Spent better than an hour on the phone with Technical Support getting it dialed in, but we licked it. Next on the agenda was getting the floor levels dialed in. Check where they are hitting, and the spot is different when you are arriving from a lower floor than it is from an upper floor.

Scratch head, change parameters, and try again.
Same problem, but different measurements.
Scratch head, change parameters, and try again.
A little closer, but it ain't right.
Scratch head, change parameters, and try again.
Back to where we started.
Scratch head, change parameters, and try again.
This time it was pretty close. Try it again, and it's different.
Scratch head, change parameters, and try again.

Repeat this process for another four hours, and leave at the end of the day, no closer than you were at the beginning.

Why are we being such sticklers? Well, it's what we are supposed to do. Perfect is the name of the game. Straight. Level. Plumb. Of course, we've got some slop room to play with, but this is a frickin' hospital. People, Sick people, folks in wheelchairs, attendants pushing gurney's, elderly and frail citizen's, all have to use these elevators. The Code gives us a half an inch variance (1/4" above or below the floor level), but we are giving ourselves a variance of 1/32" (or about one millimeter for my overseas friends). Needless to say, it's been a bitch.

We'll start over again tomorrow, and we'll mess with it until it's right. Because it's important. These conveyances make an average of a million trips a year. That comes to 2,739.7 trips a day. Any one of those times the machine could be carrying any one of the above listed folks. It's important that it hits exactly floor level.

Exhausted, e stagger out to our respective vehicles. I borrowed a pair of "Vice-Grips" from Kevin in order to pull the pin out of one of my side windows to get me into my van. Nothing doing though. That pin is rusted in there so solidly, that I probably couldn't budge it with a sledge. In desperation, I pull on all the door latches. Surprisingly, the lift gate at the back comes open. Hooray! I am back in the saddle again.

All in all, It was a crappy fuckin' Monday. I hope the rest of the week goes better.

Posted by Johnny - Oh at August 22, 2005 11:51 PM | TrackBack