Month: January 2018

This is a song about a man having his dream fulfilled by getting stuck in an elevator with a beautiful woman. I also was stuck in an elevator but not with a beautiful woman, I was stuck in an elevator just me and a CT gantry. You might be wondering “how do you get stuck in an elevator with a CT gantry”?

Your first question maybe “What’s a CT gantry”? The most prominent part of a CT scanner is the gantry – a circular, rotating frame with an tube mounted on one side and a detector on the opposite side. A fan-shaped beam of X-rays is created as the rotating frame spins the X-ray tube and detector around the patient.–Ok I didn’t write that description I looked up CT gantry on Bing then I copied and pasted the description which is pretty advance computer work–well that’s advanced for my computer skills. How did I find myself in an elevator with a CT gantry? Back when I was delivering medical equipment like CT scanners and MRIs  we had a problem delivering this one CT gantry it was to go on the 3rd floor. The General Electric rep was there, I knew him from other deliveries I made. He said the gantry would fit in a patient elevator if we removed the dolly appliance. I went into the elevator and then the other guys pushed the gantry in, once it hit the back wall of the elevator I took a ratchet and lowered the wheels on the dolly. The guys in the lobby lowered the wheels on their end and then they had to remove the two 3 inch metal rods that when from end to end on either side of the gantry that was connected to the dolly. Then after they removed the dolly on their end we were ready to close the elevator doors.(I tried to find a picture on a CT gantry attached to a dolly appliance but I guess that’s the one picture that I cannot find on the internet). The reason I was in the elevator is because once in the elevator the gantry takes up all the space. It almost didn’t make it through the doors after the gantry was in the elevator there was no way for someone to get into the elevator to lower the back wheels. The only room I had was the tiny area where the buttons are. Once we were ready the GE rep says ” once I hit the button then we’ll have to help the doors to shut don’t worry this will work I did it last week at Saint Marys”. So I pushed button number 3 and doors began to shut the GE rep says everybody push the doors together. The doors were closing and all they lacked was about three inches from closing then everything just stopped. Then I heard the GE rep say ” Oh NO or something like that, A door must had come off it’s runner”. Well that’s no big deal after all we’re in a good sized hospital and they have 24/7 maintenance staff. The maintenance man finally showed up and the GE rep told him what happened. Then  I heard the maintenance man say ” Oh no we don’t touch the elevators you’ll have to call the elevator company”.  After another long wait the GE rep yells through the crack in the doors “don’t worry the elevator repairman will be here in an hour–or two. we’re going to get something to eat will you be alright?”  I said “sure don’t worry about me”.  So there I was stuck in an elevator just me and a CT gantry meanwhile I knew the other guys weren’t going down to the hospital cafeteria they were headed across the street to Red Lobster. What to do while you’re stuck in an elevator? I thought I would read a little, there’s not a lot to read in an elevator but I did find this rather interesting above the buttons were words that read weight limit 4400 lbs.  I thought I weigh about 200 pounds and the CT gantry weighs about maybe 5,000 pounds! What happens when your stuck in elevator that’s overweight. Well I now know the answer to that question. The elevator will slowly sink for 3 or 4 inches then it will automatically reset by jerking suddenly up the 3 or 4 inches. Now I want to be clear the elevator did all the jerking. Every time it did that the CT gantry would move a little. The problem is that the CT gantry is round! I could imagine the gantry rolling over on me. Yes I could be crushed by a CT gantry in an elevator– in a hospital! But I guess that the gantry was so wedged in that it wouldn’t roll when the elevator adjusted itself which happened about every ten or fifteen minutes. After a hour or two the elevator repair man finally showed up. The GE rep told him what happened and said we have to get the gantry up to the third floor. The elevator then said ” well to do that I’ll have to get on top of the elevator and flip all the safety switches. I could tell this man never had to worry about being named employee of the year. But to be fair I guess his job did have it’s share of ups and downs. I’m sorry I know that was waaay too easy.  After he decided that he would do his job and get on the roof of the elevator, he said “who do I bill this to?” After all of that the repair man went up to the 2nd floor and I could hear him as he stood on top of the elevator he then told me to push the three button. The elevator begun to move upwards and I could hear him flipping the safety switches and the elevator stopped on the third floor, the other guys put the dolly back on and ratcheted the wheels back up then I ratcheted the back wheels up and then we rolled the CT gantry out of the elevator onto the third floor. My experience of being stuck in an elevator was over and it was nothing like today’s song. But I am glad that it did happen before that movie came out . You know the movie that I’m talking about?  I’ll put the preview for it below.

It’s that movie where a bunch of people are stuck in an elevator together and one of them turns out to be the devil. I didn’t know this before I saw this movie but the devil must like to ride in elevators. It would be my luck if I ever get stuck in an elevator with a girl she would turn out to be the devil. That or she could be a vampire or a zombie I would know that she’s a zombie you know by the ax in her head. I do have a strict policy that I don’t mess with a girl until after I remove the ax from her head! I guess I’m just funny that way. I hope that you have enjoyed todays song and story, you may want to watch that movie it’s the best movie I’ve ever seen about the devil riding elevators. Next time you get in an elevator think of me!

 

 

Back in high school did you ever work really hard on a homework assignment and then received a much lower grade than what you thought you deserved? Don’t you wish you could now go to that teacher that wronged you with such a low grade and tell that teacher what you thought. Then the teacher would change your grade. Well that’s not going to happen! to you anyway. But it did happen to Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. When Brian was in high school his music teacher gave his class an assignment to write a song. Brian wrote a song he entitled Surfin The teacher gave him a F for the song he wrote. The rest is what they said is history. The song Brain Wilson received a F for writing in music class became the Beach Boys first big hit!

Last week after 58 years the high school officially changed Brain’s F to an A. I didn’t know they could do that. Now that I think about I should have one of my grades should be changed. Back when I was in high school in my World History class we were assigned to write a term paper. As I recall the paper had to relate to World War 2. I decided to write my term paper on Nazi Propaganda how brilliant is that! Just the title should had been an A. This was back in 1979 and back then we were not allowed to use the internet! I had to go the library and once there I went to these large cabinets with hundreds of small drawers filled with small index cards. Somehow looking through millions of these little cards I was supposed to find the book I was searching for. After I found the right card then I would have to find the book in the library  All by myself! Kids of today have it so easy, all they have to do is type a few words and there’s everything they need. After my big trip to the library, I then proceeded to write what might become the finest high school term ever written. Bill& Ted would later say dude that was the most excellent world history term paper in the history of term papers. I could sell my paper to the movies and make millions. After I turned my brilliant term paper I was prepared to get an A+ and a comment from the teacher saying “that was the best term paper I’ve ever seen”. But to my dismay, when I received my term paper instead of an A+ there was a C-. Instead of comments of praise my teacher wrote all kinds of comments on what I did wrong. How could this be I guess my teacher couldn’t see greatness when he saw it. When I become the worlds best selling author, I want this grade changed to an A+ that I deserved!

I’ve been thinking maybe just maybe I didn’t deserve an A+ on my high school term paper. One reason that I have a blog is to become a better writer through practice. Today I look back on my blog posts although they are not from very long ago I still can see how I could have used  a different phase or term. I could had done a better job of telling my stories. Hopefully I well get better in the future. I’m sure when I will read this post sometime in the future  I will think that I could had written more clearly and somewhat different than what I wrote.  I believed I learned more from my C- than I ever could had I received an A+. My world history teacher would tell me that I needed more of an explanation on that last statement. Thomas Edison once said “I’ve not failed I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”.  I think that I deserved an A+ because now I’m looking at it as a 55 year old man not as a teenager in high school. Maybe Brian Wilson did deserve a F for his song Surfin think about this when Brian Wilson was in high school there wasn’t music called beach music because Brian was the person who invented it. Instead of ending Brian’s musical dreams it maybe just made him mad enough to make his dreams come true. And besides, a number 1 record is revenge enough for that music teacher. What do you suppose the future students of that thought when the teacher said “I expect a lot of you students, remember I once gave Brian Wilson a F.

Sometimes listening to a song and hearing just a few words can remind you of a memory  that has now been long forgotten.  That’s the case with me and this song it brought back a memory that if it wasn’t for this song I might would not have thought about again.

The line that brought back this memory was ” I’ve been waiting in the rain for hours and you were late”. When I was in the 8th grade, basketball practice was at the end of the day and practice would last 2 or 3 hours. When practice would finally end the coaches would lock the doors to the gym. In the locker room the coach would take a phone out of the equipment room which was caged up and placed the phone on the floor . I never knew why they had a phone in the equipment room or why they couldn’t find a desk or something to the on instead of having it on the floor. Of coarse there was no way the coaches would let any of us boys into the coaches office to call for a ride home. I suppose that they were helping us to “build our character “.  By the way you have to remember this was back in the 70’s, and back then none of the students were allowed to carry cell phones! Somehow it always seemed like I was always at the end of the line for the phone. One day it was raining and this would had been in December, it was after 5 o’clock so it was also dark. It was finally my turn to kneel down and by the way back in the 70’s this was the only time that we were allowed to kneel down, and I dialed our number on the phone. and told Mama to come and get me. After a long wait all the other boys were gone, I was the only one left, Then I saw Mama’s headlights, remember it was dark, and it was pouring down.  I opened the door and run as fast as could. Between the locker room and the parking lot was the practice football field It was raining so hard that the field became a lake so I was running and splashing water with each foot. When I reached the parking lot I looked up and the car that was seating there was not Mama! What was I to do?  Well there was only one to do instead of standing there in the pouring rain. I turned around and run back into the locker room. There is a small chance that as I was running back to the locker room the person in that car may had been laughing at me. I couldn’t hear anyone laughing I was too busy getting soaked. There is a happy ending Mama did pull into the parking lot and I once again run through the rain when I made it through to the car Mama asked me if I was wet. I told Mama “only a little bit”.  I didn’t tell Mama what happened fact is this was a good experience in that I learned to keep my mouth shut. And besides that woman who sat in  that car laughing at me could be dead now! Now if you didn’t learn anything from this story, if you watched the video at least you saw that Phil Collins used to have hair. If there’s a song that brings back a memory please share it in the comments.