[ST] vators

[*Hobbit*]

I have a much better handle on why the hotel's elevators are so fragile.

On Sunday morning, I think it was, a bunch of people were on the staff-
suite balcony waving up to a batch of people who had been stuck at the
5th floor for ... what was it, like 45 minutes.  [I was suggesting that
rather than wave to *them*, that people should point slightly above
the car and express looks of horror...]  Anyways, after noting that
they already had the *inner* elevator door open, there was no reason
for them to be stuck, so I took a leisurely wander with my bowl of cereal
up the stairs and over to the outer door where they were and yelled in
through the crack.

"Hey, has anyone actually *tried* to open the outer door?"

"No ... we're afraid ..."

"Look, see that diagonal metal rod that connects to the little pair
of wheels near the top?  Grab that rod and *raise* it, or push it
right or left, whatever it wants, to release the outer-door catch."

Said rods, on every pair of doors, are clearly visible from the balconies
across from the elevator rails.  They eventually figured it out, the door
slid aside, and they all came piling out of there.

Fen are supposed to have some degree of intelligence and initiative,
and I was frankly astounded that these people just sat there with their
own moisture beginning to condense on the elevator car windows.

Anyways, I took a look at the inner-door/outer-door interface involving
these small rollers, and noted that the plate that slides up against the
rollers to tell the outer-door mechanism that the car is there contacts
the inch-wide wheels by the barest margin of a quarter-inch or less.
The main contact roller is worn heavily right at its outermost edge
rather than all the way across, indicating a simple mechanical mismatch
between car and outer door.  All the parts look like they were bought
off the cheap shelves at Home Despot and bolted together in the hope
that they'd work.  The hotel people eventually showed up and I pointed
this out to them, showing how easily the outer door could simply disengage
from the plate on the elevator car and wind up on the wrong side.

Later in the day, the elevator repair guy was on-site and apparently was
an arrogant pain in the ass, giving Dimitri a lot of crap for simply
wanting to know what various buttons did.  If anyone on the hotel side
gets a hearty *dis*recommendation, it's that guy, especially when he's
going to be defensive about gear that's poorly built in the first place.
This is clearly part of the problems triggered by physically pushing
the doors apart, and frankly *no* properly designed elevator should
have any issues with that, ever.  I strongly suggest heaving that one
back into the hotel's court because they've got a good bit of work to
do in bringing those elevators up to expected safety and robustness
standards.

On the bright side, they seem to have survived the Saturday night peak
and only started really having issues on Sunday.  That's a bit
puzzling, but I won't complain.

_H*