Riding on top of elevators
Posted by Ryan Woods
Ignore the guy in the middle. He is of little consequence to this story. And while you're at it, ignore my perm for the same reason that I told you to ignore the angry chef.
Whlie living in Portugal Jonathan and I lived in the hard core ghetto of Amadora. The girls lived in the quiet rich suburb of Carnaxide (carn-uh-sheed). Getting to Carnaxide from Amadora consisted of either catching a bus down at the train station (about 2 miles from our house) that came like twice a day, or taking the bus to the mall, where we would take the metro to the center of Lisbon where we would then catch a bus that went to Carnaxide. Yes, I know, it was painful. To make matters worse, upon arriving at their apartment Kristin always tried her new recipes on us...eew. Sorry K, but one time she made us grilled Chew-wawa...eww. The only fun things to do (besides talking, laughing, and having a wonderful time) was throwing things off the balcony. We threw bouncy balls, melons, quarters (I told you we were bored), forks, ribbon, and the like. After we got scolded for those events we turned to the elevator.
Portugal is no third world country, but it aint America. Jonathan and I quickly figured out, with only a few painful shocks, that with a screwdriver, a oven mitt (to prevent the shocks), and a pair of scissors we could control the elevator with the door open. What that meant was that I could give Jonathan rides ontop of the elevator! Don't start imagining the first Mission Impossible where there was mysteriously a set of spikes at the top. Thats not true. In fact the only thing that can go wrong is if the elevator resets itself while it is inbetween floors. Does that make sense? It's like this, when that happens the elevator thinks that it is in the right spot to match up with the door openings, when in fact it is only half way (see picture).
Before we could figure it out some angry neighbors found us out and we had to pay a hefty fine. Oops.
Here's how it works, there are two holes on the elevator that need a metal connection to make it work. When the door closes there are two small spikes on the door that go into the holes. Those two spikes tell the elevator "hey, lets move". All we did was create our own set of spikes (the scissors) and then connect the two "spikes" with a screwdriver. Simple...it may have been the coolest thing I've ever done...except for the fine.
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