Elevation

We've been spending a lot of time in elevators the past several weeks, and I can't recall a single day when all of this hospital's elevators were working.

It's a variation of the old saw about putting a man on the moon: how can an institution be able to repair newborn hearts, but not be able to fix elevators?

What's so hard about elevators? They go up. They go down. The doors open. The doors close.

I don't mean to pick on the repair people. For all I know, they haven't had a maintenance budget for years and are forced to scavenge in the basement for whatever they can cobble together in order to jury-rig a fix. Maybe the elevators that are working are running on old bicycle, sewing machine, and calculator parts.

Of course, elevators probably wear out fairly quickly, what with the lazy able-bodied types who can't be bothered to take the stairs to go up or down a single floor.

But I still don't get it.