August 9, 2005
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Wednesday, August 10, 2005
11.30 a.m. NZ time
Marie’s Birthday Weekend
Mari and I just returned from a 4-day birthday weekend in
We walked the beaches, combed the reef and explored the Mount. Even though it’s winter here in
Next morning was dark, heavy and wet. So we just stayed inside all day, dry and cosy, watching through the windows as the weather ripped at the trees and tried to tear down our building. I grabbed a big yellow pillow and a good book and took command of one of the couches. Lindsay was in total control of the other couch, reading three different newspapers at the same time and the girls played cards all afternoon.
That evening Kevin and Nicola showed up with their two children, along with a huge amount of
Next morning was clear, clean and spectacular. We took another walk out onto the reef. We spent some time watching the surfers chasing the big swells left over from the day before. The girls went shopping while Lindsay and I cruised the book stores. I stopped to listen to a twelve year old boy named Matthew, busking on the street. He was very good and I couldn’t help but wonder about the life that was stretching out in front of him. Lindsay and I wound up having coffee along with a couple of slices of pear and custard pie. Yummy! The girls showed up just in time to finish off our pie, and we headed on back to our hotel. That night was Lamb Shanks and Taco Salad. Stuart, a friend of Lynn and Lindsay showed up for dinner and we all watched Frequency on another DVD. I went to sleep on the couch and woke up in the middle of a gardening show called “Mucking In”, said good night to everybody and went to bed. It had been a wonderful, laid back, holiday day.
Next day was check out time.
Lindsay got a little 4 wheel cart up to the 4th floor to put all our luggage on. The cart wasn’t very big, and I had our stuff stacked up on it so high it couldn’t hold any more. Then off we went down the hall to the elevator. Lindsay was walking in front of me with both his hands holding a stainless steel serving tray all stacked up high with books and newspapers. I was following along behind, being as careful as I could so as not to spill any of my stuff off the cart. So when we got to the elevator I pushed the button. And when the door slid open I gently started pushing the cart into the elevator. But not quite gently enough, for as soon as the cart’s front wheels hit the threshold of the elevator door, the cart stopped dead, and all the stuff, suitcases, carryon bags, DVD player, boxes of food and bottles of soda pop, and my ukulele, all went sliding off into the elevator.
About that time Mari showed up on her way down to the dumpster with several plastic bags full of trash. She took one look at our situation and said “I think I’ll take the stairs”, and off she went.
Lindsay and I both started laughing; we just couldn’t believe what had just happened. I jumped into the elevator and started piling stuff back on the cart. Lindsay’s hands were still full so he used his hip to help push the cart on into the elevator. I pushed the Ground Floor button, the door slid shut and down we went. Stuff seemed to be falling off of the cart as fast as I could put it back on. Then the elevator stopped and the door slid open. Lindsay, arms still being full, backed out of the elevator trying to help me by pulling the cart with his elbow. I was still busy trying to pick up stuff off the elevator floor and throw it into the hall and onto the cart. As I turned around to get the last item, my ukulele, I felt the elevator door close on my backside. I couldn’t believe Lindsay would let the door close while I was still in the elevator, so I started pushing the button, trying to open the door, it wasn’t working. I kept jabbing at it with my finger, nothing! Then I noticed the Ground Floor button was still shining red so I started pushing it. At first it didn’t work either, I was hollering, laughing and yelling, “Lindsay… what’s going on, open the door”. Just then the door started to open. As it did, I looked up expecting to see Lindsay with the cart and all our stuff, but instead, there stood my wife, with her hands full of trash bags, and we both spoke at the same time, saying “Where’s Lindsay”. I said, “isn’t he here with you?” She said, “No, he was in the elevator with you”…. “No, he just got out with all our stuff.”…. “He didn’t get out here.”…. “Well, where could he be?” I said over my shoulder, as I walked out into the parking garage, thinking he might already be at the car. No Lindsay. I walked to the front desk, thinking he might be there checking out. Not there.
I was walking around the parking garage dumbfounded; mumbling to my self, “Where in the world could he be?” Mari was over at the dumpster, yelling at me across the floor, “Where in the world could he be?”
Then it finally dawned on me, we must have stopped and got out on the first floor. When the door closed the elevator ran so smooth; I didn’t even feel it moving. I then realized, that’s why the door wouldn’t open when I was jabbing at all those buttons, the elevator was moving on down to the ground floor. Then I thought about Lindsay standing there with the cart, all our boxes, bags and suitcases, hands still full of stuff, watching the elevator door slide shut and then hear it drop on down the shaft, and I started roaring with laughter.
Mari, having just finished unloading our trash in the dumpster, came over to me and started laughing at me laughing. She asked me “What’s so funny, what’s going on?” As I tried to tell her, I started laughing even harder, so hard I could barely speak, but at last I was able to blurt out the story of what had actually happened. Seeing it all in her mind, she erupted into a fit of uncontrolled laughter. I was laughing so hard I had to lean against the wall to keep from falling down. And right at that moment, Lindsay comes out of the elevator pushing the cart with his elbows ‘cause now his arms are even more full of stuff, and with a silly grin on his face he’s saying “Hey, where did everybody go?”
Well, that did it. That was the final feather. That put us all away. Mari and I both came totally undone with laughter. We laughed and laughed as Lindsay told us about his experience on the first floor; how he had reloaded the cart, only to have it all fall off again as he tried to push it back onto the elevator. By the time Lynne came down and asked “What’s going on”? Mari, Lindsay and I were totally useless with laughter. Having laughed so hard for so long we could barely explain to her what we had just been through. As we tried to tell Lynne what had just happened, we would explode into even more waves of rolling laughter. On and on it went until finally, with the car loaded up, out on the highway, still chuckling occasionally as we thought about how wonderfully stupid and funny it had all been, we settled into the long, and comfortable ride home. Lynne’s only response to our profoundly funny experience was, “Oh you guys”…… I guess you just had to be there.
That was a birthday weekend we will never forget. Mari and I have been married for 32 years, and never in all that time, have we ever enjoyed a laugh like that.
Happy Birthday honey, and may we have many more.
That’s all for now.
BMcG
