Last month we needed to spend the night in Morgan Hill. The plan
was next morning I had a Dr appt in Santa Clara, 30 minutes from
there, about my odd heart beat.
Den and I both went to bed about 10pm. Around midnight I was
still awake so I got up to get a snack. I had just turned around the
corner from our hotel bedroom to the small living room area, when
suddenly flashing lights continued to fill the room. At the same
time a blaring alarm was beeping continuously!
SO very very LOUD. Over and over, with no break.
Thinking in hindsight, I should have felt the hotel room door for
heat and if it was cool, then I should open it, and Den and I would
both get outside.
But, I didn't.
I quickly walked over to Den who was still in bed, but of course
awake by now. Well sort of.
“It’s the fire alarm. We need to get out of here!” I shouted above
all the noise.
He said right back at me, “No it’s not. Just go back sleep.”
“Den it won’t stop. It’s so LOUD. Let’s get OUT of here. Come
on, you have to get out of bed!”
"It's just a false alarm," He kept saying.
"But what if it's not and the hotel is on fire. Please GET UP!"
I kept wondering when the cop in him would kick in.
Then he says to me again from the bed, “Did you push any
buttons?” (Did he really think I caused this?)
“NO! Of course I didn't push any buttons! Come on let’s go.”
I grab one of the blankets off the bed, wrap myself up in it and then
went towards the door. I opened it to see what was going on and
saw a man running down the hallway. I shouted out to him, “Is
there a fire?” He shouts back while continuing to run, “I think it’s
just a fire drill.”
I’m thinking….Really, like back in 5th grade? They have those
here? In the middle of the night?!
Den calls out to me again, “Just come back to bed. You can’t go
out there! You aren’t dressed!”
What if he’s right and there is no fire and I’m outside in my
underwear wrapped in a blanket with all the other evacuated
strangers. That would be appropriate behavior if there WERE a fire,
but what if there’s not one?
So I decide to get my nightgown on. But the alarm is so blaring that
I truly could not take my fingers out of my ears long enough to get
it on. Way too painful, and it felt like my ear drum would burst
from that high pitch noise.
I yell to Den who has his pillow over his head, “Come here and
hold your fingers in my ears so I can get my nightgown on!”
He actually gets out of bed and does just what I ask him. I’m
thinking, we are making progress.
He starts to get back in bed, but I keep having to yell at him above
the alarm sound which is very hard to do, “Come on, we’re going
right now!!”
I open the door again, and see another man running out. But other
than that, there is no one in the hallway. We must be the last ones to
leave!
Then Den says he can’t go because he’s not dressed. "Well hurry
up and get dressed then!” Totally frustrated, I toss his pajamas at
him.
He finally is out of bed and getting dressed.
Then I grabbed my purse, and my husband, and off we go.
Den keeps saying to me as I am practically dragging him down the
hall to the exit, “You don’t have your shoes on. You can’t go
outside like that!”
I say right back to him, “This is what people do when there’s a
fire!”
oh my goodness
So sure enough, as soon as we step outside amongst all our fellow
strangers, it appears we were the last ones out. Everyone is standing
around in silence. So I asked a man closest to us, “So what is
going on? Is there really a fire?”
He assures me there is…"one of the rooms on the 2nd floor."
"So is it still burning?"
"No they got it out, but we can’t go back in until the fire chief
arrives to give clearance."
I don’t understand what could have set on fire. We were in a
Marriott Courtyard. There are no ovens or stoves in the rooms.
Den is still worried about my bare feet getting cold in the night air.
He insists on going back into the hotel to get my shoes. I have to
say now, I thought that was ever so sweet. Especially going back
into the "burning building" and all.
Finally after about an hour outside, the alarm noise is shut off and
we are allowed to go back inside. We still don’t know yet what
happened.
We go back to bed, but since we are in a hearing impaired room (it
was the only room left when we checked in, we were told) the
flashers continued on for a good hour more.
We lost about 2-3 hours sleep. At least.
A few hours later it was 6am and time to get up. Den was back to
his normal thinking self, and went down to the lobby to find out
what exactly happened last night.
I stayed behind, getting ready for my appt.
About 15 minutes later Den comes back to our room. He says to
me, "Okay, I found out what happened last night. Are you
ready for this?"
Then he went on to explain. The ladies at the desk said a man in a
room on the 2nd floor last night decided for some reason to hang
his clothes from the sprinkler on the ceiling. This in turn set off his
sprinklers which in turn set off the alarm for the entire 3 story hotel.
And for another unknown reason, this man stayed up in his very
wet and raining room for quite some time before reporting it!
Den was told the entire 2nd floor was covered in water. So much so
that it was dripping down the walls and onto the main floor. So
much damage!
who caused all this was upset his electronics got damaged!
The hotel was already smelling like mildew the next morning so we
opted to move out, rather than stay another night as planned.
Just as we were leaving, we saw a young couple happily booking a
room. I left wondering what they thought when they turned the
corner from the front desk, and saw all this.
I think just about all adventures are worth it, if they end well.
And this one did for us, but not so much for the Marriott.
I still can't figure out why Dennis would not get out of bed for the
fire alarm, but he jump right out of bed to protect my ears.
Not sure what all this means, but it kind of makes me happy to
think about now. However, if we had burned up in the fire, I would
have been really mad at him.
1 comment:
What an adventure! I would think the policeman in Dennis would make him jump right up and want to know what's going on. Glad everything was all right. I love the last paragraph though, that made me laugh right out loud.
Post a Comment