This is NOT and Exit

We were enjoying one our favorite past times–NOT– yesterday here at work.

  There was a fire drill!  

ARRRRGH.  They always occur right when you get settled in and you are in a very productive mode.   You have all your ducks in a row and then the bell.  And, of course, one of those bells and annoying flashing lights is right over my desk.  So I can’t say that I didn’t hear it and to try to even suggest that I couldn’t see the light would be as far fetched as one could get.

The fire drill is really not the subject of this blog post.   Although, this was one of the shortest fire drills that we ever had and it was not a “full blown” drill.  That is to say, the fire department was not on scene with the trucks (you say ‘seriously?’  Yes… seriously).  Getting back to ranch… ( a phrase my English Professor from College English 101 used to use because he was always getting off topic.. as I have just done again) the thing that I saw yesterday that jumped out at me for the first time was a sign.  Not just any old sign now.  It is one of those signs that I have, literally, passed more than 1,000  times!  

Between the first and second floors in my building we have a mezzanine level.  It is basically where the maintenance staff sets up shop and has their offices.  Well as I was walking up the steps yesterday (waiting in line for an elevator after a fire drill is NOT an option for me.  I don’t have that kind of time to waste) and as I was going past the mezzanine level door opened!  That had never happened before and I have been in this building now for a little over 5 years!

As I think about it now… that had to have been the trigger!  The sign on the door reads:  This is NOT an EXIT.  You can imagine how the “king of imponderables” would react to seeing such a sign and then seeing someone exiting the floor via the very same door.  Now I realize that this could all just be a matter of perspective, but I’m just saying.  So the question becomes, when I leave the staircase am I exiting a floor or entering a floor.  I suppose the argument could be made that I am exiting the staircase but who in the world thinks like that?  I can’t be going crazy because I am LEFT handed (although you can’t tell from my typing so I thought I’d enlighten you) so that means I’m always in my RIGHT mind.  I’m just saying.  So for the sake of argument and because this is MY blog, shouldn’t the sign read:  This is NOT an ENTRANCE… or… I’ve got it… I work for a company that is so Politically correct they would buy this…. it should read… This is NOT and ENTRANCE/EXIT!  Which would lead me to yet another blog post…. Why is the door even there!

Well, it doesn’t matter.  I can blog until I’m blue in the fingers… and with my complexion that would be quite a feat… but I can pretty much guarantee that the sign will not change and that someone, somewhere has already made the decision that the sign– no matter how confusing it is to the 10 percent of us in the world who are lefties– serves its purpose and will not be changed… that is… until one day… someone among the “powers that be” happens to be walking up the steps after a fire drill and someone exits the entrance just as they are passing the door…  the sign will be changed in less than 24 hours.