Riding the Elevator in the Dark? Not Today

I'll be pretty busy in the next week or so as I prepare for a presentation at a national conference.  However, I still hope to find time to at least mention the humor I find in each day.  

I was late to work today because I had to take my son to the dentist.  Our family dentist is in a Boston suburb much closer than where we live.  By the time I took him there, drove him back to preschool, and drove in to Boston again, it was close to noon.  One of the end results of this late arrival was that I had to park on the 7th floor of the parking garage.  It's labeled 'P7'.  I have never gone higher than 'P7', but I'm pretty sure that the next floor is called "International Space Station Maintenance Platform."

Taking the stairs down is no problem for a somewhat out of shape dad like me.  However, when the day was over I decided to take the elevator to 'P7'.  When the elevator opened, there was a sign taped to the wall that said something to the effect of:

Elevator Lighting Problems

Please use the stairwell.  

If you must use it, do so with caution.

I wasn't exactly sure what "do so with caution" meant with regards to a lighting problem.  If I were to take the elevator with such a issue, what possibly could I do that was cautious?  Step lightly onto the elevator so as to ride unnoticed, pray to the elevator gods that I may see the light for 7 P's, or be prepared to change a light bulb on the way up?

I considered what could happen on my ride.  The lights might go out?  I suddenly had a vision of the lights going out and the elevator getting stuck.  I got out of the elevator and decided to walk up the stairs.  I need to do this more often, for these days it's the most exercise I get.   P7 is actually 14 sets of stairs (okay, so I make it worse than it really is).  It crossed my mind that I chose a potential heart attack over riding the elevator in the dark.

On P7 and with my heart now racing, I decided that were my daughter (22 months old) with me I definitely would have taken the elevator.  If the lights were to go out, I believe that she would still find the emergency call button faster than I could say "No touching the big red button." And this time, unlike the last, I wouldn't even have to respond to a mystery voice asking "Can I help you?" with a "Sorry, that was my toddler calling to say hi."