Hello again, this is Brian. Do you like the pictures of my beautiful ankle? It really wasn't too bad, my pride was damaged much more than my body. I've decided to share the story of how I sprained my ankle with you all. The whole stupid thing is true and as it occurred I kept thinking it would be an even better story if I had gotten arrested. Well here it goes.Some of you may know that that recently I have been working with one of the professors at the University of Utah doing some research. I was performing various tests on the bond strength of a material like shot-crete or stucco to a styrofoam that is used in road construction. The last of the tests that I had to perform was an impact test. Unfortunately the school does not have the apparatus to perform the test, but the company that produces the material does! They are located in Las Vegas. So it was decided that I should prepare my samples, haul them to Vegas and test them there. No big deal, right?
Things were going smoothly I had 24 six inch square samples and 8 one foot square samples all ready to go. I had planned on letting the product cure for at least 7 days (it gains strength as it cures) and this was not a problem either. I called up the company and they said I would be fine to use their equipment the day after Memorial Day. So, Carly and I planned to leave late the Sunday night before Memorial Day so that Apollo would sleep the entire trip.
Things were on track and running smoothly until late Friday night when, just as I was falling asleep, I realized I had forgotten to load up my samples. Why was I alarmed? Well I have tried going into the civil engineering labs at school on Saturdays before and I knew the chances of anyone being there would be close to nil. Well there was nothing to be done but go and pray that something would work out.
I was right about no one being there. I walked around the building and nothing seemed to be open. On a second round I did notice that one window was open and I remembered that the mens' bathroom window was usually open as well. The only trick would be to scale at least one floor of the building and crawl along the roof to next section of the building where I could get in one of the buildings. I grabbed the only thing I saw that I could use as a makeshift ladder, a short two by four.
Standing on the two by four and using some electrical conduits on the side of the building I eased up to the side of the building. I could just barely get the tips of my fingers on the roof. It was worth a try I took a breathe and pulled. And fell. And rolled my ankle on the two by four which fell underneath me... I just hoped that no one saw. It hurt but I have had worse, so I tied my shoe real tight and started walking it off.
On yet another trip around the building I noticed that a door was propped open leading to the boiler room. I decided to investigate since this was surely the same boiler that heated the entire building. It was freakishly hot but I needed to get the samples, so it was worth some looking around. I discovered one set of double doors up some stairs that would lead into the labs I needed to enter, but they were emergency exits and I couldn't tell if they were wired to set off an alarm. I kept looking. I finally came to some tunnels that allowed access to the pipes from the rooms of the building to the boiler room. At this point I was glad for the free time I used as a janitor to explore similar rooms at Provost Elementary. I even noticed that there was indeed a tunnel going in the direction that I thought would lead me to the labs. There was even a small light for the first few feet.
The tunnel was about 50 feet long and was dark as can be for the majority of it. It was also only about 4 feet tall and filled with hot stale air. The lack of good air made it so that I could waddle a few feet than stop to breathe. But finally I got to the end where there was a small door with light behind it. I pushed it and it opened into another mechanical room. Going up a short set of steps I was so glad to see I reached my goal!
I was thanking the Man Upstairs the entire time I loaded my samples into our car. Despite my ankle, I was thrilled at having "broken" into the lab to get my samples and not been arrested. Just as I was finishing up, a dark car pulled into the lot and some guy got out. He approached the building at a different door. I just watched wondering if this was someone else coming to try and study or something and getting ready to tell him that I could not let him in through the lab. Then he pulled out a key and went straight in! If only I had waited 20 minutes! Oh well, it was fun and adventurous. It reminded me of some of missions of Goldeneye, the James Bond video game.
The end.
