i’m sitting in the waiting lounge at my mini dealership, waiting about three hours for some work to get done on my car. mini coopers are sold by BMW, and the service dept is shared, so i’m surrounded by people who clearly have much more money than me (the elderly lady who just walked in is clearly wearing a $500 suit, a $200 silk scarf, and has had $1000s of dollars of cosmetic surgery, which, if it ever worked, clearly isn’t reaping an effective return on her investment at this moment). and it’s a really nice waiting area (with free wifi! and work stations, though i’m sitting on a couch). and the restroom i was just in — absolutely lovely and perfectly clean.
except…
there was a motion-senser on the light. when i walked into the restroom, the lights cheerily popped on, sensing my presence (“hi! i know you’re here! and i welcome you to this lovely restroom!”). so i took up my temporary residence and started working on beating my score on the game on my cell phone.
after a couple minutes, the lights turned off (the senser was saying, wrong-headedly: “i’m sorry you’ve chosen to leave my lovely space. i must now shut down to conserve two or three more pennies to add to the millions we’ve gotten out of these beemer owners. hope you come back soon!”). the senser was on a wall on the other side of the stall wall. i waved, hoping i’d catch the ever-alert eye of the senser. no luck. i thought, “i might as well be in the restroom at YS, where jay thinks it’s so funny to turn the lights off on me.”
i’ll spare you the rest of the story. but let’s just say that light switch motion-sensers in restrooms with stalls are a less-than-perfect idea.
agreed. we have them at our church and occassionally i get left in the dark to finish my business which isn’t a big deal as long as you can use your cell phone to light to way to toward the exit. it’s pretty embarassing when someone else comes in, though, and catches you on the toilet in the dark. very awkward.
lol – we have them in our accessable bathroom – i have had them shut off on me many times. I can never get them back on, no matter what kind of dance I do, or what I throw at the sensor.
But as soon as I stand up, the lights come back on.
This is so funny! :)
Personally, I think there will be a new reality show coming out soon…”Candid: Dancing In The Dark On A Toilet.”.
The lights are like this in my church’s bathrooms, too. I’m just waiting for the Sr. Pastor to walk in someday while I’m leaning out of the stall with my around my ankles and frantically waving at the light sensor on the opposite wall. (Is there any good way to recover from a scene like this?)
So now I just check to make sure there’s toilet paper before the lights go off and take care of the rest in darkness.
Had this problem at a church I served once…and was the topic of lengthy conversation at the next board meeting.
Even funnier though….is when you have this happen with a motion sensor and stay in the room, and soon the next person walks in and thinks they are alone.
I have never understood how you can post on your blog as often as you do… until now. Solitaire, blog writing, it’s all the same! I’m only a little disturbed.
Well, I’m somewhat *relieved* to know that I am not alone in this debacle. And although, as a woman, I certainly do not use the restroom at work as a veritable *library* as many men do, I find it rather ridiculous that I’m only allotted 2 minutes to powder my nose before darkness ensues. Can you say *courtesy flush* ?? LOL
Is there a way to fix this problem in a large room that is occupied
by people seated for an hour causing the motion lights to turn off.?
Our new church has this problem and it is annoying when you are
trying to teach a group.