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| My scary CPAP machine! |
One story of the trip over here that I just have to share, right away, before I forget.
Upon arrival in Lyon, after some 17 hours of flights & layovers, neither my colleague Sam nor I had any cash. I had been advised to just withdraw some at the airport, from my account back in the USA. Sam spotted a cash machine and I wandered over and pulled 200 Euros out.
Sam, however, had brought US dollars. Nope, they won’t do anything here. So we set out to find a place to exchange some US dollars for Euros. She went over and asked at information, and we were told that there were cash exchanges on up on level 2, terminal 2. So, we wandered off that way.
It turned out to be a loooooong walk… again. At least a kilometre. About halfway there, I looked back and realized that I had my suitcase, and my briefcase, but not my CPAP machine case. EEK!
I ran back toward the main floor, where we had been. There was an escalator up, but I had to take the stairs down, with suitcase and (ugh) heavy briefcase. I got to the bottom, and there in the middle of the floor, was my CPAP machine case, yay!
As I approached it, three security guards who were standing there, waved me away.
“Monsieur, ne passez ici!”
“No, no, it’s mine!”
“Eet eez yours?”
“Yes, it’s my CPAP machine!”
Man, did they look relieved. They were suddenly on their radios, apparently cancelling the police/bomb squad, who were already on their way!
They gave me a stern warning. I opened the bag and checked that all the contents were undisturbed (if you know me, then you know that I would stress about such things). I apologized profusely, and left, thankful that they hadn’t blown up my CPAP machine, heh heh.
I recall now that I had the CPAP bag hanging off the back of my suitcase, but it destabilized the suitcase, so I took it off and set it beside the suitcase, as I waited. Curses, forgot to check that I had picked it up again! Wow, I’ll be more careful next time.
Oh, and yes, the machine is working fine. Whew! How would I sleep, otherwise?