A Smelly Story

Something someone said to me today reminded me of a funny story, so I thought I'd share.

A girl I used to work with told a story about working for a paving company several years ago.  It was wintertime, and since the sales office she worked in got a little chilly, she and the other girls there often kept a small space heater turned on while they were working, in addition to the central heating.

This particular snowy, cold day she had returned from lunch and had just settled in at her desk, when one of the men who worked at the company came into the office for some reason.  This particular employee was sort of an all-around handyman for the company, and he was working on something inside the office, maintaining a steady flow of chatter while he was there.  All of the sudden, my friend, P, realized that she was smelling burning rubber.

She said something about it aloud, but no one else smelled it.  So the male employee checked electrical outlets near her desk, her computer, an adding machine, her phone, etc., but couldn't find anything that smelled "hot", although when he was near her desk he could smell it too.  Her desk was near a window, and they thought perhaps it was some smell coming in from outside.

Well after a few minutes the smell didn't disappear but actually got worse.  Others in the office smelled it; it really did smell like burning rubber.  Once again, the male employee and the females, too, checked every outlet, light switch, any and all electrical equipment, felt the walls to see if there was any part that felt warm, and they particularly checked the space heater, even turning it off.  Nothing seemed to be hot, and the smell kept getting worse.  The strange thing was that it was strongest near P's desk.

P said she doesn't know what made her think of it, but all of a sudden it flashed into her mind what it was she was smelling.  When she'd come in from lunch, she had taken off her sneakers because the snow and cold had gotten her feet cold while she'd been out.  What did she do with her shoes?  She'd set them on the heating register near her desk.

She said she was so embarrassed she hated telling everyone else what it was, but they were frantically trying to find the source of the smell and were on the verge of calling the fire department!  She told them, and they all had a good laugh.

The soles of her poor shoes were slowly melting, but she wore them home and then threw them away.  Don't you just hate when you do something silly like that, forget about it, and then have to admit to everyone?