Out in the street, out in the daytime, out in the night

Sorry but I have to share something from today. No pictures because I'm writing this after pinball league and don't have time.

This morning about 11:30 we were gathering for one of the usual team touchpoints where everyone says what they're doing and why and it's all fine. I, along with the other people assigned to the new building on the west side of town, were gathered in one conference room. Other people, who aren't permanently assigned to the new agency or are working remotely for whatever reason, were to join online, so we get none of the advantages of in-person or remote conferences. Anyway, the guy with the master laptop pressed the button to put the remote-attendees screen up on the room monitor when --- to the second --- the power went out.

Not just in the room, or the whole floor, or the whole building. After a couple minutes we heard emergency generators whirring into action at the strip mall across the parking lot. Checking the local power utilities found there were 16,000 in the area without power. Calls went in fast to ask, uh, what do we do?

After about twenty minutes of this they declared, everyone go home and resume the day remotely. If you didn't have power --- something that, if it happened, would affect only me or the business analyst of the group as we live in town --- then stay home and the day will get counted as administrative leave.

It happens power came on about twenty minutes more after that, but it's nice to have a rough idea what the drill is for this sort of thing. (Also, it's tomorrow, as in Wednesday, that we're scheduled to have the tornado drill. Will I shelter in the conference room that was formerly a bank vault, or in the bathroom?)

When I did get home bunnyhugger was initially upset that anyone was coming into the house this time of day. Then, finding my car there, just wanted to know why I was coming home in the middle of the day. Then, learning about the contingency for if we'd lost power at home, was upset that some folks might be getting a day off when I wouldn't. I didn't feel slighted by this.

The power outage, which the noon news said reached 26,000 customers, dominated the noon news as you'd imagine. And the main anchor got to delight in something he said he'd always wanted to do --- put his fingers to his earpiece and report, ``This just in''.

As you might have inferred, we never lost power around here. I'll take the half-day of working from home if I can get that.

Trivia: Engineer James Buchanan Eads testified before Congress in 1874 that ``disasters and serious accidents'' were ``always evidence of bad engineering''. And, particularly, humans were fully ``capable of curbing, controlling, and directing the Mississippi, according to his pleasure.'' Source: The Culture of Calamity: Disaster and the Making of Modern America, Kevin Rozario.

Currently Reading: Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie, Gary Weiss.

PS: What's Going On In Dick Tracy? Why is Dick Tracy all about Little Orphan Annie again? You deserve to know!