You know it's gonna be a bad day when...

you walk into the office and the building is dark. In the dimness you see an electrician hanging on the wall, spiderman-style, trying to twist the BIG handle on the building's main circuit breaker. Finally with a loud "Unnnnngh...THWUNK!" the switch flips and there's light in the building again. This was how my day started yesterday.

Later that morning we lost a high-cap fiber connection and the whole phone system went down. It was unrelated to the power issue but it still made for a jittery morning and a Bad Technology Day in general.

Today I installed a new circuit card in a switch and it started to smoke! Agh.

I think I need a vacation...

Bad high tech day is right. My wife had to take her elderly aunt to a cardiac office in a local hospital yesterday for a check up. All went well.

Right up until she started to notice the water on the floor getting deeper and deeper.

Seems the torential downpour outside was getting the better of the storm drains and the offices really were below ground level. A friend of mine is the director of facilities for the hospital and he's been wearing a suit and tie for years. When my wife saw him running down the hall she figured it was time to get the heck out of Dodge.

All those dedicated power lines (and expensive) and delicate cardiological monitors and testing equipment can run some serious voltage. I wonder how much damage was done and how long it will take to get everything up and running and what needs to be recalibrated.

Good grief. It's a good thing she decided to hightail it out of there. I hope no one was hurt and that nothing was damaged.

i always crave complete darkness

Had an announced power outage today,
The power shut down at 7:02 AM and came back on at 2:43 PM. I barbequed some meat, when on a bike ride and BS'ed with some friends. Amazing what people do during a power failure...usually communication is involved. At 2:44 everyone went inside and fired up the AC... alas, the power failure was good for communication but it is still rather warm here and the temps were getting close to 90F so...
Did I used my flashlight? Sure, the Mediterranean 2AA provided light when needed for my family early in the morning. I wonder if we will have a power failure tonight?

BentHeadTX said:

Amazing what people do during a power failure...usually communication is involved.

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A good observation, BentHead. I've noticed this also. A power outage gets the neighbors to come out of their homes and start chatting with each other in the yard. It's as if an occasional power outage is good for us; it momentarily reduces the clutter and speed of our lives and reminds us that we're still human.

PhotonWrangler said:

A good observation, BentHead. I've noticed this also. A power outage gets the neighbors to come out of their homes and start chatting with each other in the yard. It's as if an occasional power outage is good for us; it momentarily reduces the clutter and speed of our lives and reminds us that we're still human.

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Good observation.. it slows down the pace of life by cutting off the usual distractions such as TV and Net access. We all need to 'disconnect' from time to time.

Here's to more power outages..