snow day in August

I got an unexpectedly free afternoon today. At around noon I heard a groaning noise as the ambient electronic noise in my office suddenly exhaled its last breath. Everything went dim and I heard periodic curses volley around the cube farm (many from myself, since I’d been working on some business cards in Quark and hadn’t saved my changes) as people realized, “Aw crap, the power’s out!” We have power surges every so often, and last week the power went out for a minute or so, but it’s never been like this.

We sat around and shot the shit for a while, speculating that maybe terrorists set off an EMP (okay, so maybe last bit wasn’t exactly a “we” but a “me”), then resigned ourselves to working on the few meager tasks that could be eked out with no computers and no bright light. Without tapping keys, clicking mice, humming dehumidifiers, ringing phones, and a/c blasting from the vents, the office was eerily quiet. The silence and low chatter was broken every few minutes by the abrasive and insistant beeping of our computers’ battery back-ups.

45 minutes later a coworker—serving as a kind of town crier (in lieu of a working PA system)—yelled out that everyone was supposed to gather in the atrium for a staff meeting. We found out that a generator had blown, plunging half the city into darkness. Since Pepco didn’t have a clue what caused the problem or when it would be fixed, we were all sent home. So, yay! A free afternoon! Thank you, baby Jesus!


song heard most recently before posting:
On—Bloc Party