Yeah so that power thing
Aug. 15th, 2003 02:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebratqueenSo at about 4:15 today the power went out. Fortunately the doc was only in the middle of a cleaning and not, say, drilling. We sat around for a bit and waited but the doc wasn't too optimistic as we're on one of the busiest streets in town and he said the only time he could remember being without power for long was when a guy literally fried himself on the wires in front of our office.
Either I called my folks or my folks called me, but either way we talked and discovered that not only did they not have power but Older Brother, who works in Manhattan, had just called them to ask if they were having a power outage, then had to split. That was when we started to get a bit worried. More phone calls then another touching base with the 'rents provided the news about it being in Toronto and many states.
My first thought, upon knowing it was a blackout covering many blocks and even NYC was that it was all the air conditioners. My second thought, upon finding out it was hitting multiple states and Canada too, was terrorists. My third thought, which followed immediately after, was that Bush did it on purpose to shore up his credibility. Fourth and final was me wondering if power stations would be hurt by that MSBLAST worm since what the hell do I know about A) worms or B) power stations?
My boss actually blamed me. Not because I am gay, though obviously the gay thing means that the outage is, of course, my fault. But because I was sick all day - er, sick beyond being gay I mean - to the point where I was seriously thinking about going home early. So when the power cut out the boss figured that clearly I had done something to stack the deck in my favor.
To which I responded that clearly this was a sign from God that not only should I go home but that he, the doc, was a heathen, since I, the girl who grew up Christian, was getting this divine intervention while he, the lapsed Jew, was not. To which the patient, who was still in the office and actually standing between us, said he was so not getting in the middle of this.
(For those of you playing at home, obviously I was joking.)
Anyhoo - closed the place down and went home to check on the cats. I took as many side streets as I could to avoid dealing with malfunctioning traffic lights. In the end I only had to hit about 3 and most people were very good about it. There was only one street which was a huge intersection that was too hard to co-ordinate through spontaneous courtesy, so people did it kind of catch as catch can.
There were people at a few intersections directing traffic though, which was cool.
Went home, checked the folks again, agreed to go over to their place b/c they had a gas grill (unlike my BBQ which requires charcoal that I'm currently out of) and a gas stove which put them way ahead of me in the food game. My apt is pretty well insulated so the cats weren't in danger of overheating. So I dumped down plenty of food and water, packed up enough clothes and books for a couple of days just in case, and prepared to walk the few miles to the folks since traffic was starting to look scary.
Fortunately that had cleared up by the time I left due to more people being nice enough to direct traffic, so I went back to my place for my car keys, grabbed some sodas out of my fridge and made a point of stopping to give those to a few of the volunteers when I could since it was freaking hot and they were doing it anyway. Granted soda's not great for hydration but I figured any portable cool drink in a storm.
Then passed the time with the folks. The news was spectacularly unhelpful. The last I heard, which was maybe a couple of hours ago, was that Canada's blaming us, we're blaming them, a few people are blaming a lightening strike in Niagra and all the meteorologists are saying that the lightening strike people are on crack and couldn't correctly identify a lightening strike in their own ass with a picture book to help them.
Mind you I might be paraphrasing a bit.
Older Brother walked 2 hours to get home to Brooklyn, where Mouse and my extremely pregnant sis-in-law (as in she's due on the 17th) were fortunately safe and sound. I'm told those working in Manhattan are strongly encouraged to take tomorrow as a "snow day" so to speak, and I had tomorrow off anyway so there we are.
Power's back on now so I'm home with the kitties. The food in my fridge was still cold so yay for not having to throw away a freezerful of hard work.
And that's about that. Though I'm miffed that I had to miss the Fab Five on Leno. Phooey.
Either I called my folks or my folks called me, but either way we talked and discovered that not only did they not have power but Older Brother, who works in Manhattan, had just called them to ask if they were having a power outage, then had to split. That was when we started to get a bit worried. More phone calls then another touching base with the 'rents provided the news about it being in Toronto and many states.
My first thought, upon knowing it was a blackout covering many blocks and even NYC was that it was all the air conditioners. My second thought, upon finding out it was hitting multiple states and Canada too, was terrorists. My third thought, which followed immediately after, was that Bush did it on purpose to shore up his credibility. Fourth and final was me wondering if power stations would be hurt by that MSBLAST worm since what the hell do I know about A) worms or B) power stations?
My boss actually blamed me. Not because I am gay, though obviously the gay thing means that the outage is, of course, my fault. But because I was sick all day - er, sick beyond being gay I mean - to the point where I was seriously thinking about going home early. So when the power cut out the boss figured that clearly I had done something to stack the deck in my favor.
To which I responded that clearly this was a sign from God that not only should I go home but that he, the doc, was a heathen, since I, the girl who grew up Christian, was getting this divine intervention while he, the lapsed Jew, was not. To which the patient, who was still in the office and actually standing between us, said he was so not getting in the middle of this.
(For those of you playing at home, obviously I was joking.)
Anyhoo - closed the place down and went home to check on the cats. I took as many side streets as I could to avoid dealing with malfunctioning traffic lights. In the end I only had to hit about 3 and most people were very good about it. There was only one street which was a huge intersection that was too hard to co-ordinate through spontaneous courtesy, so people did it kind of catch as catch can.
There were people at a few intersections directing traffic though, which was cool.
Went home, checked the folks again, agreed to go over to their place b/c they had a gas grill (unlike my BBQ which requires charcoal that I'm currently out of) and a gas stove which put them way ahead of me in the food game. My apt is pretty well insulated so the cats weren't in danger of overheating. So I dumped down plenty of food and water, packed up enough clothes and books for a couple of days just in case, and prepared to walk the few miles to the folks since traffic was starting to look scary.
Fortunately that had cleared up by the time I left due to more people being nice enough to direct traffic, so I went back to my place for my car keys, grabbed some sodas out of my fridge and made a point of stopping to give those to a few of the volunteers when I could since it was freaking hot and they were doing it anyway. Granted soda's not great for hydration but I figured any portable cool drink in a storm.
Then passed the time with the folks. The news was spectacularly unhelpful. The last I heard, which was maybe a couple of hours ago, was that Canada's blaming us, we're blaming them, a few people are blaming a lightening strike in Niagra and all the meteorologists are saying that the lightening strike people are on crack and couldn't correctly identify a lightening strike in their own ass with a picture book to help them.
Mind you I might be paraphrasing a bit.
Older Brother walked 2 hours to get home to Brooklyn, where Mouse and my extremely pregnant sis-in-law (as in she's due on the 17th) were fortunately safe and sound. I'm told those working in Manhattan are strongly encouraged to take tomorrow as a "snow day" so to speak, and I had tomorrow off anyway so there we are.
Power's back on now so I'm home with the kitties. The food in my fridge was still cold so yay for not having to throw away a freezerful of hard work.
And that's about that. Though I'm miffed that I had to miss the Fab Five on Leno. Phooey.
