The most exciting day at work yet
 

11:30 this morning...water is found leaking into a PECO substation at 9th and Lombard. PECO is the main electric utility in Philadelphia, and the location is about a mile from my office. As a precaution, power was shut down, and it affected a large portion of Center City from 11:30 to 1:00, with some areas still down as of 5:00.

It was a nice break from work, although had the power not come back on by 1:15, I could have gone home. It was back on at 1:10...curse you PECO!

So, a water main breaks, and it causes power problems...not really out of the ordinary. Shit...when I was living in DC, manhole covers were popping 10-30 feet into the air on a semi-regular basis.

But there was another event going on this morning as well...

The building in which we currently work was maintained by a contract staff, apparently from several companies: janitorial stuff, security, general maintenance, etc. A month ago, the building was bought, and the new owners let the staff go. This afternoon, the former employees and their "friends" decided to protest in front of the building, having people sign petitions and passing out flyers.

Again, this is nothing new in today's world. Except for the fact that the picketers showed up just as the electrical outage occurred...and the former staff was unionized.

It's a c-o-n-spiracy! (Seriously, I doubt it, but given the reputation of the unions in this town, you just never know...)

Well, what an exciting day! Thank God we're only at that building for one more month.

Oh fer chrissake, get real.:rolleyes:

YOU started this didn't you? First you try to mack on my woman, then you make me lose 2 hours of work. Damn...I thought we were cool. :(

;)

Of course we're cool, syceykins. I believe your conspiracy theories. Tell me about the anal probing again.:beer:

syc, I told you not to talk about that.

Re: The most exciting day at work yet
 

I hate it when that happens!! We've had several 2+ hour power outages at my office in the 5 years I've been working there. One was caused by exactly the same thing, water leaking into somewhere it shouldn't have been. Also a similar incident to what you had, on one of our outages the dean decided he would send everybody home if the power wasn't back on by noon (it had died early in the morning right when most people were arriving on campus), and it was back on around 11:50 or so.

But look at the bright side... if all those offices had no power yesterday, they couldn't spread the MSBlaster worm! :D

Friday Before Next
 

Last Friday I went to buy some hardware for my work machine. On the way back I stopped for some food. I also locked my keys in my car.
No big deal. It's four o'clock (roughly), there shouldn't be any problems with the network on a Friday, right? I'm sure anyone who's worked in the industry knows how horribly wrong that statement is.
For the next three hours, my outgoing email queue gets clogged, the PDC drops, and then, someone turns off the power. Normally not that big a deal, but they also shut down two UPS's.
So, after the car-guy breaks into Stumpy the Wonder Truck, I have nine (9) voice mail messages that get increasingly frantic.
I got three extra keys made that night.

Keyless entry rocks.

(but you still experience the moment of panic when you realize that the doors are locked and the keys are on the inside of the care and you are not ... although frankly, having an electronic locking system with one of those keyfob controls, I find it is nearly impossible to accidentally lock the vehicle with the keys in it.)

As far as I can tell, all current model Volkswagens (as of at least '99) cannot have the keys locked inside them (unless the person is on the inside with the keys, of course). Volvo is the same way, as far back as '87 and possibly before.

wolf - you have the keypad on yours that allows you to open the car and the trunk and all that stuff without the key or the locker-ma-bob, right? My friend Matt has a 2000 Taurus+ (aka Sable) and it's got that. But he has the Premium trim or whatever and I'm not sure exactly what you've got. I don't know the differences.

that's the one I have, yes. Can lock and unlock all the stuff on the car. only thing it won't do is start it.

(of course opening all the doors is contingent upon my being able to remember the key combos to do that ... I usually manage to blunder onto 'lock all' but have to open the damn front door and pop the trunk with the button on the dash.)

A friend had (car got smooshed) a remote starter. He could start his car from about 150 yards away sitting in his living room.
I'm thinking about putting one in. These MN winters are starting to get to me in my old age.

Today the power was out in my school. I sat in the dark production lab with some buddies and we talked about tiny elephants (who according to one friend, wiped out the dinosaurs) and psychics for a while. Anyways...

I liked my old Saab(s) because I never could lock the key in. It had power locks that would only work from the inside when the doors were closed, or from the outside with a key. A few months after I got my Trooper, I had the misfortune of locking my keys in it. Luckily, I was in Mendota Heights. One of the only cities left where the cops will come and jimmy a lock for free. :D

I warmed up my car one winter day by starting the car, locking the door and taking the fob with me. Seems the fob won't work if the car is running. Good thing I'm one of those belt and suspenders types; I keep a spare key in my wallet.

fob: Friend of Bill?

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