Poof! And the Computer Screens Went Black...

So my building was among the countless others in the Los Angeles area that lost all it's power around 1:30pm in the afternoon.



I was franticly trying to get work done, as I usually do, during the lunchtime hours - when suddenly the the pop sound of everyone's computers shutting down and the awkward silence of all things that run on electricity. (And a couple curses muttered out of mouths of those working on unsaved documents...)

Then a coworker informs us that they noticed on the news (before we lost our power) other parts of the city had lost all power, and that the cause was still unknown. Like zombies, we emerged from our cubicles, staring at each other in disbelief, wondering if this was some pre-cursor to some crazy Terrorism threat or that somewhere an Earthquake hit and destroyed some power lines, but no one must have felt it.

Another wave of "what if we can go home early?" poured through everyone's minds. Gosh, maybe we're all working TOO hard, and the universe decided to give us a break. Then within less than an hour, the power returned and we all trudged back to our cubicle cells and began recovering what we had been laboring over before the unexpected blackout.

It's things like this that make you realize... there's a LOT of things that could go wrong. Not trying to be a pessimist or anything, but every day you drive to work - aren't you amazed that all the drivers around you don't veer off from daydreaming or choosing the next radio station... and run you off the road? That more planes don't have a misglued piece or a faulty engine? That the structure you live in right now, doesn't have some mystery plumbing leak within the walls, causing mold and other harmful agents to your health? What took a DWP guy this long to accidently cross a few wrong lines in order to Black Out one of the busiest and most populated cities in California?

Makes you wonder. :p