Thursday, July 29, 2010

Life Lessons of Plinko

I'm sneaking some time away from the mountain of work on my desk to give you an update on my week. How's it going? As predicted: busy busy busy!

Monday got off to a rip-roaring start. When I arrived at work around 9:00 am, the early shift had already been there since 7:00 am. My first impression upon walking into the office was that it felt a little chilly. However, I thought "it must just be me" because I'm that person who's always chilly when everyone else feels fine.

Someone ran up to me immediately, before I had even gotten to my desk to put my bag down, asking "Did you get my e-mail?" Yes, sure, right after my shower at 7:15 am every day I log onto the remote server to check my work e-mail, because I care that much. NOT! No I had not gotten the e-mail. Turns out the chill wasn't just me.

On Friday our ventilation guy had made some adjustments to address complaints that certain areas of the office were too stuffy. The result of these adjustments was that the AC ran non-stop all weekend, refrigerating the office down to a brisk 59 degrees by the time the early shift manager got in. It was broiling outside, and inside everyone was wearing sweaters and shivering.

I had just finished making sure that that issue was being dealt with (and it was - the temperature was gradually rising back to normal) when

BBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

The fire bells all started ringing. Fantastic. I could see peoples' lips moving, asking what was going on, but no one could hear each other because the bells were so loud. Fortunately my office was insulated from the worst of the din, so I could call building management to find out if it was a false alarm or not. They said they'd have to get back to me. Someone did an inspection of our suite and saw no signs of danger, so we stayed put. We ended up waiting for ten minutes with these bells blaring in our ears before the false alarm was confirmed and we could go back to work. When the noise stopped it was a blessed relief.

My next thought was to change the backup tape, because goodness knows if there were to be a real fire I'd want to make sure the most recent tape was in my hand when I ran out the door. I checked the server. Lo and behold, the backup had failed completely for the first time since we got our new servers. Dammit. I went to the phone to call our off-site tech support, when

BBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

The fire alarm went off again. For the love of Pete. Honestly! Seriously? This is my day? We endured it for another 15 minutes or so before it was turned off.

I guess bad things come in threes because once we had sorted out the cold, the fire alarm, and the backup, things went back to status quo.

***

Yesterday Ken picked me up from work and we decided to go out for dinner because it was late and we were both tired.

The first plan was to go home, park, and walk to a local restaurant. Then some big, fat rain clouds moved in and started gushing torrents of water. The roads turned into rivers. Ken suggested that it'd be a better idea to drive directly to a restaurant, because we wouldn't want to walk in the downpour. So instead of turning left, we went straight.

"Let's go to Zet's," he suggested. I agreed. But as we approached the on ramp to the highway, we saw it was all backed up, so we changed plans again.

"We'll go downtown," said Ken. "How about Pho?" Sure, that was fine by me.

We continued in a generally southward direction, taking the path of least traffic resistance. Ken tends to drive like that, changing his route on a whim if traffic shows signs of slowing down. I started to feel that the car was a Plinko chip and the city was the board, with North at the top and South at the bottom. Where would we end up?

We made one last change of plans when our random twistings and turnings brought us to a colourful neighbourhood, one which we affectionately call "the corner of crack and crack". It's not really that bad, in the daytime. Just at night. We went a little further and found Bacchus Roti, an old favourite of mine from the 1990's when I used to live in the west end. We ate there. I had a chicken roti with squash and spinach. The Plinko approach served us well in the end.

11 comments:

Jameil said...

Do you guys have fire drills? I can't imagine sitting through even 5 mins of that ringing. And I'm not big on taking chances with my life so I'm pretty sure I would've had to leave the building, false alarm or not. LOL @ the REALLY cold person who attacked you as you walked in. Love it. Mmmmm. Food options.

Kate said...

The end. Haha! I tend to drive like Ken. Away from traffic.

Anonymous said...

Busy busy busy is right! At least it's almost over, though, right? :)

Anonymous said...

Most people don't realize how much real life can be bettered by approaching it the same way an astute contestant would approach the pricing games of The Price Is Right. Bob Barker taught us more than just to have our pets spayed and neutered. He taught us how to succeed in life. Plus, hot chicks and sports cars.

LL Cool Joe said...

I always drive to avoid the traffic. It's called taking the scenic route, even if it takes double the time to get to the same place. :D

Glad you enjoyed your meal out. :)

Ileana said...

Although they come in handy in case of a fire, I hate the sound of fire alarms!! Your Monday sounded awful, but I'm sure the chicken roti with squash and spinach made up for your crazy week. I'd love to try that dish, btw.

Sparkling Red said...

Jameil: Evacuating my workplace would involve moving a lot of people who are disabled and/or otherwise non-ambulatory because of medical concerns. Moving them unnecessarily would create a major risk of injury, so we don't evacuate until we've determined that there's a real risk to staying put. Fortunately we're on the first floor, so if necessary we should be able to move out pretty quick-like.

Kate: Ken's main goal is to keep moving. Sometimes that seems to take priority over actually arriving at a destination, but considering I don't have my driver's license, I'm not in a position to be complaining.

jdanetyler: As of this writing, one more day! Woohoo! I gonna make it!

WIGSF: I wish I won two Showcases full of prizes anytime the change in my wallet added up to one even dollar.

LL Cool Joe: Fortunately our car has a great sound system, so even if we take the long way around we can entertain ourselves by singing along with the radio.

Ily: It seems stupid to me that the fire bells are so loud that they preclude any other type of sound-based communication. Our public address system becomes useless in the face of the racket. This is not helpful in the case of an emergency.

Claire said...

Oh man, I can just imagine the din!

Cxx

Warped Mind of Ron said...

FIRE ALARMS!! I wouldn't be able to help myself, I would probably start running in circles and screaming, "Soylent Green is People!!!!" until the medics got there.

DarcsFalcon said...

It's almost comical, all the fire alarms, AC running, rain and traffic. I know those alarms must have been a nightmare. The ones here in our place are super loud too, and too sensitive. They'd go off when nothing was smoking, so we finally disconnected it. I can hear our upstairs neighbor's though, when they're making dinner sometimes.

Glad it all got sorted out in the end. :)

Dianne said...

the ringing bells made me think of an old movie - 'Up the Down Staircase'
It was set in an old rundown school and the bells always went off
Jean Stapleton would scream into the PA - 'ignore the bells, ignore the bells'

any time I try to avoid traffic I get lost ;)