After 16 years working in the one building (in many different jobs ranging from a dish washer to Internet geek) I moved campuses today. Space constraints in a rapidly growing department saw the programmers (who I get lumped in with) move to a completely different building – one that is as much in the middle of nowhere as you can be in the inner east.
We were moving our own computer equipment in when today’s massive storm hit. We were caught, the PC’s were safe. As were setting up we got the news that storm had wiped out the new phone system so we were without phones. Then one of my colleagues shorted out the office by turning on his PC. A few minutes later a call came through on the bosses mobile – there was problem with one of our sub-sites. A problem that could only be fixed by accessing the programs installed on my computer. The one with no power.
I left for home, and my Christmas break, two hours later. No phones, no power, no PCs but we had scored a beer.