Your Tax Dollars, Taking A Nap

When we got to work this morning, things were a little on the dark side.

The classrooms in our main building were ablaze with light, we could see as the bus pulled up. But the parking lot lights and the foyer to the building, well, dark. You could see the glow of cell phones on faces, but that was about it.

Power out, obviously. The classrooms had emergency power. Everything else but the fire exit lights and such were out.

I found a dark little spot to lean against the wall, a bit out of the way so nobody would trip over me. IT was crowded in the foyer – a couple hundred employees all crammed in there, yet it was still pretty chilly. I sat for a while but my butt went to sleep. So I wandered over to the bathrooms. Good thing I had my cell phone, because otherwise I would have had to do my business in the pitch dark. Mental note: Bring one of my solar lanterns from home, to have in case of emergency. Also for use in the records closet when I lock myself in there to take naps.*

After the potty break, I found a chair to sit in. I alternated between leaning forward and dozing and leaning backward and dozing, waking occasionally when the conversation in the room got a bit loud or it sounded like someone was making an announcement.

Round about 8:30 AM – an hour and a half after arrival – the lights turned on and we all filed dutifully through the turnstyles.

I wanted more nap time. But luckily I brought a Dr. Pepper from home, so I had a little pick-me-up. But I have to throw my work cup away, as it has a crack in it, and my Dr. Pepper was slowly leaking out. I feel  kinda sad about that.

But not sad all y’all paid me $39 to take a nap this morning.

Oh. Why was the power out? I never heard officially. We did have wind gusts of up to 74 miles per hour blowing through the plant last night accompanied by heavy rain. So it’s likely there were lines down or maybe a transformer blew up or something. All I know is they got it fixed.

And I’m being flip here, of course. Keeping us at work, even idled while the power was out, saved you money. About half of us ride government buses to work. To have the buses roll to take us home would have cost a lot. And they would have still rolled home at the regular time, because only the power at our plant was out, not everywhere at the Site.

*This, I have not done. Though I have fantasized about it regularly.