Fridays are interesting days. Supposed to make you happy that your work week is almost over. That, of course, relies on the expectation that you will know it is Friday.
I think I really knew, but there was a moment in the morning as I was leaving my office for a meeting, when I questioned what day it was. I decided I thought it was Friday, but asked somebody else to be sure.
On to the afternoon. Finally the work day has ended – actually it did not. Most people left. A customer came in late, but was helped by others, who then opened the gate so he could leave. We worked on – trying to get to a point where I could continue a task on my own.
5:30 and it is raining and windy out, but still time to go, finally. Call home to let Carl know I am on my way. But the phone call doesn’t go through. Try again, and a third time. Finally walk over to another remaining workerbee – her’s doesn’t work either.
Now, non-working phones might seem like a reason to leave – no can communicate. But in our field, if something goes wrong it is really important for people to be able to get in touch with us. Imagine a geyser of water squirting into the air, and threatening to wash out a road. And nobody answers the call – or the call just doesn’t go through.
Call to the telephone provider and our IT geek. No ready solution, and the provider had no idea how long the service would be down. So we called the cops and fire and told them how to direct dial to our on-call – just in case something went wrong. Over-reaction? Maybe, but I don’t think so. And the dispatchers actually took the information without too many questions or loud sighs.
Monday will be the day we find out why our phone system is so easy to take down, when it is imperative that it works through a simple windstorm.
And we all finally got to drive off into the sunset, with leaves and branches flying through the air.
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