Powerless...At Work

So, there I was, working away--I was even leaving a voice-mail message for someone, when suddenly...poof. 

No power.

It was a first for me, not the power going out, but what I was doing when it happened.

I was working...telecommuting.

I'm experiencing a lot of firsts with my job. I've blogged about some of them, like how things have changed since the weather's gotten cold. Today, the power to our house and to half the town went out. Just like if I worked in a big building with hundreds of other workers, I was stuck with nothing to do.

The outage hit just before the time I usually go upstairs and get lunch. I thought, perfect timing--I'll just get lunch and wait for the power to return. One problem, everything I planned on eating required electricity to prepare.

In the past, when I worked with everyone else in the same building, when the power went out everyone knew it--including the big bosses. Today, I was the only one. After checking with the power company to see when things would be reinstated, we needed to get lunch for the family so we went for a short drive. After all, it would be at least two and a half hours before the power came back on. Thankfully, it came back after only about forty-five minutes.

When I worked with others, there was a collective gasp, when the power went out at work. Some were in the middle of writing reports, others were on the phones. Everything stopped and we all experienced the same thing together. Today, that's what didn't happen. It was just me by myself. That was the weirdest part, and something new in my year of "firsts."