Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

Yesterday, as I was humming along the highway with the soundtrack from Jersey Boys keeping me company, a good-sized box fell off the truck in front of me. Good news is that the lane next to me was clear so I could swerve and avoid it, and the box must have been heavy as it didn't bounce very high or fast. The driver of the truck was oblivious to the loss, but will probably be upset when he arrives at the job waiting for that item and finds that it is not only not on the truck, but gone.

When I arrived at work, I set about completing on-campus chores, such as making copies, checking e-mail, and then setting up the classroom. Just as I finished using the computer, the power went off totally and completely. Not a flicker, not a brown-out, just no power at all. Period. It was about 45 minutes until the start of class, so I headed for the classroom to wait for the power to come back on or the directive to cancel class.

We began class in the dark. The students signed in and I made some prefatory remarks, but it was not realistic to conduct class in the dark and/or in a desert classroom in August with no air conditioning. If we opened the door, we would lose the stored coolness, but with close to 25 students generating body heat, it wasn't going to stay cool long even with the door closed.

Just as I was about to call it, the power came back on: totally, completely, no flickers or false starts. We had class.

Driving back home, I was in a community long known for its large population of ancient drivers who have restricted licenses that allow them to drive ... to the grocery store and other venues to make quality of life purchases. Unfortunately, all of these businesses are on the highway that runs through the community, so the elderly drivers become menaces as they drive 20 mph in a posted 45 mph zone, change lanes without realizing there are other cars in proximity to their vehicle, and make left turns from the left lane, rather than from the turning lane, which can cause some sudden stops by vehicles who don't understand the only car on the road mentality.

As I poked along behind one of these elderly drivers whose head could not be seen above the headrest, the driver of a flashy bright red sports car behind me grew impatient, stomped on the gas, and blasted into the lane to the left to go around us just as the senior began to navigate into the same lane. It is a blessing that there is a 2-way turn lane the length of the highway as the red sports car screeched into it, missing the senior boat that takes much longer to finish changing lanes by about a foot. There would have been no damage to the antique Caddy, the elderly driver probably would not have known there was a collision, but the driver of the red sports car would have felt it!

I'm happy to report that the brakes on the truck are in fine working order, as must also be the brake lights as I was not rear-ended while avoiding what appeared to be a major disaster in the making.

On the other side of this incident, I came across the blocked lanes where the edison company was working to replace a major power pole that was snapped into three pieces, from which dangled shredded power lines. Guess I found the cause of the power outage, although whatever caused it had been cleared from the roadway 5+ hours after the initial power out. It looked like the repair would take a while, and judging from the number of official vehicles at the site, a lot longer.

It was good to get home as it seemed as if that's where I needed to be. Happy to report no further incidents and the DemCon coverage finally ceased, The Cleaner came on, and I went to bed a happy woman.