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How much is that techie in the window?
Nov. 22nd, 2011 08:26 pmThere was a fire today across the highway from work. I heard a sound not unlike the sound we hear when people are playing bumper cars on the freeway out front of our building, but this one included enough air pressure that I could feel it course through the building. Since the door chime didn't go off, I figured I'd ask to make sure I wasn't the only one that felt it.
Tom checked out front, and sure enough across the freeway was a huge, billowing cloud of very black smoke forming. I called it in to 911, and Tom grabbed his camera and took some shots. It raged with thick smoke for a good 10-15min. We never did figure out what it was, but Tom discovered there's a place called Amalgamate Processing just beyond the building we could see, at the approximate location of the fire. Our bets are on that place having an accident with as much smoke as came out. Either way, something exploded and continued to burn furiously for a short while.
Training of the new staff person is going great. In the meantime, Tom and I have been getting caught up on other work. I think I'm starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Oh wait, that might be a train light.
I got a call from one of our Dallas techs this evening telling me that the guys working on our telephone lines were locked in the gated area. This was news to me as we were completely unaware of guys working on the lines in our back area at the time we left. The new girl even asked me about the extra truck back there, and out of habit I said it's probably one of the helper's trucks and whichever tech they are working with will have a gate key to let them back in (as this is a very common occurrence). These guys had apparently called our after hours emergency services line and were lucky to get through to live humans. I was so tempted to taunt the (very young) techies, but I was nice when I showed up. It was still hilarious and for once actually worth the drive back to the office to be able to share this story. :)
Tom checked out front, and sure enough across the freeway was a huge, billowing cloud of very black smoke forming. I called it in to 911, and Tom grabbed his camera and took some shots. It raged with thick smoke for a good 10-15min. We never did figure out what it was, but Tom discovered there's a place called Amalgamate Processing just beyond the building we could see, at the approximate location of the fire. Our bets are on that place having an accident with as much smoke as came out. Either way, something exploded and continued to burn furiously for a short while.
Training of the new staff person is going great. In the meantime, Tom and I have been getting caught up on other work. I think I'm starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Oh wait, that might be a train light.
I got a call from one of our Dallas techs this evening telling me that the guys working on our telephone lines were locked in the gated area. This was news to me as we were completely unaware of guys working on the lines in our back area at the time we left. The new girl even asked me about the extra truck back there, and out of habit I said it's probably one of the helper's trucks and whichever tech they are working with will have a gate key to let them back in (as this is a very common occurrence). These guys had apparently called our after hours emergency services line and were lucky to get through to live humans. I was so tempted to taunt the (very young) techies, but I was nice when I showed up. It was still hilarious and for once actually worth the drive back to the office to be able to share this story. :)
