On Thursday I went in to work feeling a little more confident about my future then I had when I’d left the previous Saturday.
That didn’t last, as during the course of the day I learned that while I’d thought that the layoffs were behind us, I was mistaken, as the layoffs are yet to come.
5,000 of them, in fact, or around 26% of the company’s worldwide workforce.
Not exactly confidence-inspiring numbers.
I’ve actually seen reports of worse numbers indicating that 50% of the workforce will be let go.
Oh well.
Beyond that the weekend was largely uneventful, though the heat and humidity remained way the hell up there.
On Thursday night I was lying in bed standing on the edge of consciousness and about to take the plunge into the canyon of sleep, so I didn’t initially notice that the A/C was no longer circulating cool air into my bedroom, though I was dimly aware of the fact that it was raining outside.
I did, however, take immediate notice of the loud beeping coming from the direction of my computer.
Recognizing this as the alarm from my UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) indicating that my computer was running on battery power, I turned toward my clock to double-check whether the power was out or if it had simply been a surge.
The clock was still on, but I realized then that the clock has a battery back-up of its own, so I got up to go into the kitchen to check the clock on the microwave.
Still a little groggy, I noticed that Munin, my kitchen computer was still on, and was puzzled when I saw that the clocks were out on the stove and the microwave until I heard a beeping sound coming from Munin’s direction and realized that it also had a UPS.
So the power was out, though for the life of me I couldn’t understand why. After all, the “storm” had already passed and had never seemed that severe.
I supposed that an overload of some kind was possible, what with all of the A/C units running.
To make sure that it wasn’t something peculiar to me, I checked my circuit breakers and found nothing amiss.
By this time, lacking the A/C, it was getting very hot inside, so I opened the bedroom window, fully-realizing that this wouldn’t accomplish much, given that it was till like 95 degrees out.
There was a slight breeze, but it didn’t do much good. Still, it did allow me to notice that the constant hum of the various A/C units outside was gone, so I had confirmation that I wasn’t the only one affected.
It took about one sweat-soaked hour for the power to come back and another half hour or so for it to cool of enough for me to get to sleep.
The new schedule is still taking some getting used to. For example, Scott and I aren’t especially pleased with the fact that we now intersect with the regular M-F workers on two days rather than one.
I finally got an answer about whether the exhaust problem on my car is covered by warranty (it is) and made an appointment to get it fixed. Unfortunately the soonest opening was on Thursday, so I’ll have to drop the car off on Wednesday night and ride in to work with Brian. Hopefully the car will be ready by that night, but I’m not holding my breath.
Today I briefly ventured out into the world to go to Wal-Mart, which was having a “back to school” sale this weekend during which they weren’t charging sales tax on items under $100.
Unfortunately that was limited to clothes and school supplies, so it didn’t really do me any good.
And that’s been pretty much it.
I came home and took a nap, and now I’m writing this.
And now I’m done.
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