No power here

We were having a team meeting at work yesterday morning and then the power went out. To the entire campus. We’re in the basement of the library building, so it was absolutely pitch dark for about 10 seconds. The backup generators then kicked in, turning back on about 20 percent of the lights. Our colleague living in nearby Daly City also reported an outage, so this blackout didn’t seem like the quick fix type.

I immediately sent a text to my housemate to check on the power status at our house. I live incredibly close to campus so it wouldn’t surprise me if we lost electricity as well. Fortunately, our side of 19th Avenue was unscathed. After hanging around campus for about 30 minutes just to see if power will come back soon, I walked home to wait out the rest of the blackout. That’s the flex of living so close to work.

Turns out they sent almost everyone home in my department. It took about three hours for power to return to campus. I of course volunteered to come back. In fact, the three people that live closest to campus came back, which is kind of funny in a way.

The intermission caused by the power interruption was very nice. I got to move my car back to its usual parking spot after the street cleaning from earlier in the morning (no need to do it after work). I ate a proper lunch at home, and I read for about an hour. A sort of Spanish siesta in the middle of the work day. Had the power outage gone on longer, I would have done some grocery shopping at Whole Foods.

A welcomed deviation from the normal everyday work routine.

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Breakfast for dinner.

Everything is colder in Texas

A historic and unprecedented winter storm has hit Texas, causing below-freezing temperatures and massive amounts of snow. The power grid utterly failed, and millions are left without power for many consecutive hours into the night. Extremely cold weather with no way to heat the house is a potentially lethal combination indeed. Thankfully, my lone friend in the Lone Star State - in a suburb of Austin - is doing fine and has power.

My thoughts are with the millions who aren’t so lucky. I hope everyone can stay safe and get through this.

It’s not without some schadenfreude to see Texas politicians, who have mocked the misfortunes of California in regards to our own weather nightmares, now having to eat massive crow. Goes to show that one, no single area is immune from extreme climate patterns, and two, karma is an absolute bitch. If California’s trouble with wildfires and the electric grid can be blamed on the government run by Democrats, then logically we can blame Texas’ Republicans on their current predicament.

Not so good when the shoe is in the other foot, is it?

It’s best to be kind and considerate at the misfortune of others. The pendulum of luck won’t always be on your side. Some day you too will need help, and the grace - or lack thereof - you’ve shown others previously will be remembered. We’re all in this together; we should be able to debate infrastructure policies without viciousness. More importantly, when others are suffering, we offer a helping hand and words of encouragement, not snark and mockery.

Extreme climates are here to stay, and I’m reminded to be prepare for it. I really should get that emergency kit together…

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It’s a bird!

Power outage on campus

I work as tech-support at a college campus and last evening the power to the entire campus went out. Due to this I got to go home early from work which is nice, but for the students and teachers that had classes it probably wasn't a good thing. 

The month of May is the tail end of the semester therefore missing a single class period can be detrimental to things like presentations and tests - especially for classes that only meet once a week (which classes in the evening tend to be). For sure students in lower level courses likely couldn't care less (I'd be happy as a fox), but I'd be pissed if I were a graduate student and it was my day to present thesis.

Today a professor shared with me that a student of his was due to perform for his final masters last night but the blackout torpedoed that plan. What made it worse was his parents flew all the way here from Russia for the occasion. Dreadful.  

The University needs to be responsible for the lost instruction time. Students pay good money for tuition and to have power outages cancel class without recompense of say adding an extra day is unjust. Last evening's incident wasn't even the first one this calendar year!

Though I guess we can't rule out the possibility that last night someone really didn't want to take a final and did some grade A sabotaging to the power-grid to avoid it.