The most exciting day at work yet

[elSicomoro]

11:30 this morning...water is found leaking into a PECO substation at 9th and Lombard. PECO is the main electric utility in Philadelphia, and the location is about a mile from my office. As a precaution, power was shut down, and it affected a large portion of Center City from 11:30 to 1:00, with some areas still down as of 5:00.

It was a nice break from work, although had the power not come back on by 1:15, I could have gone home. It was back on at 1:10...curse you PECO!

So, a water main breaks, and it causes power problems...not really out of the ordinary. Shit...when I was living in DC, manhole covers were popping 10-30 feet into the air on a semi-regular basis.

But there was another event going on this morning as well...

The building in which we currently work was maintained by a contract staff, apparently from several companies: janitorial stuff, security, general maintenance, etc. A month ago, the building was bought, and the new owners let the staff go. This afternoon, the former employees and their "friends" decided to protest in front of the building, having people sign petitions and passing out flyers.

Again, this is nothing new in today's world. Except for the fact that the picketers showed up just as the electrical outage occurred...and the former staff was unionized.

It's a c-o-n-spiracy! (Seriously, I doubt it, but given the reputation of the unions in this town, you just never know...)

Well, what an exciting day! Thank God we're only at that building for one more month.