Over the Weather

On Thursday, we were warned that for a few hours, the company would be switching over to backup generators as a standard test. Even the slightest possibility of an interruption in power could mean a loss of data, so we were encouraged to save our progress often, something I’ve learned to do over the years.

On Friday, it rained steadily. My cold had shifted to my lungs, though I was still a bit lightheaded. I made remarkable progress getting through revisions I’d received late the day before, and it looked like I’d make my afternoon deadline. Right about the time I was feeling confident, the electricity winked.

Most people were at lunch already. I stifled a scream, then silently cursed at the ceiling of my office. My computer was only off for a few seconds, but enough time to have lost major progress. I took it as a sign to take lunch, though a crowd and the ever-ticking clock sent me and my food right back to my office. I closed the door while I ate and surveyed the damage, pondering the irony that a little rain the day after they tested the generators was enough to cause an outage. The damage wasn’t too bad, but with less than an hour until my meeting I wasn’t sure I’d get all 14 ads revised. In some cases where I considered presenting multiple versions, I opted to go with my best ideas. With 10 minutes to spare, I found myself printing and gathering the various products on a cart to wheel over to our photo studio in another building.

The rain at least had given way to a drizzle, better for the items I was transporting though not much better for my cold. An hour meeting turned in to a two hour meeting for various reasons I won’t go into, but it was a relief when we finished. And, in classic MCF luck, I learned that only 5 of the 14 designs were actually due,while the others could have waited until next Wednesday. At least I got a head start though, and next week will be less crazy as a result. I’m glad it’s the weekend, and I’m actually hoping the one band job I have gets rained out. I could really use one day in bed. I’m tired of being under the weather, and look forward to getting back to normal, to getting over the weather.