S.O.S. - Save Our Servers

I love thunderstorms, whether I’m watching the flashes through my living room windows, the windshield of my truck, or even am out standing in the rain with my face skyward.

I’m also a very heavy sleeper. I fall asleep watching loud James Bond or Lord of the Rings movies, or listening to extreme death metal blastbeats and harsh vocals. I often miss most thunderstorms at night, only to hear around the coffee machine the next morning about storms so wildly exaggerated I wonder how I didn’t wake up in Oz.

So it was a pleasant surprise to me to awaken at 4:00 AM Wednesday morning to a fireworks display of lightning out my window. I figured I could afford to stay up a few minutes to watch the lightning, then drift back off to sleep. It would be a nice little allowance, and for a summer which lately felt more like fall, a welcome reassurance that it was still indeed August.

It wasn’t 30 seconds after these pleasant thoughts passed through my head that my power went out. Nearly immediately, my phone started dinging to let me know I had emails rolling in. Sure enough, they were alerts from our Uninterruptable Power Supplies letting me know that the servers were running on battery power.

My house livened up with power within a minute or two, so I still hoped from under the covers that I’d receive the emails stating that power has been restored to the servers, and I could go back to sleep. Emails did ring through, but they stated what I feared: battery power was running low and servers were starting to shut down. Crap. I needed to go into the office.

The last time we had a major power outage in our office was a year ago, and it was a Saturday, so thankfully there was no lost man-hours. Back then my partner McGrowl and I bought some branded hats with LED lights in the brim from the marketing closet. I was glad I set mine aside for power outages, so I doffed that while I stepped out into the rain and climbed into my truck.

I arrived at the office first. McGrowl lived much further away, and he also took the time to brush his teeth before leaving home. So I let myself into the office and started gracefully shutting down what servers were still running. I unplugged the printers and plotters as well; nothing can blow a fuse faster than 15 large electronic devices all firing up at once when the power returns.

With all my responsibilities completed, all I had to do was wait.

The battery-operated security lighting illuminated the office in a haunting way. The storm front had long passed by and outside was a pitch black world. I wandered the halls, taking comfort in the flip-flop slapping of rubber sandal souls on my heels. I whistled the song stuck in my head, before realizing that the song was not very conducive to whistling. Not that I had an audience anyways.

I kept the light on my hat brim on as I walked the perimeter hallways of General Population (what I call the cube farm part of the office building). A truck drove by outside, and I briefly worried that seeing a bobbing light in the window would prompt a good Samaritan to call the police. I’d have to explain myself somehow to them, even though I’m not on the emergency contact list for the office. Then I thought maybe I looked ghostly, like some spirit apparition haunting the lonely halls well past the witching hour. That’s ridiculous, the driver probably didn’t see me, and even if he did, he’s probably on the way to whatever building he works in to make sure his systems are alright. The thought of a spooky encounter spurred my mind to start thinking about the Slender Man, though, and I quickly diverted my path away from exterior windows and the view of the shadowy trees they provided. I could follow any of those slim dark tree trunks up from the ground only to realize instead I was looking at a tall tuxedoed man without a face…

I might not be in Oz, but I sure felt like the Cowardly Lion as he roamed that dark forest with Dorothy.

More time goes by and I’ve been here for an hour. Reddit on my phone has helped entertain me, but I can’t ignore the scratchy feeling in my throat. Goddammit, I’m getting sick. I better go get some OJ and maybe something for breakfast. I might be here a while.

As I pulled out of the parking lock, McGrowl was pulling in. Open window to open window, I told him my plans for breakfast and he showed me his gallon jug of Sunny D to prove he thought the same. He told me how far down the highway the power was out, warning me to not go to the usual Holiday and find another 24-hour gas station. Freedom was my next choice, and in there I found my OJ and a box of day-old pastries. I warned the attendant that their main competition is out of power down the road, they may want to make sure they have fresh coffee made up in bulk for the morning breakfast rush!

Back at the office, McGrowl and I spent the next hour and then some in the dark, eating doughnuts and chit-chatting, coming up with ideas of what sort of installations or hardware upgrades we could do since the system was all down anyways. It was about a quarter to 6:00 when the power came back on, and a half hour later we seemed to be back in business, minus the loss of one minor server exhibiting hardware malfunctions.

I drove home while everyone else was showing up to work, and I took a nap. I woke up late, showered and cleaned up, and got back to work well after all the coffee maker stories about last night’s storm was told.

***


Ok, I shit you not, but as soon as I hit Ctrl+S to save this blog post into Word, the power drops out again. And guess whose work PC's UPS doesn't work anymore?! This guy's.