“Did you know the network was down?”
Yes, I was asked that question today. Moments after the lights came back on following a power outage.
The power was not out for long. But it was out long enough that everything was black. The gasps and groans from the crowd in the unlit lecture hall next to my office rose sharply and subsided to quick chatter about what was going on just as the power returned. The power might have been out for 20 seconds.
Twenty seconds. Not a great deal of time! But when you are talking about electricity, it’s more than enough time to cause a problem in a world that relies upon lights, computers, the Internet, and all that goes with it.
Once the lights came back up, it was only a few moments before my phone rang.
“Did you know the network was down?”
No, actually I didn’t know for a fact that the network was down. But I strongly suspected it. My knowledge and understanding of electricity, computers and networks in conjunction with my previous experience of being without power, in some cases for many days in a row, led me to believe that some devices would need more than a minute or two to recover.
It turns out my suspicion was correct. Most services recovered on their own. Universal Power Supplies kept many devices up throughout the ordeal. One UPS, overdue for replacement, failed and the computer it was supporting needed help. And a router required a restart as it was not responding normally.
My mistake was answering the phone. Sometimes I need to be less attentive to the needs of others. But I realized my error by the fourth call, now just a few minutes after power was restored to the building. I ignored the phone, let it ring and continued through my checklist, confirming that everything was up and okay and dealt with the few devices that required attention.
But it dawned on me that some people are despicably spoiled by our modern society. That they have no patience to allow some time to recover from the lose of power. The length of time the power is out is not necessarily equal to or greater than the amount of time to recover from said outage. And apparently a few individuals don’t comprehend that.
Apparently, my normal attempts to be attentive to peoples needs does not build any faith in some individuals that I am on the case and taking care of the issue.
SO, to those that did NOT call me this morning, to those that did NOT ask me, “why’d the power go out?”, to those that continued teaching without a computer this morning…
God has blessed you with compassion, understanding and common sense beyond some of your peers and I thank you for exercising that gift.