Friday, 10/13

And that's how I ended up seeing more butt cracks than at any other time in recorded history.

.

.

.

(Those spaces you see?  Just a comedic pause for effect)

Okay. I suppose this is one of those stories where I should start at the beginning, right? Well, it actually began when Jen came into the station yesterday morning at 330 and noticed that it faintly smelled of rotten eggs. When I showed up a little after nine it was no longer a faint odor; the whole building smelled like something that was not good. Several hours and several visits from people bearing atmospheric sensors later, it was determined that one of the battery backups in the basement of our building had started a strange chemical reaction, one that was putting out hydrogen sulfide (which is what we were smelling) and carbon monoxide, which we weren't smelling.

Seeing as how we didn't want to die, we kind of evacuated the place for a bit, letting the computers run themselves. Once it was okay to go back in we still left all the doors open to air out both the smell and the carbon monoxide. The smell and the CO was the worst in the back of the station, where my office sits, so in order to be able to have enough functioning brain cells to write this I took up residence at our front desk. It had several advantages—it's close to our air studio, and it had an open door to the street, where fresh, non carbon monoxided air was pouring in. Sure, the open door caused the temperatures inside to fall into the 60s, but at least I was still alive.

I'm guessing that's a good thing.

The other thing that sitting at the front desk gave me was a (literal) window to the world. I could see everything going on outside on Front Street. I could see the cars driving by, the bikes whistling past, the pedestrians scampering up & down the streets, and everything that happens on a busy city street in the middle of a workday. You know what else I could see? I could see the construction workers rebuilding the sidewalk outside of the station. They spent the day pouring concrete, and then bending over to give it a nice, smooth finish.

They did a great job. The sidewalks look nice, and the faux brick that they were putting in should be a nice addition to the aura of downtown. But spending a lot of time sitting at the front desk, occasionally glancing out the window, seeing the construction workers bending over to give the sidewalk a nice, smooth finish gave me the chance to see a whole lot of something you don't usually see while enclosed in a radio studio or a back office.

That's why I started this blog the way I did. And that's all I'm gonna say about that.

Have yourself a great weekend. Hope your sightings of butt cracks are few and far between!!

(jim@wmqt.com)