April 28, 1995
Dear Everyone:
We had a power outage this week. Seems
there was an accident over on Ygnacio Valley Road, and one of the cars
involved managed to take out the one power poll that fed half of
northern
Contra Costa County. This
happened at 5:28 am, just as I was starting to dress for work.
One minute, I'm putting something
on, the next, total darkness.
Ordinarily, when you turn the lights out, there's still a lot of ambient
light coming from electric clocks, appliances, the streetlights outside.
But, when the power goes out, all
those light sources are shut off, too. Luckily
for me, we compulsively neat people always know exactly where the
nearest flashlight is. After
that, it was just like the good ol’ days living in Oregon, where the
power went out so often that it was not considered an acceptable excuse
for not having your homework done. "You
knew the power could go out, so you should have done your homework while
it was still light out." Yeah,
right. Didn't they know "when
it's still light out" was reserved for backyard football?
Anyway, I lit some candles and oil lamps (compulsively neat people are
always prepared) and continued getting ready for work.
Of course, applying makeup by
candlelight does present a few unique problems.
Such as automatically turning the
lighted mirror on, only to realize that (guess what?) the "lighted" part
doesn't work this morning. However,
one of the rare advantages to being half blind is knowing how to do so
many things just by touch, such as doing makeup without your glasses.
I wasn't even late for work.
Constructive things continue to happen at my “Livermore” office.
Most recently, they decided to do
something to the roof. This
required everyone avoiding parking their cars in the front parking lot
because "stuff" was being sprayed on the roof and, if blown onto your
car, would eat the finish in nothing flat.
First, they decided to replace the heating/air conditioning system.
Now they're fixing the roof.
Guess what?
Company Real Estate Management
Company (CREMCO), the company that owns and operates the “Livermore”
building, just happens to be
planning to move some of their people into the unoccupied offices
upstairs. Coincidence?
You bet.
On another note, what happened last week in
Oklahoma
was terrible, of course; but at least it took everyone's mind off that
interminable
Simpson
trial for a change. CNN,
with its usual delicate touch, bombarded the airwaves with every
conceivable detail, including, I believe, an interview with someone who
stood next to the bombing suspect in line at
McDonald's one
day.
I mean, is it really necessary to devote every waking minute to this
story for over a week? On the
other hand, maybe this information overload is a good thing.
Could the authorities have
succeeded in railroading
Bruno Hauptmann
for the
Lindbergh kidnapping under the intense scrutiny of today's media?
I guess we'll never know.
Movie review…
Muriel's
Wedding.
An Australian film that can't
decide if it's supposed to be a comedy or a journey of self-discovery.
Unhappy Muriel thinks if she can
just have a picture-perfect wedding (never mind to whom), life will be
wonderful and she'll live happily ever after.
Reality intrudes.
There are some laughs, but the
movie is decidedly uneven. On the
other hand, you do get to see a lot of wedding ensembles.
I'd say the costume designer had
a good time with this one.
Love, as always,
Pete
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