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August 17, 2003 09:25 AM

Power Outage 2003

Well, that Power Outage was fun now, wasn't it?

I was out having a cup of coffee at 4:15 when the East lost power. After walking up to the front door of the office and noticing it strangely black (with a maintenance man on a scissor lift!), I suspected something was wrong. Next step was to listen to sudden and constant honking, and watch street lights idle ALL the way up Madison Ave.

Initial thoughts with pals involved a nice park outside, and some cold beer. After much conjecture of a short duration (and some bets placed on terrorism or not), I headed back to work to get my house keys, which were at my desk on the fourth floor. Long story short, I wasn't allowed to my desk (Bastard building manager!!), and got suckered into doing some work on the 28th (!!) floor of 550 Madison.

After 3+ hours of shutting down machines in a hot (yet still powered w/ UPS & Generator) and steamy server room, we trekked back down 28 flights and found a now-dark-street level, with no pals (I had been in a windowless room, after all). A second attempt to get to my desk was foiled again (grr!). This meant that all that silly planning of keys, emergency lights, pocket knives, water, snacks that I *always* carry for such an event was wasted, sitting at my desk. Oh well. So be it.

The Trek began. There was enough auto-traffic & emergency lighting from buildings along Madison Avenue to see where I was going, so that wasn't very much fun ;). Then, I walked over to 5th Avenue/Broadway, for a different perspective. It was quiet/dark, which I liked. I actually saw stars over Manhattan! It took about 45+ minutes to get to Union Square, where I heard drums (hmmm?), and went to find them.

*blink* *what?*

I might as well have been on the Playa, at Burningman. There were drum circles, glowsticks spinning on strings, dancing people, signal flares, flashy-glowy things, and more. People were jubilant! They loved that there was no power!! Who needs power when you've got music, happy people & sparklers? It was fun for a bit, but by now it was past 9pm, and I knew I had a long way still to go.

Next stop was the Brooklyn Bridge, which I had never walked before! Let's hear it for the just-rising, rich, deep orange harvest moon that I could see rising over the Manhattan Bridge! It was gorgeous! The first part of the walk was a bit depressing, but now it was getting fun. I spoke with random strangers, found out where they were walking from, to, and what their stories were. There was a guy who had come from Jersey, via 179th street, folks from the Natural History Museum @ 81st, and more. Culture, class, skin color didn't matter. Everyone just wanted to get home, and everyone was happy enough to be outside on a nice night.

Upon entering Brooklyn, there was a guy with a bullhorn welcoming us home! "Welcome to the best borough in America" "You've made it home now" "You all are wonderful people" "Have a block party tonight." It turns out (saw on morning news this morning) that it was Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz. how funny.

I finally made it to Park Slope around 11, and woke up poor Greg & Lisa to beg them for my extra set of house keys (no luck, but thanks for looking!), then to beg Jen's extra set from her roommates. Shower & a bed never felt so good!

Best I can tell, it was an 8-9 mile urban hike. I have to say it would have been more fun with someone else, and not wearing sandals, but it was quite the adventure! With no subway service expected until at least last tonight (Friday), I'm staying home! Snow day!!

Stay tuned for more stories from this crazy city of mine.