Boom Boom, Out Go The Lights

I was in the lab last night when I heard a large bang! sound. Well, moderately large. It was the sound a heavy box would make if dropped flat on a linoleum floor. No tumbling sounds, no clattering. Just WHOMP.

At first, I didn't realize what had happened. I had turned off all of the lights except for the task lighting, which is connected to emergency power generators. I was working on stuff in the lab that didn't require the computer at that moment. And then...

The Delightful and Amusing Nina, X-ray tech for the evening, popped her head into the lab. "My generator blew, " she said rather breathlessly. "Taking patients upstairs." Again, I didn't think much of it, as the X-ray equipment has been...shall we say fussy of late? Yes, yes. Fussy is the word we will use. And when Nina said "blew" I didn't associate it with...um...blowing up.

And that's what it did.

In the process, it took out all but the emergency power in my building. This meant that the work intranet, the thing that all twelve kabillion work programs run off of, went down, too. As did the power to the lights for the patient rooms.

Fortunately, none of the jokesters who work here yelled out, "Who forgot to pay the power bill?" like last time. So many people don't find that funny. Weird.

Today, however, power has been restored. I can turn on all of the lights. I can report my test results. I can see my patients clearly as I stick them with needles, which seems to make them so much happier. I'm not sure why. I've told them that I don't really need that much light to draw blood. Strangely, this seemed to worry them more than comfort them.

Again I say: Weird.

Now. Does anyone know how to fix a multi-million-dollar X-ray machine? Anyone?

Call me.