This story ends well.
I promise.
So the storm arrived yesterday, with so much gusto that from my bed it sounded like the surf was just over the east side of me on Mt. Sutro. The power sort of blinked a couple of times, but nothing drastic.
I was told to sleep in Friday morning and then go into work. I should have just gone in at the regular time. The number 6 bus wasn't bad, albeit a bit full at that hour. And then we arrived at Haight and Pierce.
The bus died there.
Along with two other number 6 buses.
The number 6 runs on electrical cables suspended above the street. The power was out yesterday morning on Haight from Pierce to Market. Number 71 buses (which do not run on electrical power) were trying to pick up the slack, but they were behind the group of number 6's spread all over the street. So were about 20 cars and 10 or 12 taxis. The passengers of the 6's all stood around the bus stop, stunned and dismayed on what to do.
So I started walking.
I walked from Haight and Pierce to Market and Van Ness (where I take a 47 bus to the workplace) in the mess. At that hour of the morning the rain was heavy and the winds were at about 40 mph. The whole world had tossed out their Christmas trees this week, and in San Francisco "throwing out the Christmas tree" equals "putting it on the sidewalk." Dried out tree, 40 mph winds.
So I was walking that distance in driving rain and getting hit by litter and trees about my size. Taxis? Come ON. All of the taxis were taken or behind me in the Haight. You just have to keep going. You have to keep going forward.
By the time I reached the 47 I was soaked through. I might as well have been swimming. When I got to work and took off my coat, it looked like I was wearing a pair of gray shorts over black pants. I was wet, cold, tired...and my boss was still at home in her apartment in the East Bay.
She was working from home.
Okay. This would only be mildly annoying, except she didn't tell me and she didn't respond to my texts before I got to work, so I was thinking she was either in a wreck or already at work and they were swamped. I was a mass of worry AND I was walking to work because Muni can't seem to transfer their bus fleet to rechargeable buses fast enough. I had forged great distances to be there.
Deep breath.
I moved about the building, checking all of our leaks, of which we had a LOT. The wind was so strong the leaks were coming from the walls and not the roof--the wind drove the rain into the cracks and the walls were literally weeping and running water. About the time I got to the back of the building, the power died.
Flickered on, and died again.
We stayed open, though. My workplace's policy is that if there are no safety issues then the branch stays open. We have an alarm system down, we are 500 yards from a City jail, and the police force is tied up taking care of downed trees and power lines. But we stayed open. I called my brother to let him know of the situation, and he was as annoyed as I was, and preparing litigation if I ended up dead. My boss was calling as we were trying to call Chicago and set up emergency lighting--"can you measure the new office in the back? When is the power going to come back up? Tell the guys to wear headlamps?"
Can we close early? was asked of her, nervously.
"No, you cannot close early. What would be the difference in safety today over any other day? Your safety concerns are unreasonable."
I...
WHAT?
But I said nothing. "Look, I can come down there and sit in the dark with you guys, but I don't think it's necessary, and it would be stupid to do that. And I know I am saying all of this when I am just cozy at home..."
I stopped listening. My safety concerns were unreasonable. That was the new reality. And ours is the type of business that deals with disaster best. Never mind the fact that we have two other branches in the City that customer can go to for their emergencies.
My safety concerns were unreasonable.
The guys tried to be kind to me yesterday, as kind as they could be before the power came back on four hours later and we had nearly 80 orders to enter into the system. Half of them were done with their shift then. The other half had to hold the fort down.
I had 80 orders to enter.
All I asked my boss to do was keep an eye on the Red Cross and approve the payroll for me. Her browser had issues and she wasn't going to a branch near her to get things done. So I never knew of the Red Cross needed me--at least they didn't call me, so it wasn't THAT dire--and I had to stay after school and enter time clock approval.
Except this week is a new year. So I couldn't get half of the staff's time to approve for December 31st. I called my boss for help--she's worked for the company for 10 years. "I've never had to do that before."
80 orders to enter. Reinvent the wheel on payroll.
I left the branch at 6:30, an hour and a half after closing, by myself, on a Friday night in miserable weather. I went to Panera for soup and after the order arrived I couldn't eat. I sat very close to the window, looked out at the shiny street and cried. I cried quietly, but I couldn't stop. Then my brother, out of the blue, texted me.
"Are you okay?"
No. See hear, brother of mine...my safety concerns are unreasonable.
He texted me through dinner, got me eating, got me to Borders where I picked up The Rising (I had lost it with the previous iPod) and a couple of books by Anne Tyler, got me on the train, got me home. This morning I awoke, tender and sore, and took my laundry in, went to the bakery for brioche, felt fragile but alive. I am alive. For now, my safety is a reasonable concern and I am safe, happy, rested, relaxed.
And I'm working on it. I'm working on making my absence at work a reasonable concern to my employer. The rain falls steady now outside, and my roommate and I play on our computers in the living room and stay dry.
Stay dry.
And remember, your safety is my concern, dear reader. Don't do anything stupid for someone else's sake.
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