powerless at the office

Around 2:30 this afternoon, while I was in the middle of a meeting, we lost power in our office (and in the surrounding neighborhood). With only minimal emergency lighting on, we elected to move our meeting outside. While we were out there, PG&E allegedly told the university that they didn’t know what had happened but that they thought it would be 4:30 at the earliest that the electricity would be back on. The assistant vice chancellor for the office then told everyone they could go ahead and leave for the day. Since I was outside, though, I didn’t get that message. Around 3:00, just as my meeting was breaking up and much sooner than predicted, the power came back on and I came back inside.

So I ended up staying at the office; a few others had stayed as well, and in any case it’s often easier to get things done when there’s no one around. But instead of staying until my usual 6 or later, and since I worked through lunchtime today as well, I’ll plan to head out shortly after posting this item.