17 May 2007

Time I had some Tylenol

They're testing the fire alarms here today. During the work day. So I'm not tense and jumpy, not me, though the last couple of hours have been randomly punctuated by the kind of loud, piercing sounds that we're not supposed to ignore.

One of our staffers, who sits in the large room with several other people came to my area because she didn't want to disturb the other folks with her hiccups. "Don't worry about it," I said, "none of them can hear any more."

At one point our CEO asked where he had to go to rip the wires out of the wall so that we could have some peace. I told him that if he did that, he'd have the gratitude of the entire staff right up to the time when we all died in the fire.

1 comment:

Maureen said...

In the building I'm in now, they only test the alarms on weekends, AND they notify us in advance. But I've been in buildings where they'd tell you *just* before they did it, and I do mean just before: the end of the announcement would be cut off by the beep, buzz, horn, or whatever loud, abrasive alarm was being tested.

Which is still an improvement on the Pentagon, at least in 2001. On September 11, I heard NO repeat NO alarms of any kind telling us to evacuate the building. I doubt the plane had knocked out a critical system, because each "wedge" had its own set. Never did find out why I never heard a fire alarm.