Campus is back on the grid. Things returned to normal at around 3 p.m. yesterday. In the middle of restoring power to something like 200,000 people the hardworking folks at Alabama Power determined the problem. A sprocket burned out at a sub-switching point somewhere off campus. They moved a few patch cords and the place sprang back to life.
We’ve all returned to campus. Many folks have their power back, but some have been tricked by the automated messaging system “Congratulations! You may blow dry your hair!”
The customer happily returns home to find out they’ve been duped. They still flip the switches, fully expecting the magic to happen, but nothing.
I had lunch with one of those gentlemen today. He’s very much the dapper, put-together sort. You’d never know he hasn’t had power for two days if he hadn’t said anything about it.
Lunch was at the famed Rotunda Club. (Shouldn’t we modify our understanding of fame? First page of Google returns? That surely makes you famous, right?) This is an annual lunch the university’s Office of Communication hosts for the newspaper’s editorial staff. One of the few perks they receive for the job. The company is pleasant, the food is delicious. We should meet there every week.
I was telling one of my table-mates today that the best fried chicken I’ve ever had was in that very room. It was my first time to eat at The Rotunda Club. I’d been on campus for about a week. That was four years ago. It was a feat never to be equalled.
We can all speak of memorable meals, expensive bills and tasty, sinful special plates. But a four-year-old memory of friend chicken? Those nice ladies are doing something right up there.
And then I had four meetings in a row. One of them on the newspaper, another on the Digital Video Center, another on the newspaper and so on.
I wrote emails, I composed the things to read post you see below. (I’m cross posting those on my Samford Crimson blog, if I haven’t mentioned that before.) I prepared for my class tomorrow, the workshop session I’m delivering tomorrow.
The students are working on their paper and we’ve been troubleshooting every issue under the sun. The first edition each year is always like this. It is exciting; I get to sit back and watch it grow. I have a sense of how the staff may grow around their yearlong project and that is a thrill to see happen. But this first night is always a long effort.
And there will be changes this year. We will discuss them tomorrow.
