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As
Tina and I sat in the office on Tuesday evening, working
on the news, we kept hearing what we thought was somebody
letting off damp fireworks, in what sounded like a confined
space. Well it is that time of year. There were bangs, which
were loud, yet somehow muffled and there were flashes of
blue light, coming from somewhere just the other side of
our hedge. This went on for about half an hour as we carried
on working, prepping the news.
It
was only when two fire engines arrived that we realized
that it was not fireworks we were hearing and that there
was something wrong. The noise was the main, heavy duty
power cable going into the house a couple of doors away
in our street and backing onto our garden arcing. The bangs
were being muffled by the roof space of the house.
The
fire brigade, having looked into the problem, knocked on
our door and told us that we needed to turn off our main
power switch. Without my having to mention it, the firemen
already knew that it was my news deadline night. They apologized
but there was nothing they could do until the electricity
people could get there. There was a high risk of an electrical
surge, which would have put all the Wyenot computers out
of action on a more permanent basis. (I have had that experience
before with the Wyenot Computers - when a 'Paddy' dug through
the power cable outside our house back in 2001 and I do
not want it repeated! I received no financial compensation
whatsoever.) Moments later, when Central Networks arrived,
the power went off in our section of the street entirely
anyway.
I
obviously then had no way of finishing the issue on time.
Neither did I have access to the Wyenot web server as I
could not connect my battery back-up computer to the internet.
I called my son, Matt, who accessed the server for me from
Cawdor and put a temporary 'News Late' notice on the front
page.
It
is now 5:00 am on Wednesday morning. The problem was fixed
at around 2:00 am and the power is back on but despite having
worked since that time, there is a news item still not finished
as Tina wrote down the event details - the Fonteine Court
article. Tina is snoring in bed at the moment and I am out
in the office alone. I needed to continue working as the
issue was so far behind. I wanted at least a fighting chance
of being able to get the issue on line by mid morning Wednesday.
It
is nobody's fault but today's problem is a real pain in
the backside as I have been working on prepping this issue
virtually non stop since Sunday morning to get it out on
time. I'm totally knackered and I have an ad-hoc photographic
job to do at midday on Wednesday - this is the main reason
time is short, and why I am working at such a stupid time
of the morning, having not been to bed.
I
think I shall have to install emergency Wyenot News editing
software and back 'Wyenot News' itself up onto one of the
computers in 'Glentworth', Cawdor, in case anything like
this should ever happen again.
This
weekly news may seem to just magically appear on Wyenot
every Wednesday morning but, believe me, a lot of blood,
sweat and tears goes into every single issue! Sorry this
one is late and I hope there are not too many mistakes as
a result. Being tired badly affects my thinking and ability
to write.
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