LA Goes Dark

[Infragistics] Andrew Flick / Monday, September 12, 2005

The flight to LA was actually a bit more comfortable than I thought it would be.  I was scheduled to sit next to my fellow PM, Tony Lombardo, and stuck in the middle seat.  In all of our kindness, we switched seats with one of our architects so that he could sit with his girlfriend.  Because of our kindness, Tony ended up in the back of the plane and in the middle seat and I managed to get a nice seat on the aisle.  I’ve also found that I make it through a lot of emails while on the plane.  That’s mainly because there is this period where it seems as though I’m in Outlook and no one is sending me mail.  

So, the question is how did LA welcome our staff of Infragistics employees?  We arrived at our hotel and the hotel staff informed us that our rooms were not at all ready.  So, a band of us marched off to grab some food and while we’re eating the power in LA goes out.  Yep, blackouts.  Our hotel has no elevators and has limited power, but the beds still work.  I must say we did see some rather humorous sights during this time.

Sight #1:
Imagine being three floors down in a shopping mall area with the only obvious way out is the escalators.  Now the power goes out and people want to leave the shopping mall, so they start clamoring up the escalators.  Now imagine this heard of people going up the wrong way on an escalator and the escalator turning on…  That is purely GOLDEN!

Sight #2:
Downtown Los Angeles and the power is out.  Something tells me that getting intersections to work with massive amounts of people and automobiles is going to be tricky.  So, I ask you, who will save the day?  If you guessed the police, you would be wrong.  However, if you guessed a bona fide member in full uniform of the United States Postal Service, you would be correct.  Yep, a mail man was directing downtown LA traffic.  I believe he was thrilled. 

With that, I’m off to the VSIP gathering.  And remember, if the power goes out continue to use the correct escalator and the USPS will guarantee traffic getting through…