We lost power at the computer center yesterday. Very very suddenly.
BAM! Darkness. Especially bad for our group since our office it partly underground. It came right back on, but not before it hammered our computers and shut them down. Except for the machine of my smug co-worker on an uninterupted power supply.
My boss came back to the office a bit later and told us that it was actually a scheduled shut down. When we asked about notification, he smiled and said it was on the divisional calendar. When we asked about the calendar, he smiled again and said that was a good question – something even the associate vp’s didn’t know.
A bit later we got an announcement over the speakers about another power cycle and we lost power again shortly thereafter. I suspect someone got scolded about notifications
This evening, when I went to the hospital to visit my room-mate, I inadvertently left the lights on with my car. I didn’t realize that until I got back to the parking garage.
I got in, turned off the lights, and let it sit for a moment while we both gathered our courage. It hesitated a moment when I first turned the key, then it started up. Thinking I might want to invest in Triple A at some point before the snow flies.