Power Outage = NewPointe Staff Crisis

We suited up and headed to the gym today for our weekly Thursday lunchtime basketball games. We had just chosen teams... and were ready to start our first game when... THE LIGHTS WENT OUT!!!! There we all stood... ready to play... in a dark gym. The first thing we did was to try and figure out how wide-spread the outage was. Some parts of the building still had power... but the auditorium/gym and most of the rest of the facility was in total darkness (except for the windows and skylights). You've gotta understand... we were DESPERATE to play ball!!! We HAD to figure out a way to make it happen! Well... it was a beautiful day out... so we tried to wheel one of the portable basketball goals out to the parking lot. Sounded like a good idea... right? Unfortunately... the goal was wider than the double doors to the gym. We could not get the goal out of the gym!!! Auuughhh!!! What to do???

We... must... play... basketball!!!

So... we decided to wheel the goal across the gym and take it into the rotunda (OK... so we were desperate)... but all of the doors to the gym were THE SAME WIDTH!!!! Noooooo!!!! What are we going to do now???

About that time... one of the guys discovered an outlet on the stage that was still "hot".

YES!!!!

So in true MacGyver fashion... we found a couple of really long extension cords... a set of halogen work lights... and 3 theatrical par can lights with edison plugs... a roll of duct tape... and we were back in business!

We set the lights up across one end of the main stage and aimed them at a hoop on the opposite side of the gym.

It was the equivalent of parking a car at one end of a basketball court and using the headlights to play at night. It worked pretty well... until the electricity in the remainder of the building went out. We finished our game (in the dark)... and then went back to work.

Well... sort of.

There was only one problem: We needed electricity to get any work done. There were no lights... no internet... no e-mail... all of our computers were down... our phones were out... we didn't even have running water (we are on a well system). So you get the picture.... the rest of the day was pretty much... "toast".

Eventually... I just packed up my MacBook and headed home... to finish working.

All in all... it was a pretty interesting day at NewPointe.