That's what the hotline recording said when I called it last night to find out if work was on or not. The recording had last been updated at 3:45 p.m. by some pencil-pusher in Tampa. I was amazed. Here we are, under a hurricane warning all up and down the coast, and it's "business as usual."
Well, not exactly. If it was really business as usual, I'd still be at work. We were told when we got in that when we finished running the mail for our machines, we could leave if we wanted to. In my case, the answer was, "I'm outta here as soon as I'm finished." We were done and dispatched by 4:00 a.m., and that's when I left. I didn't take a lunch today, which means that I only took two hours of vacation time in order to split. I figured that was a good trade-off, since the longer I stayed there, the closer Tropical Storm Fay would be when I left and the worse the driving conditions would be on my 22-mile commute home.
The drive home wasn't too bad, actually. I've seen worse wind and rain during regular thunderstorms. I'm sure it would have been worse if I'd stayed until 6:30. And the roads were almost empty -- I could count the total number of cars I saw on my fingers. Most days, even at 4 a.m., there would have been more traffic on the road.
Anyway, I'm home now and can wait for the heavier wind and rain to arrive in the next few hours. It's going to be a fine day to be indoors.
And the theme music for work last night? Vintage Neil Young: "Like A Hurricane."
