I keep getting a (t)error message.

Ugh. That was a horrible title.

Anywhat, so yesterday was all Action Packed! (HA!! Dude, I'm amusing myself (to death!) with my wit. And probably nobody else. Oh well. At least I'm getting some use out of it.)

Explanation time!

Stuff not related to the Big News of yesterday, but still fun to report: We went to the park with the Life Learners group, and several other families showed up! I played tag with a bunch of children, ranging in ages from 5 to ...14ish? Aside from the side effect of a mild breathing attack ([rolleyes] Note to lungs - get with it. Asthma is so last century), the running and chasing was very fun.

After leaving the park, we (just the Spsh! Clan) ate at Pizza Hut. Mmmm. Pizza.

Then, I had to go to work. I gathered up Jupe's letter, my notebook, and my latest book from the library, all in hopes that I would be able to write back to Amy and perhaps read some of Nothing Human. That was the plan anyway. And we all know what happens when something is planned...

Now, our station has always had a parking problem. (Heh. "Parking problem" sounds like "drinking problem". Which is leading to smile-worthy images in my brain.) Anyway, more often than not when I arrive at work in the afternoon, I end up having to park in the parking lot of the offices next door, because there simply is no more room in our lot. (I've mentioned this to Amy, but I'll say it here too, just because it's kinda interesting: People will park in the Fire Lanes, and in the 20 minute parking spots, and even right in front of the door - but the Handicapped Parking spots are always left vacant.)

So. Long story made a bit shorter - I pull into the other parking lot...and can't find a spot in there either. I ended up finding a place to park at the very end of the parking lot next door. Which resulted in me having to walk ...not too much, maybe 1/5th of a mile. Still, I would have been on time if I could've parked closer. But I'm not bitching about that. It just seemed...unusual, was all.

So I get into the building, and there are an inordinate amount of people there. If I had been thinking clearly, I would've made the connection between extra people and less parking, but that synapse didn't meet until later.

I enter the master control room (which had the door propped open and a LOT of additional bodies inside) and am finally informed of the Really Big News of the day.

Channel 13 (the ABC affiliate) was sent a package earlier in the day. The package, apparently, contained a powdery substance. (No word on if there was a message included or not) Getting this in the mail was scary enough for Channel 13 to evacuate their building. Their programing was still on the air - being done remotely from inside their news truck, apparently - but they needed to broadcast the news from somewhere. That somewhere wound up being our building. It was rather interesting to have our building housing THREE television stations. Although I'm glad that I'm not extremely claustrophobic.

All in all, it didn't affect me very much. I helped them out by building break reels (translated means - pushing lots of buttons and moving a mouse), and by staying out of the way, mostly. The most frustrating thing was not having any information given to us. By the time I left at 11, I still didn't know if the HazMat team had discovered anything, or if Ch. 13 would be there tomorrow, or still be there next week, even. Stuff that I did pick up along the way:
The CBS affiliate (maybe others as well?) has said they will not be opening their mail until this situation is cleared up.
Another ABC affiliate (in Phoenix) also received a package with powder in it, on Monday. Theirs turned out to be "nothing".
ABC people didn't buy us dinner. =(

So, yeah, I didn't get to write Amy's letter or read any of my book. Talk about a wasted day.

On the bright side, though, the traffic department has Halloween candy sitting out now. And that includes candy corn!!

Oh, there was also an earthquake in California. And Mt. St. Helens may be erupting again soon.