An Unexpected Snowfall

Sometimes a computer crash can actually come with a benefit.  For almost an entire day our server at work was down and people had to resort to doing things manually like calling their counterparts on the telephone and actually having a real live conversation rather than through an instant message or email.  And even stranger still, some of them even made personal visits to confer.  I haven't seen any livelier discussions in the aisles or heard more laughter than I saw today, in years.  It was almost as if we'd all been caught up in some great big giant snowstorm on the interstate and everybody had pulled off at the nearest Waffle House to wait for the snowplows.  Normally this same group does their due diligence at a computer churning out miles of data and beau coup productivity but not today...it was "snowing" and there wasn't a thing that we could do about it except to watch it fall.  To bring even more deliciousness to the situation one of our vendors had scheduled today of all days to come by and have lunch.  Usually the crowd is 5 or 6 tops (some people just won't tear away from their work, even for lunch.)  Today it was 17.  Everyone had the time today.  The restaurant we piled into couldn't seat us all together so all of "the girls" sat at one table and the guys split up.  I haven't had that much fun with work friends in years, most of us hadn't eaten together in more years than we cared to count and it was fun just catching up with what has been going on in everyone's lives at a leisurely lunch.  The moment was savored.

Computer "snow" days don't come around very often fortunately, after all, what kind of business could operate if "snowstorms" were regular? I can't even remember a day like today happening in the past 5 years as a matter of fact.  But on that rare rare occasion, when the timing is just right (or wrong, however you choose to observe it) and a computer-crashing comet streaks across the horizon taking down all the bits and bytes it can devour then we will find time to actually talk to each other about something other than business here at work.  For those few moments of precious time we can be "friends" and not just colleagues working on a project together.  Work will be here tomorrow with a vengeance  and spreadsheets will exact their toll.  Instant messages will fly faster than you can say "beam me up Scotty" and schedules will be met and in some cases, midnight oil may even be burned.  But just for today we had ourselves an unexpected snowfall and was it ever fun!