Working alone at night
2002-02-09 - 4:29 a.m.
Installing OS/2, or undeleting files that just come back from the dead corrupted anyway. Alone.
I work alone. Mostly until I'm getting ready to leave, I'm pretty-much all alone.
Except in the cafeteria.
The cafeteria always has at least 40 people, any hour of the day. Always that same smell, the generic meat smell with the occasional spice.
The bank of 9 microwaves, stacked 3 high, 3 across. Two of them are broken. Seven automatic settings, the highest is three minutes and thirty seconds. No way to program them for medium power, which is what the instructions say I really ought to use.
My microwave dish won't heat in the middle. The sides bubble from the heat, but the middle is cold. I keep putting it back in the microwave, pacing, back and forth, and once circling the perimeter of the cafeteria.
The peach Snapple iced tea is gone. Both Snapple selections are now Mango Madness, which I think has some form of carmine colouring, derived from beetles. Did you know Snapple raises its own beetles to be processed into a reddish dye? That's what I've heard.
Back to the microwave. Still barely warm in the middle. I will leave the cafeteria and its strange smell, and go eat in my office. Alone.
