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Three-fifteen in the damn morning

September 5, 2005

Damn tornado sirens keep going off – just for a second or two, then shutting off.  Then (say, after one might have almost drifted off to sleep) they go off again.  I called the county non-emergency number.

  • “Mac County”

  • “The tornado sirens keep going off”
  • “Yeah, they’re malfunctioning.  They’ve been doing it for four days.”

(Yeah, occasionally for four days.  Just started doing it constantly so no one can sleep.  I thought they might not know)

  • “Is Al-Queda having trouble deciding whether to attack us?  Because it just started going on and off a LOT”

  • “Sir, why would that even be funny to talk about on a recorded line?”

(Implication: you can get in big trouble for levity, mister.  But I hear snickering.  And I called the non-emergency line because it was a non-emergency call.)

  • “You’re laughing.”

  • “I’m not laughing, sir.  Others in the room are laughing.”
  • “Well I thought you might not know they just started doing it a lot.”
  • “We can’t do anything about it, sir.”

Reminds me of that line in Men In Black, where Tommy Lee Jones says; “We at the FBI do not have a sense of humor that we’re aware of, maam.”

First, it’s been going on for 45 minutes, every 5 to 7 minutes.  If (apparently) the whole town cannot sleep, the person whose job it is to fix the system should not be able to sleep, either.  Get him out here.

Second, this is not the first time this has happened.  They’ve had problems with this system going off at random times before.  Their excuse that time was that a chair was bumping a console.

Third, it is a perfectly clear night.  The danger is zero at this time; unplug the damn system!!!

Finally, what happens to the soul of a person who is compelled by their workplace to react so negatively to a lame joke (give me a break; it was the middle of the night and I was irritated) on a non-emergency line?  It can’t be pretty.

Categories: Stupidity
  1. September 5, 2005 at 07:20 | #1

    DoF

    you made the mistake of calling a governmental agenency in the middle of the night and expecting

    a) competence
    b) humor
    c) resolution

    Now, I know that you are more intelligent that that so I will chalk it up to being rudely awakened by blaring sirens all evening…

    LOL, sorry, could not resist :)

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