Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Dead Like Me

So, I arrived at work the other morning and the entire building is roped off and there is scaffolding around all of the entrances. Curious, but hey, it’s getting older and maybe they are renovating. Last year they replaced all of the caulking around the windows for better insulation. (Which could be an entire blog in and of itself – window office – cute construction workers out on the ledge – so very diet coke break)

Well, as it turns out the marble facade is falling off. We are not talking tiny pieces here folks. We are talking instant death. Fortunately no one was in the area when the pieces actually fell off.

So, now they have the entry ways braced and the rest of the place roped off while they figure out what the heck to do about it.

Which brings me to my title: Dead Like Me. A most excellent show that lasted two seasons on Showtime. Actually I would say one of the best shows to ever air on television. Anyway, in one episode death takes the day off. No one dies, not the kid locked in the old fridge, not the lady jamming the knife in the toaster, the kid running with scissors, nobody. And that is the kind of feeling you get when you find out about little things like this. Not for me personally, I’m not insinuating that I escaped death (though it is statistically possible – but not probable), but rather that all 4,000 people at my office as a collective did. As they say in the show, we don’t know how often we narrowly miss tragedy, or death. (Again a collective we here folks) It’s just one of those things that makes you say “Hmmmm”

So, as I walk in and out of my building every day I thank the gravelings for taking the day off.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How, exactly, do they have the entryway braced to deflect a 200 lbs slab of marble falling from 10 stories up? Is their barrier made of the same material that the "black box" on an airplane is?

Newt said...

Actually the marble is only on the main entry level. Once you hit the 3rd floor where there is actual offices you don't have any giant slabs of marble (I hope) The marble that fell is actually one of the slabs that are under the building overhang. The footprint of the building is smaller than the floors above the main entrace. So there is an overhang of about 6 feet or so. The marble fell loose from there. It's hard to describe. But they can scaffold right up to those marble slabs. And then they have steel bars making sure that none of the marble over doors break loose.

Anonymous said...

Still, better than getting killed by a flaming toilet seat.