very weird dream

[drewkitty]

So I'm on post at a raised floor data center, a place I've never been in real life. There's a red phone on the wall every few hundred feet. We've all been told that it's very important, but that we're not to use it. Unlike nearly everything else, there's no procedures for what to do if it rings.

The phone rings. It has an insistent electronic chirp, very annoying, almost like a buzzer is trying to be a bell after smoking some pot.

I hear it and move towards it. I radio the other guard in the command center. "Do you hear that?" "Yep." "Are you going to answer it?" "No."

It stops ringing. A few seconds later, it starts ringing again.

I pick it up and answer in best professional style.

"[Company] Security, Officer [drewkitty] speaking, San Jose California, non-secure line, how can I help you sir or ma'am?"

"This is Jackie with NMCC. Could you use pre-warning of an earthquake?"

I think about it for a fraction of a second and involuntarily glance around at the server racks. They are mostly well secured. For some reason I think she's calling with a hypothetical. I think of places where we have guards in warehouses with pallet racks.

"Yes. We could." There is a pause for about ten seconds. She says, "OK," and there is another pause.

As the entire building starts shaking and tiles start flying up from the grid, I duck to a nearby doorway and brace myself against the frame. The phone cord is long enough to reach.

"Earthquake, time now!" I say into the phone. I can see from a side window across the complex and cars are bouncing up and down in the distance.

"That's what I was trying to tell you," she says and disconnects.

End dream.



I wake up.

After I wake up, I check
http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Maps/San_Francisco.htm just in case. No activity.

"The National Earthquake Information center, US Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, provides earthquake information."

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/neic/who_we_are.php

"The National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC), US Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, in Golden, CO, provides earthquake information.

"(a) The NEIC is on the NAWAS National Control Circuit and reports all earthquakes felt in the United States and all earthquakes resulting in damage worldwide. NEIC operates during normal business hours except in emergencies when they respond to an alarm. During non-duty hours, the FOC/FAOC may contact the NEIC Duty Officer to advise them of earthquake activity."

In advance?

Comments

[lironess.livejournal.com]

Once when I was at work in Irvine I was listening to a radio station in Pasadena. They got it first and it was a big one. I thought about warning my co-workers, but they already thought that I was really weird. I thought if I told them anything, and they thought that I could predict earthquakes, they just might burn me on a stake. So I let them shake then later told them about the radio.

It is a very bazaar feeling to know it is coming and sit there waiting.