day 1, part 1

Woke up late this morning; no electricity. Fuckin' hot. Don't think there was a storm, but I sleep pretty heavy. Could hear the dog in the living room whining...

"What time is it?"
Trish grunts and rolls over.

I roll out of bed, and stumble to the living room.

"Mornin', pup. Need to pee?"
Babu dances in her kennel; her answer is obviously, "Yes you stupid bastard!"

Check the phone for the time, but the network is down. Weird, I thought these things had internal clocks. Grab my watch... "9:30! Holy shit it's late! C'mon dog; outside."

"What time is it?!?"
Trish is up.

I turn off the house alarm (supposed to have weeks of power on battery backup) and shove the dog out back. No time to hang out with her before the shower.

No hot water says there's either a problem with the water heater or the gas is out along with the electricity and cell network. What the hell? Wash quick, brush teeth, brush hair, pants, shirt, socks, shoes, keys. Trish is already gone, so I set the alarm and head for the front door.

Dog. Water for the dog.

Deactivate alarm, leave water for Babu on back porch. She's cowering in her hole by the faucet; tail tucked, legs shaking.

"What's the problem, dummy? C'mere."

She is scared to death, and wants nothing to do with me.

My watch says 10 AM.

"I'm sorry, kid, but I don't have time this morning. I'll see you this afternoon."

Lock the door, reset alarm, head for car. Plants need water; why is it already so hot? Another job for this afternoon. Gotta get to work.

Start the car and plug in my satellite receiver. No signal. Check terrestrial radio. No signal. What is going on? Flip to CD (RJD2's alright; only CD in the car), and get moving.

I hit the first bit of traffic trying to turn from Pampa onto Airport. The lights at Airport/Guadalupe and Airport/Lamar are out.

Fuckin' A, great! At least they aren't testing the trains

10 minutes to get across Airport and onto Guadalupe. Turn onto Brentwood to connect with Lamar. This light is out too.

Shouldn't there be cops out or something; directing traffic?

I cut across Lamar on Brentwood into the Crestview/Brentwood neighborhood. Turn onto Arroyo Seco to connect with Koenig. I can see the traffic backed up on Koenig as I come around the curve at Alegria.

"Shit." Looks like everyone else overslept as well.

I cut down Palo Duro to get me closer to Burnet. As I turn onto Koenig, I see that the Koenig/Burnet light is out too. At least this one has a cop directing traffic.

30 minutes after leaving the house, and I finally cross Burnet. And the story is the same all the way to Mopac.

Where are all these people coming from? Why can't they just get out of my damn way?

There's a massive wreck at the Mopac/Koenig intersection, closing the on-ramp. No lights here either. As far as I can tell, 4 cars; one upside down, one crushed into the bridge support, two follow ups. Someone died here. Likely multiple someones.

I should go home. This is just not worth it.

I check the phone again; still no network. Can't call work, can't call Trish, can't get out of traffic...

I'm going to murder someone today.

I take the backroads to get over to Westlake. Traffic sucks the whole way, all traffic lights out, but I finally make it to the office.

My watch says 12:30 PM.

I'm met at the door by security.

"No electricity today. You're welcome to take the stairs, but no electricity means no A/C."

"Great. I just need to talk with my boss. Will the doors open since our badges can't be read?"

"Got 'em all already propped open. Trying our best to circulate some air, but Texas heat and all..."

"Thanks."

I climb to the third floor and look for the boss.

There's no one here. Fuck this.

I climb down and head back to the car. I just want a beer.