At 0903 hrs 03 August 1999 Vancouver Island, British Columbia, People's Republic of Canada suffered a power interruption (flat out failure) for 90 minutes. In the University of Victoria Department of Chemistry there arose a palpable enthusiasm for grad students to save their lives as the exhaust fans and stirrers died but pots stayed hot. Down the hall in Biology, Level 6 Containment (look at it wrong and it kills you, then everybody) became Level 2 Containment (discarded chewing gum - don't touch that!). The 21st century defaulted to the 18th and we started eyeing side rules displayed in an antique equipment case by the Main Office. Sophisticated instrumentation and computers were all dead, but the battery-powered IR-triggered urinal auto-flushers prevailed - even if the pumping plant stopped. (We were on the second floor, no problem.) Greater tragedy struck and we abandoned the building.
Unlike more cosmopolitan installations in the States that could have weathered the storm, Canadian coffee pots denied socket juice grew cold. No provisions had been made for uninterruptible power supplies safeguarding these vital pillars of human endurance. Caffeine withdrawal is a hideous thing to experience though, as a coffee non-drinker, I found it not at all unpleasant to observe. It began as irritability and degradation of limb fine movements rapidly progressing to pounding headaches and a premonition of enveloping death. Everybody pulled out cigarettes, and their caffeine jones exploded.
UVic is not overmuch cultivated in the subtleties of separating money from those who possess it beyond a quarterly demand of "gimme" directed at matriculants. UVic's idea of shearing industrial fat cats is to pawn off its undergrads for a year of work study at minimum wage while charging full tuition and fees, thereby creating the five year undergrad bachelors degree. In the Fine Arts area of campus, amidst those who live by dint of masterfully feigned cultural superiority and machiavellian salesmanship, there perched a Tim Horton's franchise: Donuts and Coffee in a cultivated atmosphere of leather-patched elbows. Panicked masses emanating from offices in all corners of the Quad began their hegira in search of a hot cup of mud.
What could have been a satisfying capitalist triumph - auctioning off steaming brown dribbles from its vast encrusted tankage - was in reality a Socialist plop. Electronic cash registers with pretty pictures decorating their keys were lifeless. Nobody in attendance had earned credits in Merchant Arithmetic; supervisors were not to become class traitors making change. Less automatic inventory update and just in time delivery the undocumented loss of a single glazed donut hole could have paralyzed operations for weeks as the parent company redundantly investigated allegations of theft and mismanagement evidenced by unbalanced ledgers. They locked the doors and patiently waited for their goods to go stale, thereafter being properly discardable by the rule book.
Back in the Biology area abutting Chemistry we noted folk donning isolation suits and wondering how their air supplies worked, muted pandemonium basking under a warm glow of emergency illumination tinted by an occasional Flashing Red Light of Death jutting out from the walls. We entertained small talk amongst ourselves about whether new things in the incubators were dying or old things in the freezers were awakening. Three of the groups topped off their paraphernalia with International Warning Orange Day-Glo reflectorized construction vests. One group way down the hall distributed flak jackets and twittered about plastron inserts. Freezers! We closed, locked, and dogged our door, and set out a glass gallon of acetone and an auto flare.
One rumor circulated that the NDP had seized nationalized BC Hydro, guaranteeing power to the people. Another was that the power company had melted its last penny and nobody was about to pony up a nickel for the fuse box. It might have been a preliminary Y2K exercise to gauge possibilities of looting, arson, and RCMP getting out the kinks with serious firepower usually reserved for apprehending teenagers who go RAT-TAT-TAT with their fingers at proudly marching lesbians. The radio said up-island suffered a massive natural catastrophe, thunderstorms, which got wires wet. DOOMED BY THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT! Stuff like that.
At 1033 hrs the lights returned in time for Official coffee break. The lab had become a cluster of ordinary rooms, hushed and dark. Fans spun up, equipment kicked in, magnetic stirrers tinkled, and we plugged in the computer. I eagerly anticipated ten hours of mandatory trauma counseling, curious to see whether the new counselor could go the distance without blacking out.