Zel-kun’s Words

I’m working the night shift this week.

Funny, I never thought I’d be saying things like ‘night shift’ after I left the retail business.

Basically, we’re upgrading the whole Elgin facility to Windows XP, which is something we’ve been meaning to do for awhile.  And being most people here are gone at night, that’s the best time to do it.

To prepare, I woke up early this morning, and then took a long nap at about eleven in the morning.  I fell asleep with the Discovery Channel on, then meandered over to the bedroom (about ten feet away) forgetting to turn the TV off.  This is why, around three o’clock, I awoke to loud knocking and some guy frantically shouting, “Hello!? Is anyone there?!”

Being as my apartment doesn’t have a working doorbell, I leapt from bed thinking someone was pounding on my front door.  But, I realized as I walked to the window, was just some guy on the television.  Discovery has odd daytime programming.  There’s cool things like How It’s Made and Mythbusters, but then things get weird.

There’s Cash Cab, which is a game show.  I happen to like it, but it doesn’t seem to fit with the whole ‘Discovery’ thing.  Then there’s this show about ghosts… about two hours worth.  It’s melodramatic with a heavy psychic and supernatural slant, which doesn’t seem to match with a station dedicated to science and technology.

It was during this ghost show that I was woken up.

So, I drove the hour and a half to Elgin (it would have been SIGNIFICANTLY longer if it were rush hour), and walked to the IT room lovingly called the ‘Dungeon.’  It is my first time here, and I can see why they refer to it as such.  I head in the back door of the facility, which leads to a somewhat grimy room which is a dropoff point for old equipment.  Then I go downstairs to a labyrinthian series of dingy and small hallways.  The ceiling is no more than an inch or two above my head.  Finally, through a few locked doors, I get to the IT room, with a forbidding sign telling my authorized personnel only.  I swipe my badge and open the door.

Inside the walls are lined with computer equipment, all over the place.  Unlike my own office, there’s no storage rooms where such things are held.  Here they’re all over the place.  But being as only IT people dwell down here in this windowless room, it seems appropriate enough.

I’m here at night, and it feels empty and calm, despite the three other people in the desks near me.  But I realize that this is how it always is here in this room.  Day or night, it’s quiet and dark, hardly a sign of life other than the occasional click of a mouse from the neighboring desk.

It’s defninitely a change from what I’m used to.  It’s strange knowing that I had a 50/50 chance of getting the position here way back when.  Longer commute, and an office without sunlight… I dodged a bullet without even realizing it.

Zel-kun out.