Well, that was interesting.
Tonight I ended up working quite late because there are some days when things to be done are like potato chips; you can't do just one. So there I am at eleven-thirty p.m., alone in the building, tappity-tap-tapping away at my computer, when I had a sudden realization.
There was pretty much no oxygen.
I could breathe perfectly well. But breathing did not result in oxygenation. It was as though I'd somehow managed to exhaust all the oxygen in the office, which is a big enough space for a couple hundred people to work.
Granted, the ventilation had been turned off something over four hours earlier. Still, it was a surprising turn of events. That's a lot of cubic feet for one person to exhaust.
My guess is that the situation had existed for a bit without my noticing, because my initial reaction was "Hm. I'd better hurry up and get these last two or three memos written because, you know, no oxygen."
Such a reaction is not a sign of functioning intelligence.
A few minutes later I had another thought: "If I don't get a decent amount of oxygen RIGHT NOW, I'm going to pass out." This one actually managed to make contact with my self-preservation instinct, and I started shutting things down. Okay, I really should have left everything on and gotten out of there, but have I mentioned I wasn't thinking too clearly?
By the time I was heading for the door, I was not entirely certain I was going to make it that far. It was amusing to contemplate the uproar which certainly would result if the first person to arrive in the morning were to find a body in the hallway.
I got to the door, only to discover that it was oppressively humid outside.
Great. I'd gone from (nearly) no oxygen to oxygen that came accompanied by significant amounts of water. In such circumstances, your car's a/c is your friend, if not your savior.
Somehow, I think my enthusiasm for working late has just been dealt a serious blow.
There was pretty much no oxygen.
I could breathe perfectly well. But breathing did not result in oxygenation. It was as though I'd somehow managed to exhaust all the oxygen in the office, which is a big enough space for a couple hundred people to work.
Granted, the ventilation had been turned off something over four hours earlier. Still, it was a surprising turn of events. That's a lot of cubic feet for one person to exhaust.
My guess is that the situation had existed for a bit without my noticing, because my initial reaction was "Hm. I'd better hurry up and get these last two or three memos written because, you know, no oxygen."
Such a reaction is not a sign of functioning intelligence.
A few minutes later I had another thought: "If I don't get a decent amount of oxygen RIGHT NOW, I'm going to pass out." This one actually managed to make contact with my self-preservation instinct, and I started shutting things down. Okay, I really should have left everything on and gotten out of there, but have I mentioned I wasn't thinking too clearly?
By the time I was heading for the door, I was not entirely certain I was going to make it that far. It was amusing to contemplate the uproar which certainly would result if the first person to arrive in the morning were to find a body in the hallway.
I got to the door, only to discover that it was oppressively humid outside.
Great. I'd gone from (nearly) no oxygen to oxygen that came accompanied by significant amounts of water. In such circumstances, your car's a/c is your friend, if not your savior.
Somehow, I think my enthusiasm for working late has just been dealt a serious blow.