Well, that was surreal...
Have you ever been on an amusement park when it was open, with the power out? There's something kind of eerie about it...all these people standing around, with no rides running, no musics playing on the PA, none of the games operating (I think some of them were actually open to run, as many of them don't rely on power for anything other than resetting the surveillance system), no fountains going--just a lot of very bored people sitting around, a few of them trying to calm down their kids and get them to understand that they CAN'T go on the rides right now...not because Mommy says so, but because the rides are all broken...
It was kind of like being on a movie set, with all the extras in place, waiting for the director and name actors to show up for their shot.
The ironic thing in all of this is that Lagoon went to great expense last winter to set up their own substation, so they were no longer on the Farmington power grid. I've lost track of the number of times we've had park-wide blackouts since then. I've heard there were actual, legitimate reasons for the whole operation (with the new rides they added last year, they put themselves over the limit for the amount of power they could draw on their existing power feeds, was the prevailing theory...) Personally, I think the Powers That Be (tm) decided they'd rather bargain directly with the power company, than pay Farmington as the middleman. And, as usual, in their zeal to save some pennies, they spent (or lost) dollars (either in the upfront expense, or in the amount of time that NOTHING got done on the park because nobody had any electricity. I had more than a couple of days wasted because of that, personally).
The other funny thing (to me) was to see (or hear, in this case) the Lagoon Rumor Mill swing into action. The prevailing story among the 'common folk' in the Lagoon structure was laughable, if you know anything about how a power grid works. I heard some kids talking about how the power wouldn't be on for three hours (it was on ten minutes later) because the generators blew up (A--Lagoon doesn't have generators, hence the total blackout on the park, and B--if generators that size blow up, EVERYONE in the area knows it happened.)
I never heard the full, official story myself. What I got from our manager on duty was that there's been some kind of electrical fire...which makes sense. If something shorted out the power grid, it would cause a fire. It would also trip most of the breakers on the park. And once they THOUGHT they had the problem isolated and treated, they had to bring the power system back on-line slowly, a section at a time, in case there were further problems lurking (if you turn everything on at once, and it all crashes, you don't know where the problem is. But, go one area at a time, adding on, and if it trips, you know you've got a problem in the most recent area...or, at least, in one of the areas you've powered up.)
Power was back up in time for us to start our first show of the day 15 minutes late, and we didn't have so much as a flicker for the rest of the day. It was a new one for me...I got called at home (I was running a little late today, luckily)...and ended up bringing two flashlights and a propane lantern to work, so the girls had enough light to do their makeup. I've been there seven years now, and this has never happened before...and will likely never happen again. But I think I'm gonna push Alex to get some decent flashlights to keep in the dressing rooms (camp lanterns, something that'll put out some useful light...) Just in case.
PS--I'm STILL waiting for my horse to have her foal. She's good at dragging the process out a LONG time. More on that later!
Have you ever been on an amusement park when it was open, with the power out? There's something kind of eerie about it...all these people standing around, with no rides running, no musics playing on the PA, none of the games operating (I think some of them were actually open to run, as many of them don't rely on power for anything other than resetting the surveillance system), no fountains going--just a lot of very bored people sitting around, a few of them trying to calm down their kids and get them to understand that they CAN'T go on the rides right now...not because Mommy says so, but because the rides are all broken...
It was kind of like being on a movie set, with all the extras in place, waiting for the director and name actors to show up for their shot.
The ironic thing in all of this is that Lagoon went to great expense last winter to set up their own substation, so they were no longer on the Farmington power grid. I've lost track of the number of times we've had park-wide blackouts since then. I've heard there were actual, legitimate reasons for the whole operation (with the new rides they added last year, they put themselves over the limit for the amount of power they could draw on their existing power feeds, was the prevailing theory...) Personally, I think the Powers That Be (tm) decided they'd rather bargain directly with the power company, than pay Farmington as the middleman. And, as usual, in their zeal to save some pennies, they spent (or lost) dollars (either in the upfront expense, or in the amount of time that NOTHING got done on the park because nobody had any electricity. I had more than a couple of days wasted because of that, personally).
The other funny thing (to me) was to see (or hear, in this case) the Lagoon Rumor Mill swing into action. The prevailing story among the 'common folk' in the Lagoon structure was laughable, if you know anything about how a power grid works. I heard some kids talking about how the power wouldn't be on for three hours (it was on ten minutes later) because the generators blew up (A--Lagoon doesn't have generators, hence the total blackout on the park, and B--if generators that size blow up, EVERYONE in the area knows it happened.)
I never heard the full, official story myself. What I got from our manager on duty was that there's been some kind of electrical fire...which makes sense. If something shorted out the power grid, it would cause a fire. It would also trip most of the breakers on the park. And once they THOUGHT they had the problem isolated and treated, they had to bring the power system back on-line slowly, a section at a time, in case there were further problems lurking (if you turn everything on at once, and it all crashes, you don't know where the problem is. But, go one area at a time, adding on, and if it trips, you know you've got a problem in the most recent area...or, at least, in one of the areas you've powered up.)
Power was back up in time for us to start our first show of the day 15 minutes late, and we didn't have so much as a flicker for the rest of the day. It was a new one for me...I got called at home (I was running a little late today, luckily)...and ended up bringing two flashlights and a propane lantern to work, so the girls had enough light to do their makeup. I've been there seven years now, and this has never happened before...and will likely never happen again. But I think I'm gonna push Alex to get some decent flashlights to keep in the dressing rooms (camp lanterns, something that'll put out some useful light...) Just in case.
PS--I'm STILL waiting for my horse to have her foal. She's good at dragging the process out a LONG time. More on that later!
posted by Curtis at 9:57 PM
1 Comments:
nice.
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