Apparently it does rain in the desert

So, funny story. A revise desk editor is working on his last story, when all of a sudden... a mist of water starts to spatter onto his head. The mist turns into a dribble of droplets. And then it begins to rain. From the ceiling.

Yes, in my second week of work, there has already been a plumbing catastrophe.

The second floor of the building is being remodeled, and--as far as we can figure out--someone left an unsecured 3-inch-diameter hose connected to running water. It collected on the floor of the second floor until someone noticed... that someone being me, because it was dripping on my head.

A couple of brave souls went up into the construction zone, which is not lighted, and wrestled the hose over to an open window. But the damage had already been done: Enough water had collected between the two floors that there was no stopping the rain.

At the height of the storm, it looked a little something like this (and in hindsight I wish I hadn't turned the camera sideways to get the full length of the waterfalls):

Note how all the computer equipment is cleared off the desks under the water. I have no idea how all that will be set up in time to put out the paper tomorrow. And, speaking of the paper, it wasn't all the way to bed yet. Some people couldn't leave their computers... which means when workers eventually showed up with some plastic sheeting, this happened:

Yes. That is a design editor trapped under a tarp.

And so that's why I finished work two hours late in a wet shirt. Instead of going out and people watching, I think I will relax and watch some soccer, perhaps with a Manhattan. Here's to a drier Saturday.