Bizarre Timing

I had my monthly overnight shift at the hotline.

I got in a little early.

Checked in.

Previous shift had all lines occupied.

They said it was REALLY busy.

All normal.

We chatted. Such great people there.

Previous shift left.

Yes I was alone, which is actually really nice.

I took a cue from how another volunteer handles the overnight and turned the lights down to be all cozy.

I was caffeinated, ready for calls, and feeling good.

I put the lines on.

Had my sketchbook and some watercolors, just in case of the unlikely event I had time to pass.

Huh, it was quiet! Weird!

So I sketched.

Put some paint down.

Weird, no calls!

Triple checked the lines were on- yes.

Ok then.

Kept sketching.

About 45 minutes later I thought- ok this is REALLY weird.

It's so not-normal I should tell my shift supervisor.

So I picked up the phone to call them and was met with a BLAST of static.

OMG!!

Thank goodness for cell phones!!

The whole phone system went down.

We went through a reboot procedure.

It did not work.

We all gave up at about 1:30am.

The timing was SO weird- somehow the whole phone system went down in the 20 minutes between when the last shift ended and when I turned on the lines for my shift.

I was scared- irrationally so- that I did something.

This is something to think about- that I blame myself for doing something wrong even when it is literally impossible.

But all I did was turn off a few lights, which could not in any was possibly affect the phones.

The timing was so strange!

So I ended up leaving the lines on and going to sleep for the rest of the shift.

Not 

*******

As it turned out, construction in the area knocked out many, many landlines.

It was just sheer coincidence that the timing was right at the start of my shift!!