A window with a view

A bit of refreshment in the morning...

I woke up. I looked at the clock. early.

I lay in bed contemplating absolutely nothing.
Wondering if I should sleep...

I love the warmth of my girlfriend on my back. I love how she snores lightly, like a baby.

ok, enough of that.

I drove to work listening to the new Modest Mouse CD (I played the 8th song over 4 times). I pulled into the lot and parked. I checked that my ID card was still clipped to me.
I gathered my phone, pda, swiss card
got out of the car and walked to the building
I walked back to my car to get my keys out of the ignition
they are cleaning the bbq, i guess if you own a building and
a company you can bbq your food on a friday if you want.

for some strange reason friday seems to be
"Wear a hawaiian shirt day"
the security guard has one on
he looks like an idiot.
the entrance security door
is propped open by a server box
I grab a mug from the cabinet.
The mugs they have here are glass
I like watching my tea spreading into the hot water
I thumb through the selection and choose "Plantation Mint"
woot.

I hold my card up to the door, it buzzes and clicks unlocked.
I walk through the door and am surrounded by the noise of a data center.
but my next door is just around the corner and soon I return to silence.

I walk up to our room, on my right; a fleeting glance inside through the window just before the door. A scrolling view of the monitors on the 5 stations and the images projected onto the three screens on the wall.
I pull my card from under my untucked shirt where it it clipped to my beltloop. I pull it out with my left hand and hold it to the reader.
my waist moves slightly forward and to the left
as I streach the cord on my ID retractor to reach
the reader.
I stopped a little short.
The fraction-of-a-second-too-long beep is as shrill as it was yesterday.

As I enter the room and my eyes scan the area in which I'll spend 9 hours of my day. My focus comes to rest on the projector screen on the left on the far wall.

On this screen was something that had the power to change my day.
Maybe even all the days following this one.

Roger got back from his week vacation to niagra falls about a week an a half ago. Since then he's been showing us (on the projector) some webcams he was able to find of places he was going to be. He said he was going to try to get on them, but I'm not sure if he did. After his return he seemed to retain the interest in the webcams. This interest is what may change every day after this one.

The NOC I work in is a thin wall away from another data center. thousands of blowing servers and humming machinery and AC units pumping cold air into the raised floor. The noise is a droning reminder of where we spend our day.
Inside.
Inside a facility with no name on it, made to withstand a 9.0 earthquake, capable of sustaining all its data centers for 24 hours on one of it's two generators with diesel delivered within 3 hours in the case of a catastrophic power outage, mantraps, guards, Infra Red sensors guarding parts of the building you're not allowed to enter (including under the raised floor), but...
for all its features
not
one
window

we moved here from a smaller NOC with a window.
with a window with a view
a view of greenery
cars
people
Frank from fedex
that one guy who always parks in that one spot
and after he gets out of his car he walks
around it inspecting it three times like he has
OCD and doesn't know it
Life.

You don't realize it but when you move into a place like this and the excitement wares off you are left wanting something imperceptible.
Completely unknown to you...
Until you get it back.

Which leads me back to the projector.

On that screen on the left with the streached little wobbles on it from when Ryan left it leaning against the corner of the table was a view a spectacular view.
it was mountains with a little bit of snow on top
it was valleys shrouded in mist and fog
it was clouds settling before and behind mountains
accentuating each peak and blending each base into
obscurity
it was beauty it was nature it was a view

It was a webcam 150 feet above the top of Mt. Wilson
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/towercam.htm#imagetop

it was yosemite valley and half-dome
http://www.yosemite.org/vryos/turtlebackcam.htm

It was what I'd been missing. It was what WE'D been missing.



i feel like having some tapioca pudding right now.

-The Existing Thing out