The inverse effects

As I was walking into work yesterday, the power went out. About 10 seconds later, I thought it came back, but then walked into the next building and realized it wasn't (that building is on a different generator system). In this case Xcel lost a feeder nearby, but was able to backfeed from elsewhere so the power was back in 30 seconds anyways. Normally power outages at work aren't fun, as it means worrying about whether the generators will come online OK (big engines don't like starting in the cold any more than cars, and they don't run as often either) or the utility come back online, and whether I'll need to start shutting things down an hour later. I had actually just been talking to one of the electricians the day before about running the monthly generator transfer test process over break. However going into this season and starting over a week of holiday time this Friday, this power outage made me happy because it was a complete test, and the server rooms were on indefinite power and full cooling about 15 seconds after it started. And that means I'll probably get to enjoy my holiday time without interruptions (at least those from power issues). Of course the students finishing up their finals papers in the labs probably weren't as thrilled about it...