D.O.P.-T. (yesterday)

We co-walked the dog in the park. It was busy, including people having group picnics and one lot setting up an Easter egg hunt 3 weeks early.

D.O.P.-T.

April Fools Day played a trick on the little porn store, and on 7-11, too. It was a quiet night (so quiet, the liquor store lady didn't get anyone trying to buy stuff after hours even though she was there until after 3:00 supervising an annual power-cleaning of their floor), and then at about 10 to 5 the power went out. It flickered back on twice and then stayed off. So I had to ask the two guys in booths to leave. Luckily neither of them put up a fight. The one who had been previewing left wearing a dress he'd put on in the booth. I soon saw police lights at the corner; the outage apparently extended one block each way from that intersection, and they set up smoky red flares across the El Camino crosswalks; what in aid of I'm not sure, because I saw drivers driving through them. Meanwhile the UPSes in the store were running the computers and a few peripherals including the four preview DVD players, but the phone, the barcode printer, and of course the radio, the lights and the booths were dead. Also the punch-in clock, but luckily we still have the battery-powered Kama Sutra clock on the wall and the flashlight was where it's supposed to be. After cleaning the two booths I shut down the cash register comp since I had no idea how long the UPS would keep it running, and settled down to read by flashlight as the intermittent beeping continued and occasional lights from vehicles shone into the store. Old Guy knocked on the door about 5:30 to see if I was ok; I didn't ask how come he was passing by on his bicycle (he worked 11 am – 11 pm yesterday). Somewhat later a tanker truck pulled up at the gas station on the corner; I was trying to keep the door locked to avoid having to prevent people from trying to get in, so I didn't watch to see whether he could manage to refill the tanks without power. Eventually a grey dawn began; sadly, not the right day to get to see a pink sunrise shining into the store. So I posted a sign saying we were closed until power was restored. At about 1 minute after 7, the UPS for the cash register computer and the big printer beeped and died; if I'd known I'd have turned the computer back on and done the shift change printout shortly before that. Then the manager walked in at about 5 past and said to go home. He locked up and went home too. For a while I watched cars doing a very bad job of 4-way-stopping at the corner. A motorcycle cop rode up on the sidewalk to ticket one. Eventually the bus came, sounded its horn at the intersection, and took me away.