Life at the Mirror office was thrown into turmoil last week.
As I walked towards the front doors of our building Monday morning, I was stopped in my tracks by our editor. He said he needed to prepare me before I walked into the office.
With hesitation I asked, ‘what happened?’
Boy, was I in for a surprise.
Upon entering, I was greeted by plastic sheeting wrapped around the back half of the office.
In order to get to my desk, I had to unzip the plastic (picture walking into a tent), step over the bottom of the sheet, and navigate around the furniture that had been moved away from the walls and the large industrial dryers that were making an utter racket.
I tentatively made my way over to my desk, not quite sure what to expect.
What I saw first was my papers – some soaking wet, others wrinkled and curling in on themselves – scattered all over the floor. Apparently a toilet leaked above our office and water came cascading through the roof, causing significant water damage to the Mirror office. The force of the water was strong enough that it knocked down everything I had pinned to my wall.
I was horrified to see my notebook full of notes from interviews and council and regional district meetings absolutely soaked through. I pretty much lost everything I had on my desk and on the wall. But miracle of miracles, our computers managed to survive the flood.
As the editorial area appeared hardest hit, we reporters were sent packing – with our work computers and all – to work from home.
Let me tell you, it wasn’t as great as you might imagine – though one of my co-workers will probably disagree.
After a day or two of only having your computer screen to talk to during the day it gets rather lonely. I missed having my co-workers to bounce ideas off of, and just the general friendly banter that typically fills our office.
Yes, we were able to communicate via Facebook Messenger (what would we do without technology?), but it just wasn’t the same.
I missed all the friendly faces.
Plus, I realized I was starting to associate my home with work.
Typically, my home is my sanctuary – a place to get away from work and give my mind a break.
Work is done at the office and I try to not take my work home with me.
Last week, I couldn’t do that.
I was having to make calls from home and writing up all of my stories from my dining room.
We also laid out both editions of last week’s paper from our homes (well, except for our editor who braved the conditions in the office and worked out of our publisher’s office).
To be honest, after four days of working out of my house, I was eagerly anticipating my return to the office.
Friday morning, it finally happened.
I arrived to find blowers still churning around my desk, but the floorboards had all been put back on and by late morning, the blowers were gone, the ceiling tiles were back in, and the carpet had been cleaned.
Thanks to the good work by the folks at Ripple Rock Restorations, our office today is basically back to normal, though my desk has a much smaller pile of papers sitting on it and my wall is bare where my calendar used to hang.
We’re a hardy bunch at the Mirror office and even a little ‘rain’ can’t get us down.
Flipping through the pages of last week’s editions, you can’t even tell that anything was amiss back at the office.
No matter what happens, we will always strive to get those newspapers out. We’re here for you, Campbell River, through the good times and the bad.
But here’s hoping we don’t have to go through this again.
