…Once William finally reaches the hallway leading to the server room, he sees that there is no door protecting it.

…Once William finally reaches the hallway leading to the server room, he sees that there is no door protecting it. Instead, a giant, human-sized fan is completely blocking the doorway, blowing out 100-degree exhaust. Inside the small, dark, and damp space—which is the size of a one stall public restroom—two portable, rolling air conditioners sit pressed against the server rack. They’re blowing mildly cool air while liberally leaking water all over the floor. This creates yet another hazard, as the puddle was approaching an orange extension cord that is halfway plugged into another orange extension cord stretching all the way from the outlet across the hall.

After noticing the water, Will searches for large towels to soak it up but has no luck. All he finds are six small red shop towels. He nudges the giant fan aside just enough to squeeze his chubby I.T. worker belly through the doorway. Then he lays down the towels, hoping to delay the looming disaster of a short circuit.

It’s completely dark, the faint beam of his headlamp slicing through the stale, dusty air. His fingers grope along the cord until they find the loose plug; he pushes it in, feeling the faint click. Ducking under the low-hanging comm cables, he carefully steps over the snarl of power cords, his boots scraping against the concrete floor as he moves toward the far side of the two-sectioned server rack — where he spots the portable, battery-powered leaf blower.

In the past, he repeatedly advised the I.T. Director that there should be proper air conditioning blowing clean fresh air. Decent lighting wouldn’t hurt either. A really novel idea would be: a door. Or at least a shower curtain. Even a beaded curtain would be semi-useful at protecting the room during construction. Better yet, the entire server rack should be relocated to a safe place.

The I.T. Director always ignored his warnings. He later admitted he had never been able to convince the owner to act on them.

“Just leave it, Will. You’ll-just-have-to leaf blow it out once a day,” commanded Richard Head, the very tall and wide I.T. Director, currently limping from one of his many workplace mishaps. He grinned.

“It’s an adventure Will!”

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