At 2:05 p.m. today, just after I sat down for a meeting, the power went out at my building. We tried to continue the meeting, but as the discussion centered on some complex flowcharts that were to be projected, we soon abandoned the effort. Twenty minutes later, word spread around the building: the powers-that-be were sending us all home for the day.

As I left the parking lot, I looked down the road and saw the likely culprit: a utility pole was leaning at an alarming angle over the road.

It can’t compare to the Auckland power crisis, but it was inconvenient nonetheless.