Being absent-minded

Sunshine's post about being absent minded reminded me about something that happened to me a while back :).

I was sitting in my cube the other day just minding my own business when a cabinet was moved into my cube. Since I am currently without a cube-mate and my dept was switching some things around, they had kept it in my cube.

Someone came to use the cabinet and I heard a beeping sound just as she opened a drawer and then again just as she closed it. And a third one just as she opened another drawer and another just as she closed. I thought it was very strange that we had such a high-tech cabinet and wondered what could be stored in there. Every time she was either opening or closing the cabinet there was a beep.

I watched for around 3-4 mins trying to see if I could figure out what kind of cabinet this was! Now this cabinet looks like one of the safes that you find in a bank. Very compact and solid.

I said to her, "Wow that is one amazing cabinet we have here! What do we store in there?" She looked at me with a puzzled expression and said, "It's just a cabinet.'

I say, "Yeah. But it's a pretty hi-tech cabinet isn't it?"

Her: "Is it? It's just a cabinet you know. Why do you think it's high tech?"

Me: "Well it beeps and stuff when you open the drawers."

Her (amazed): "Really? I've never heard it beep!"

Me: "No really! Try it!"

She did and there was no sound! Now I didn't want to look stupid so I went up to the cabinet and crawled all around trying to find that led or some other indicator that would make it beep. But she seemed to be right.

It was just an ordinary cabinet.

She thought I was just funning with her and walked out still a bit puzzled...

Then I turn around and my computer was off! I looked down and saw that my UPS was down as well. Apparently the sound was being made by my UPS as a warning for my kicking out the power cord by mistake. The beeps were sounds made due to the UPS running out of charge powering my machine off.