My new job is going well, and I enjoy the office where I work. It is on the 5th Floor of a 7 story building. There is an atrium in the center of the building that rises from the floor of the 4th Floor up to the roof. The roof of the atrium looks like a glass greenhouse, and there are 20 foot-tall trees growing inside the building. It is a very quiet place to work; since everybody in our office is busy creating multimedia presentations, we wear headphones while working on our projects, so it is generally quieter than most libraries.

The star attraction of our office building is on the next floor: the marketing headquarters for the company that handles Jack Daniels. They don't hand out samples, so they don't get too many visitors, but the displays that are set up inside of the floor-to-ceiling glass facade are quite impressive. (I think Jack Daniels should be on the Fifth Floor, even if they don't sell fifths anymore.)

As I was approaching the office this morning, I noticed two white Rescue trucks driving down the access road near our office building. Then I heard the siren of an oncoming fire engine, so I stopped. The Pumper truck pulled up along side of my truck, and I saw the fire fighters looking in the wrong direction. I rolled down my window, pointed in the opposite direction, and yelled "Two Rescue trucks went THAT way!" The Pumper took off in 'that' general direction, and I proceeded towards the office.

As I pulled off of West End Boulevard, heading for our parking garage, I realized that all three emergency trucks were now parked right outside of our parking garage. I stopped the truck, stuck my head out the window, and asked if it was safe to go inside. One of the fire fighters shrugged his shoulders and went back to unloading buckets. I sat there for a while, noticed that nobody was running out of the building, and that the fire fighters weren't stopping other people from entering the building, so I pulled in and parked my truck.

When I walked into the lobby, the building's maintenance man stopped me and asked where I was going. "5th Floor," I replied.

He said, "That's fine... you just can't go to the 6th Floor."

As I rode the elevator up to the 5th Floor, I realized that, because of the atrium, there really wasn't anything separating the 5th Floor from the 6th Floor. Ergo, whatever was happening up there was bound to spill, run, or fall down to the other levels. So when the elevator doors opened, I looked very carefully before stepping out of the elevator. I didn't see anything, or any fire fighters, so I walked to our office.

When I walked in, I asked about the trucks and the fire fighters; it seems that the folks at Jack Daniels had received a FedEx package that contained an unidentified powder, so they called the fire department. The fire department finally arrived on the 6th Floor, wearing standard issue fire fighting gear and respirators, and then they disappeared. It apparently wasn't Anthrax. Either that, or all of the fire fighters ran out to get their vaccinations.

But I have to wonder: who would be dumb enough to commit a 'terrorist act' against Jack Daniels? If you think the rednecks want to start a war now, just think how they would react if something happened to Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, or Old Grandad. They would pull out their rifles and say, "New York is one thing, but y'all are messin' with my family now!"

We're speculating that the envelope probably contained some sort of genetically-altered Barley, in which case the worst thing that could happen to our country is that children of drunks will end up with more eyes.

It really is a strange world.