Curse of the old computer

With less than five minutes left on the clock, tensions were high in the newsroom of the small weekly newspaper.

The printer called just as John's computer program crashed. The paper layout he and the other staff members had worked on all day and several hours yesterday was halted in the export process.

Teri referred the call to Suzanne, who talked with the printer for a few minutes, hung up and announced in a resigned tone,

"He says he'll have to get to it tomorrow."

Bryon and John protested.

"It's all laid out. All we have to do is distill and send it!" John said.

"I bet we could have it to them by five," Bryon said.

"He has guys who have to leave right at five," Suzanne said, and left briefly to arrange for the paper to be picked up and delivered first thing in the morning.

There was a moment of silence, and then Bryon leaned back in his chair and looked at me. "I want you to know, Jessica, I think we've been very restrained in our comments today."

Meaning, if I wasn't here, there would've been much more swearing in the newsroom today as John wrestled with his glitchy computer and Bryon scrambled to get last-minute information.

I looked at John. "Thank you, John." He smirked.

"Not just from John," Bryon said. "Me, too."

I looked at Bryon. "Thank you, Bryon."

... and so the small paper saga continues... I told you my coworkers were thoughtful. Haha

Seriously, it sucks that we missed our deadline because of things out of our control, but hopefully the county keeps spinning until the Messenger hits the stands later than usual.