Obviously, I have been talking for much longer than that.
However, today marks five years being a spokesman for Alabama Power.
That’s an odd sort of thing to remember, as it did not involve a massive employment change, or promotion. If you’d like, you could consider it a “battlefield promotion” of sorts.
I was dubbed a company spokesperson at 11:32 a.m. – squarely between two enormous storm systems that struck Alabama on April 27, 2011.
I remember self-deploying to the office at 5 a.m., when I realized we had seven counties with tornado warnings, and 35,000 customers without service. I even stopped in a parking lot on the way, to avoid a coming gust front of more than 90 miles-an-hour.
The deadly wave hit around 3 that afternoon, and continued for hours. With my “promotion” in hand, I suddenly had more leeway with what I could tweet from the @AlabamaPower account, how I could engage, and how to use it to get intelligence. We assured whole neighborhoods, we got pictures directly from the heart of the carnage – and we also shared images of coming recovery and hope.
Who knows what I will be doing five years from now? Probably looking back at ten years after. Because it was that kind of day.
It is rather odd how the days that define us the most can remain so clear, vivid and detailed in our memory.
I will be doing more talking in the coming weeks.
And after more than eight sporadic years, I will be doing less talking here.
At some point, this site and archive will be coming down. It’s time to mothball these essays, and figure out what they are and what they mean and what value they might still hold.
Of all the acclaim, I was proudest of something my mother said: “I like how what you write there seems timeless.”
Maybe what passes for my wit and wisdom will retain some of that value, and I can salvage it into something else. A different project, different product, different format.
I have several presentations to wrap up this week, and some conference work. So I don’t know how much longer this Razr will stay sharp.
But it has been one hell of a ride, hasn’t it?
