Floor 13

I volunteer/work usually when one day a week, sometimes more, at 211 in Salt Lake City. Now, 211 is part of United Way of greater Salt Lake which is cool ( is going to be a whole blog posting on United Way and 211). United Way of the greater Salt Lake area is located in building called 257 because is located at 257 East and second South and Salt Lake. The building is small by skyscraper standards but in the Cowtown Salt Lake where there are larger buildings or taller buildings 257 stands out on the city's young skyline particularly on Eastside where tall buildings have been kept at a minimum, which I'm sure is an interest in story/posting all by itself. Anyway, 257 has 13 floors.

When I came on board 211 the Federal Bureau of Investigation , FBI, had the complete 13^th floor. I believe I've actually written a little about this in a previous blog. I love the fact that I worked in the same building as the FBI. The FBI goons were ghosts, they must've had their own parking level and entryways because you hardly ever saw round building. Every once in a while you would see I spook and know it was a spook but for the most part you knew they were therev but you never saw them. Shortly after I went to work at 211 I actually took the elevator up there. It was pretty secure and you could not get past plateglass window and really had have good reason to be there there was a note that said so on the front door. So I was dismayed when I learned the FBI was leaving the building and moving on to West Valley. Somehow made sense but still I knew I would miss the fact that I worked in the same building as federal agents.

Late winter or early spring, the Bureau packed their bags and left. I gave them a week then started going up there to the 13^th floor when I would get to work and see what was going on. It was amazing to look to me like a large part of the 13^th floor had been a storage area for data, it was some sort of new cyber form racks and racks and racks of of railing which hosted computer servers. Wow! The next week I went out and everything was gone, totally gone like a movie: one day there the next day gone. I was intrigued with the size of the 13^th floor, just how much space the agency used. I started going up usually at least one day a week and rolling around 13^th floor looking down on Salt Lake City it was pretty cool.

I was amazed when speaking to other folks at 211 or United Way, over lunch, just how many people had never gone to the 13^th floor. People just don't do this, go out of their way to explore their own environment. This is sad. I mean the 13^th floor was the expense coming people could actually run the circumference of the floor and have a fairly decent track. I know there's a shower in the building because some people who ride their bikes to work shower before they go to work after arriving in the mornings. So runners could actually really utilize the 13^th floor. I like to view, I like the quiet of the floor and I'm surprised that all the time I've been up there I've never seen another living soul. I've become somewhat of an evangelist trying to get folks to see the 13^th floor before it's gone. One day I know when I hit 13 on the elevator number pad it will be either blocked out our open up to a construction site where floor 13 will be being rebirth into something new and most likely a place where I will not be welcome. But for now I have a secret affair with floor 13 in Building 257