My boss and I were having a conference call the other day. It was the most pointless conference call ever: us, the client, and another group, with the client reading word-by-word the schedule they'd already e-mailed us. Because we are apparently not qualified to read to ourselves.

The client and the other group got in a little discussion about some minor issue that didn't even concern us, so my boss and I had basically put our heads down on the table to wait out the call. Blah blah blah the client and the other group blathered on from conferences rooms deep inside their office compounds. Meanwhile, because it was a nice day, we had our windows open directly over the street.

And, of course, suddenly there was this huge sound of squealing brakes from outside, followed by an enormously loud siren.

Dead silence on the conference call.

My boss: Sorry. That was us.