Dammit. Okay, remember the 1:11, 2:22, etc? I'm still getting them. Still can't figure out what the hell they're supposed to mean, if anything. I finally started to find them mildly humorous and I generally just shake my head when they show up. However....

Firstly, what used to be called the Emergency Broadcast System is now apparently called the Emergency Alert System or EAS. Cox is my cable and internet company. When they test the EAS, they take command of the decoder box, flip to channel 2 where presumably there would be announcements in a real emergency, and the box display sits on EAS until the test is complete. They usually test around noon on Wednesdays. During the test period, you cannot change the channel, it stays on 2.

Tonight, I'd been watching one of my all-time favorite movies, 2001: A Space Odyssey. TCM then started 2010. Bonus! I had just been thinking at the end of 2001 that it would be nice to see the sequel again as well. I settled in to watch.

Suddenly, the movie was disrupted. I thought for a minute it was a commercial break but it was a terrible place to stop the scene, right in the middle of a character's sentence. But, it wasn't a commercial. The channel flipped to channel 2 (which happened to be Becker). Then the TV screen started flipping back and forth between the TCM channel and channel 2, several times.

I looked at the cable decoder box display.

It was flashing too. Oscillating back and forth between...

EAS and 3:33

What the fuck does that mean? Sure as hell looks like a big arrow. Certainly caught my attention in a dramatic way.

After the thing stopped flashing, and operation of the cable box returned to normal, I checked around...
There is no severe weather in the area. In fact, the doppler radar is completely clear.
I don't see any other emergency conditions in the area, in the US, or in the world that would prompt such a thing.
There were no announcements on channel 2. Becker played on.

It would be extremely strange for Cox to test the EAS at such an odd time and on a Sunday night / Monday morning.

So.... What is it? Once again, I scowl at the universe and demand information, clarification, a freakin clue... If they wanted my attention, they have it. I am listening! What??

That's all I could think while watching my TV screen flip channels and the cable box flash... EAS... 3:33... EAS... 3:33... EAS... 3:33... EAS... 3:33...

Can't be a date. There is no 33rd day in March. It was 3:33am on a Monday morning.

What IS it? What does it mean? And what am I supposed to do about it?