It is a dream of any real journalist.

The presses are running and the latest edition of the  Daily Bee is rolling off the huge contraption that somehow magically transfers images from a metal plate to newsprint.

Suddenly, news breaks and the editor sprints out of his or her office down to the press room and shouts: “STOP THE PRESSES!”

With that order, the monolithic press slows to a stop and an alarm goes off. The long roll of paper is cut and the lead story on the front page is changed from something about the dogcatcher wanting a raise to a story that will garner a Pulitzer.

That’s the way it is supposed to happen.

On Saturday night, an electrical surge toasted a 3,000-amp building breaker that not only took out our shared Goss press, it took several machines, a computer and several banks of lights with it.

When that gizmo (journalism technical term) broke, nobody reportedly yelled “stop the presses,” but something a bit more salty, I was told.

It soon became obvious that there was no way to fix this million-dollar press — the baling twine and bubble gum stores were closed at that hour — we had to go to “Plan Bee.”

So at 11 p.m., the Daily Bee, the Coeur d’Alene Press and the Shoshone News-Press were shipped electronically to the Lewiston Tribune office to be printed there.

Our new best friends to the south of us dropped everything they were doing to put our papers on their press.

Later, the printed papers were transported to Coeur d’Alene in a huge semi-trailer and separated in order to be delivered to our truck so that our legion of anxious carriers could get going.

The Sunday Bee showed up here around 8 a.m. and most subscribers received their Bees by noon.

That didn’t stop the phone from ringing off the hook at the Bee or at my house. My 10-year-old daughter knew something had gone wrong and told someone who called the house that “the Coeur d’Alene press was broken.” She was right.

Columnist Bob Gunter also received his share of calls Sunday on the phone line that is usually  reserved for people calling to guess who the historical person in the paper is.

The last time this press broke was several years ago when we just had it installed in Coeur d’Alene. That time, the papers showed up in Sandpoint around noon.

That catastrophe happened on a weekday, so it was all hands on deck at the office as the phones kept ringing. I made it a point to have every department head and anyone else answer the phones. We all kept logs of who called and made sure we called everyone back.

The only time that anyone can remember when the Bee was not published — excluding Mondays — was the day Mt. St. Helen’s blew in 1980.

We have been late on deliveries sporadically mainly due to weather issues and vehicle problems. One time our papers were several hours late because our delivery truck was involved in a fatal accident on the Long Bridge.

Since the press failure happened on a weekend, there was no way I could muster enough folks to answers phones, so I made sure that Kristi, our weekend phone answerer, was warned and that the carriers were on alert.

Then I decided to get away from all of the noise, yelling and complaints to find a contemplative, quiet and welcoming spot … I went to referee soccer games all day instead.

All kidding aside, there really was very little complaining from our customers; most of them were concerned about the safety of their carriers.

It has been heartwarming to see the genuine concern and how much receiving the hometown newspaper means to you. We don’t take it for granted.

This also served as a good reminder for me about how dedicated our carriers are every morning.

Thanks to our staff and our great carriers for getting the papers out and delivered.

I also want to thank you, our customers and friends, for caring enough to let us know that you were missing an important part of your life.

Our staff takes our mission of informing this community very seriously.

It’s times like this that remind me of the responsibility we have and the special relationship we have with you, our readers.

Now if I could just get some loud soccer moms from Post Falls to agree with me on the field, I would really have it made.

David Keyes is publisher of the Daily Bee and referees soccer matches for the serenity of it.