The following has been posted in on the SL Grid Status page:

[Posted 9:45am PDT, 8 May 2012] We will be performing scheduled maintenance today, Wednesday and Thursday of this week (May 8, May 9, May 10), beginning at 6:00pm PDT each day. Each maintenance is scheduled to last around 8 hours. Please save all builds and refrain from rezzing no copy objects, as some regions may be taken offline and remain offline for extended periods of time. Please follow this blog for any updated information. [emphasis mine]

So for today, Wednesday and Thursday, expect severe disruption to SL.

Whether or not this maintenance is related to recent service outages / issues, the most recent of which occurred some 24 hours ago, is unclear. However, the forewarning is appreciated.

While I have been prone to avoid personal opinion in “news” items, that there is upcoming maintenance does prompt me to ask Linden Lab as to whether they could also broadcast a reminder in-world prior to the work commencing, for the benefit of those who may not routinely read the Status Page or who are not engaged on Twitter?