*sigh* Rough day yesterday.

I managed to set up a pho excursion, and Ben met me at my place ahead of time. His class ends early, and his house is in the opposite direction. We text-messaged back and forth to say where we were and so on, and because my transportation was going the wrong way first, I was a bit delayed. My last message from him involved him telling me that a utility pole was on fire on my street.

Joy.

I got closer to my apartment building (I was coming over the hill as I got this message), and didn't see any huge flames or anyone out on the street, so I figured that it was okay. As it turns out, it was a utility pole almost directly across from my door, so needless to say, I had no power.

I called the Smooshy, who lives about a 10-minute walk away from me to see if he had power, and he didn't (the streetlights were out on the way over, too). About an hour later he called to let me know that he had power, but I still didn't. He came over about an hour after that, and a bit before 7 we decided to go out for dinner (since we were waiting on another friend, anyhow).

Now, I got home around quarter to 5 or so, and we were sitting in my apartment with about a half-dozen candles lit for lighting. We figured that after dinner, there would likely be a return of lights.

The Smooshy and I got back to my apartment around 8:45, and they were still working on the pole. We decided to set ourselves up in the bedroom with a whole bunch of candles and he read while I knitted. I am so cool.

We had five candles on my headboard, which made Thena somewhat grumpy when she went to jump up there and had no room. We had two or three candles on my dresser, in front of the mirror, and Venus decided to explore those while I went to the washroom. I was listening to the Smooshy talk about how it would only take one good tail swoosh, and then he was saying she was on fire.

He put it out, and she seemed a bit rattled, but nothing too awful. Some of her tail fur was a bit singed, and I could feel where the heat had removed parts of it, but I don't think it came anywhere close to her skin. The Smooshy later apologized to me for letting her get burned, and had said a few times before that that a singed tail was the best lesson.

She curled up on my while I was knitting and demanded attention, so I don't think she was too badly affected.

Anyhow, the guys in the truck drove away shortly before 10, and right around 10 the smoke alarm (electric) started whining. We were wandering around trying to figure out what the whining was (as it decreased in volume) when the lights started coming back on. Somewhere in there was also a loud pop that I thought was cats knocking over something, so I blew out the candles and started a walkabout of the apartment.

We returned all the candles to their previous locations, I found nothing out of sorts, and I watched Gilmore Girls with the Smooshy (after his shower). We talked for awhile and went to bed late, as is our habit.

In the morning, after I eventually got up (having already discussed with my colleague that I'd be late), I turned on my computer to boot while I went to the washroom. I came back to find nothing had happened, so I pushed the power button again. Still nothing. I checked out the plugs and the connections, the power bar, and tried again -- nothing.

I could still smell what I had originally thought was candles or burnt cat hair, but now realized was isolated to the computer and consists of that unique burnt electronics smell. My power source and possibly other components are fried.

I woke up the Smooshy and he did the same checks I did, but obviously can't tell anything yet. I called my dad and he's going to check it out for me as soon as I can get it out to the house.

Now, as a grand total of things that have died in my apartment lately:
(1) fluorescent light bulb in the kitchen;
(2) my floor lamp in the living room (previously died and fixed by my dad -- I don't recommend the model, which I'll hotlink later);
(3) computer and assorted components.

This makes me sad. :( With any luck, I'll be able to have it up and running by the weekend, with no loss of data. Some of it has been backed up, but not all. I'm okay with losing things like video card, motherboard, etc., because those are all older and can stand to be replaced, but the harddrive is a bit more important. I'm also very glad right now that I was able to get the last presentation date for my project, because having this on top of trying to get a project together and quickly would really suck.

Anyhow, time for me to head off. If you need to get in touch with me, use the phone! No home email access for me. :(