Wednesday already?

Busy morning.

I was finally able to snag a copy of the game Minion Hunter (the one merripen and krrayn got me hooked on when I was in Indianapolis a few months ago) off eBay, and it was for a pretty decent price too. Even better, the seller has already mailed the package and is sending it Express Mail instead of the expected Priority Mail. I should have it by the end of the week. Neat!

I got a phone call from an old friend/roommate this morning, out of the blue. I haven't heard from her in about seven years or so... turns out she's still living down in Tacoma and is getting remarried in November. Even better, another old friend/roommate of ours has been back in contact with her and is coming up for the wedding! We're going to try to get together while she's in town to reminisce and catch up.

And then, the power went out. In fact, it happened while I was on the phone with the aforementioned friend... causing the conversation to come to a rather abrupt end in a flurry of static (yeah, I was on a cordless phone). So, I spent the remaining portion of the morning making sure the powerstrips were turned off for all of our various computers and major electronic equipment, and making sure the servers powered down correctly as the UPS systems began running out of power.

I got to test out whether our new gas stovetop could be lit manually (it can -- which is why I had a grilled turkey and swiss sandwich for breakfast). I finally unboxed the old BayGen radio and cranked it up (with an actual crank) so I could have something to listen to. I moved the one tethered phone from the bedroom to the kitchen where it would be easier to answer and hooked up the Phone You Can Kill With (aka the old clunky rotary dial phone) down in the computer room. And, yeah, I hooked my laptop up over the phone line and dialed in to the internet for a bit. Then when the power came back up about two hours later, I got to go around and power everything back up. AFAIK, we only had one phone call from any of the friends and relatives whose domains we host, after noticing they couldn't get their email.

At least this one wasn't as bad as the last time that particular transformer (or whatever it's called) blew... when we were without power for nearly 11 hours. I mean, it's one thing if it's storming outside or there's been an earthquake, but this one seems to just like to blow up every few years for no readily apparent reason (or, probably, for reason of fried squirrel).

Dark days of Autumn

One majorly positive aspect of being without power for a few hours today... I finally figured out why I've been crushed in the merciless grip of lethargy for the past few days. It's dark out there! You know it's bad when it's 11:00am, you're walking through a room with a large picture window AND sliding glass doors, and you have to carry a flashlight around in order to see where you're going.

Don't get me wrong, I actually quite like these conditions... it's one of the things I've always loved about living here. However, the transition from bright and sunny Summer to dark and oppressive Autumn is fairly abrupt, and is much easier to survive with liberal application of full spectrum lights. Time to dig those suckers out and get them hooked up again, especially the one I like to use as an alarm clock (it's been disconnected since I discovered the timer it was hooked up through had scorch marks -- yikes!), or it won't be long before I have trouble waking up in the morning.