The day started normally enough: Boyfriend got up at the ass-crack of dawn to go to work all day with One Direction. Oh yeah, he got to be part of that 8 hour live stream magic. There was even supposed to be a Doctor Who patch-in and I waited for Boyfriend to text me so I could go online and watch it (seriously, I wasn't about to sit through 3 hours of 1D Day just for them to throw Doctor Who a bone.) But the text I got from Boyfriend in the late morning was that the Live "Doctor Who segment just went tits up" (that is a direct quote from Boyfriend via text) so that's when I said fuck it and decided to play Ni No Kuni for the rest of the day. Then things got...interesting.
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| Sort of... |
Around noon, Leeloo was sleeping on my lap while I was grinding and treasure hunting in Ni No Kuni when a noise scared the shit out of us. This was no ordinary noise. I'd never heard anything like this. My neighbor later described it as sounding like someone was dragging a washing machine full of bricks across concrete. But it was more than that, and it happened 3 or 4 times. It was so loud, it vibrated the building. It sounded like something heavy and metallic being dragged across cement mixed with a Tesla Cannon... inside my courtyard. Car alarms started going off, the power failed, Leeloo started running around barking her head off, and I could hear a crowd of neighbors exiting the building asking "What the fuck...?" My first reaction was to think earthquake, but I've experienced one earthquake in my life and it didn't feel/sound like this. My second reaction was it sounded like a power plant explosion, but we didn't live near one. My third reaction was panic. After the fourth occurrence of the noise, curiosity overtook my fear and I went outside like the rest of the residents of the block. I documented the incident via Twitter just in case.
It turns out at least 2 of the directional transformers on the power line poles on our street shorted out and/or exploded. Very exciting. Except for the part where I didn't save my game and the power went out. And then it happened agin later in the day when the power company was trying to fix the situation. #NerdGurlProblems am I right? (Apparently loud explosions in my neck of the woods are not uncommon this year.)
And just when I thought my day couldn't get any more exciting...I was wrong again. I hate that.
Leeloo and I went for a night walk around the neighborhood since we were no longer in danger of encountering downed power lines. towards the end of our loop back home, a lady in a Prius pulled up asking me if I'd seen a golden retriever running around. I told her that I had not and wished her luck. She drove off. Not 30 seconds later a giant golden dog bounded up to me, happy as could be. I grabbed him by the collar and turned hoping the Prius lady was driving slowly enough that I could yell at her, but she was gone. had I been on my own, I probably could have handled this giant 70+ lb dog, but his giant body that bounded around out of control, combined with Leeloo sprinting around my legs to simultaneously smell and hide from this behemoth dog made anything difficult. Somehow I managed to walk/hobble/be dragged down the street close-ish to the corner street light and miraculously, I got the giant dog to sit long enough for me to find his tag and call his owner to tell her I had him.
Leeloo and I sat with our new friend, "Buddy" waiting for his mom. Well, Buddy and I sat, Leeloo sprinted in circles barking at his Buddy's giant rudder tail. I was feeling really good about myself and how serendipitous it was to be at the right place at the right time to reunite a frantic (oh boy, and I do mean frantic) dog owner with her Buddy. Stupid me. I should know better than to give the universe a chance to piss on my parade.
Buddy's mom pulled up in her car several minutes later. Buddy, in his excitement (and me in my sillyness) got so excited/riled up at the site of her car, that he leaped forward just as I was trying to stand up. The next thing I knew was my face was firmly planted on the sidewalk, my knees hurt like hell, and Buddy was sprinting away into the darkness. Leeloo, the ever-staunch observer, barked and hopped around in the direction Buddy ran. I staggered after him into the blackness of some strange people's yard, but I couldn't find him. I ran back to the owner's car. She was standing there perplexed. I'm willing to give this woman the benefit of the doubt that she was just having a really bad day and was distraught at her dog running away, but to say that she was a basket-case would be the understatement of the century.
Short story long, Buddy got away again, but as the owner, and soon her friends in the Prius, and I congregated, dumbfounded, her cell phone rang. Someone else had found Buddy almost half a mile away. They all drove off into the night to retrieve Buddy, thanking me for my efforts. I hobbled home with Leeloo, hoping that Buddy was alright and that this story had a happy ending. My knees sure didn't have a happy ending.
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| No good deed goes unpunished |
But, it's nothing an underpants bandage can't fix.
I did eventually get to watch the 50th Anniversary Special and I also watched An Adventure in Space and Time. If you are a Whovian and have not seen either/both of these yet, get off your ass, you are missing out. They were/are both even better than I hoped for.
Go. Go watch now! If you've watched, go watch again!!!
