Memory Lane Monday: And I Thought L.A Would Be Boring...

Saturday was The Day of the Doctor, as any self-respecting Whovian would know. Unfortunately, I did not get to experience it live like the rest of the world. Because of budgetary concerns and simply because we refuse to give Time Warner Cable any more of our money, Boyfriend and I opted to not get cable after we moved. The internet and our vast collection of video game systems are more than enough for us. But, it is not without its downside. The downside being Boyfriend was at work all day Saturday (i.e. he had the car) and I was stuck at home, avoiding social media to prevent spoiling anything for myself. So, it was just me, Leeloo, and the PS3, and we settled in for a long boring day while we waited for Boyfriend to come home so we could definitely not illegally download the 50th Anniversary Special and watch it. As it turns out, our day was not so boring after all.

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. 

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.

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!!!