Drunken Owls and Other Delights

As it happened, my store lost power about a half hour before I was about to log out and head home, and the last time that happened it was hyperlocalized to maybe a few grids in the neighborhood, but on the way home I noticed it seemed a little more...widespread than usual. A few major intersections had no lights, and several workers were standing outside their shops, waiting for the power to come back on. Thankfully, our house hadn't been affected at all (I'm convinced it's because the school across the street is on a different grid than most of the rest of our block, and we're lucky enough to be on it). 

That is, until about 3pm when it went out.

And stayed out until 9pm last night. It's usually never off for THAT long, and that's not a good sign. And some sections of our part of town are still out, apparently. 

Long story short, it looks like there was a fire at a substation over in the Mission District -- clear across town, mind you -- that caused a cascading fault and power outage of epic proportions. And not only that, the phone service didn't seem to be working either, other than the occasional PG&E notifications. It's still only at 2 bars right now, when normally we get 4-5. So whatever happened, it must have been pretty bad.

And of course, the PG&E outage site is still showing possible outages around us. Fingers crossed that it doesn't crap out again!!

We are now completely moved into our new home, and have been spending the last several days unpacking, setting things up, putting things away, and ensuring the cats aren't too freaked out by their new surroundings.

I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting to feel a wave of melancholy when I left the old apartment yesterday after picking up the last of the leftover things I had to bring over. And again today when I left the keys and the garage door opener on the kitchen counter. It felt...well, sort of like when I moved out of my parents' house in 2005, now that I think about it. A little over fifteen years in the same place and it becomes a strong part of your history, I guess. We were only at our apartment in North Beach for just shy of four years and it took me that long to get used to our last place. 

But yeah, walking out of there for the last time was definitely a trip. Lots of memories, lots of life events.

There's still a lot to do, even though we're mostly settled now. The shared office needs things put away, the garage needs a LOT of rearranging and organization (and the two storage shelves built at that), and we still need to do a bit of grocery shopping.

It's slow going, but we're getting there. 

ITEM: Feeling better this evening, which makes me happy. I still feel tired as hell, even though I did nothing but watch TV and occasionally play around on the internets. I may or may not write tonight, depending on if I have the energy. Work did pop into my head every now and again, but I tried no to feel guilty for not being there (that's my own damn fault for having that sort of work ethic).

ITEM: Sweet! Free shipping on Land's End stuff until Thursday! Good timing, since I'm planning on ordering this coat, as I want to get a coat that's heavier than my raincoat but lighter than the brown one I have.

ITEM: I'm contemplating unplugging for a few days/weeks from the internets, as it still seems to have its talons in me, thanks to the pre-election entertainments. It's not so much an "I-need-more-time-to-write" thing as it's the fact that I just need to step away from everything and calm my brain down for a bit. I'll probably still email/LJ, but not as much. I'll let you all know what/when/how.

ITEM: AP just called it for Begich over Stevens. w0000t!

ITEM: Note to self--use up this month's eMusic downloads before Saturday!

ITEM: Had some interesting ideas the other day regarding the subplot/main plot that's going on in Can't Find My Way Home. I may have to do some heavy thinking to see if it's doable, but these new ideas may just help me finish off the outline and make the story that much better.

ITEM: Also concerning CFMWH--Some of the chapters I've already written out may be substituted or at least rewritten, which means that stand-alone shorts may be in the cards...

ITEM: I'm already up to Chapter 7 on the A Division of Souls reread/rewrite/preparation-for-website. So far I've noticed one chapter that can be smooshed in with a different chapter (or two), which will make the pacing better. If memory serves, I think this switcheroo is actually how it originally was before I divvied up the chapters differently. More on this later.

ITEM: Though I'm still sleepy, I'm feeling quite hungry right now, which I think is a good thing and a sign that I'm feeling much better. Not exactly completely better, but more so than last night. And emmalyon is making pork chops and potato pancakes tonight! Yay!

ITEM: Okay, that's enough for now. I'm going to see if I have the oomph to write now. :)

Why am I happy? emmalyon is coming back home from NJ! Yay!

btw, this news completely makes up for the fact that most of my callers today seemed to be a bit slow on the uptake (one call taking 45 minutes--let's just say she not only needed a Spanish translator, which we had, but also a logic translator as well. *sigh*)

But yes--Emm is coming home! w0000t! :)