So last night was, to the say the least, interesting. I have been of as late suffering anxiety and a general inability to sleep through the night. So, I was awake and watching DVDs of M*A*S*H when there was a brief electrical hum. Then, kaboom, a green light (Avada Kedarva??), and all power dropped in the house. Wait a minute. I've seen an exploded transformer before. Fine, pitch black, find the candles, find the lighter, find the phone, call 911, and call the power company.

The story does not end here. Fire trucks come, look at the fire, and determine that it will put itself out and the branch will fall, fire trucks leave - meanwhile, Albany's finest can babysit the closed street. About 20 minutes later, all sorts of electrical things in my house start going intermittently on-off-on-off in bursts lasting 2-5 seconds. Expletive! I run downstairs and flip off the circuitbreakers fast. Next up, fetch camera, stand, and a stool, and converge on the porch. Apparently, the branch is arcing the power, bouncing up from the blast, and repeating. I only just got the camera on when the best was yet to happen - an extended burst of 35 seconds before finally braking the limb from the tree completely. You have to watch!!!

Here's the low resolution video (36 seconds).

I do not look forward to the holiday season. You know that special time of year, when it's all about focusing on the ones you love, and making sure that everything is perfect for them, and pretty much being rude to everyone else along the way because of your setting the unreal expectation that you must achieve perfection for you and your loved ones. I seem to remember, within my lifetime, that holidays used to be about spreading cheer, amongst strangers even, regardless of achieving perfection. Now, this replacement clique-centered mega-piss-off contest that happens in the stores, on the road, and pretty anywhere public, has kind of ruined the month of December for me. Whether its about keeping the X in Xmas or not, there is no reason, and no justification, for that kind of treatment of others; doubly so for doing it in the name of holiday cheer.

Whoops. This seems to have time-traveled itself to a different weekend that the one that was intended. It was supposed to have been Columbus weekend 2008, however, I'll have to receive a memo from my future self to find out when it will have had happened.