Earlier tonight I was sitting on the couch watching one of the episodes of The Daily Show that had piled up on my DVR when suddenly the audio cut out and the TV went black.
As it's been raining off and on - sometimes heavily - since last night, I thought that maybe the power had gone out, but then I saw a big "DELL" come up on the TV, along with an indication in the upper right hand corner that the TV had switched from the HDMI 1 input to the PC input.
So I realized that my old computer, which is hooked up to the TV, had done something to steal the input focus.
This wouldn't have been especially noteworthy if it weren't for the fact that the computer has been turned off for weeks.
It also wouldn't have been spooky.
As I was contemplating how the computer had managed to turn itself on - with horrifying visions of poltergeists and/or machines spontaneously developing sentience dancing through my head - I noted that the computer turned itself off before getting any further in the boot-up process. Then it turned itself on again. Then it turned itself off again.
It repeated this pattern a couple of times until I went over and pulled the plug.
I plugged it back in and hit the power button. It turned on, then immediately turned off.
I tried this a couple of times with the same result.
Deciding that it probably wasn't going to boot itself up and attack me as a first strike in the inevitable war between man and machine, I nevertheless decided that I didn't want it to continue doing this, so I unplugged it and resolved to investigate it further during the day.
On Thursdays I have a regular call with my counterpart at one of our vendors, and she typically asks me if I have any plans for the weekend. For the first time in a while I was able to say that yes, I actually do, as tomorrow is the National Book Festival.
I'd thrown out the idea of joining Scott, Stacy, and I in attending the Festival to Eric and his wife, but it turns out they'll be too busy to make it.
Today Eric's wife e-mailed me to extend her apologies for them not being able to attend, which I thought was very nice of her, especially considering that I don't really know her very well, having only met her once 5 years ago.
She said that she didn't want me to think that they don't want to see me, as this isn't the first time they've had to pass on an invitation.
I'd thought about responding with "I never thought that...until now. Since you've brought it up, I can't help but wonder..."
But, as I said, I don't know her that well, so I don't know if she'd get the joke.
Instead I simply replied that it wasn't a problem, and that my only concern is that it's too bad that they won't get to see Neil Gaiman.
I'm still feeling rough from whatever beating I apparently received in my sleep last night, but not quite so bad as I felt this morning.
And that's pretty much been my day.
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