The gig last night was a blast! I played stuff from All In A Day's Work, The Song Of The Day, and Sham Rock. The sound system sounded fantastic and the crowd was awesome. The other musicians playing before and after me really rocked: John Mahoney, Chris Campbell, John Kuczaj, and Bernie and Mike (f.k.a. Zero Love and also Beatnik Turtle Alumni). I'd like to extend a hearty thanks to all the friends who came out to cheer us on!
What does this have to do with almost nearly burning the house down you ask? Well when I got home, I went upstairs to get ready for sleep and I noticed, in the dark, a weird glow behind one of my electrical outlets. I thought to myself, "that's weird - I didn't know there was a night light inside that outlet." Then I came to my senses and realized that there is NOT a night light in there. I looked closer and it was a orange hot glow inside the outlet and the thing (and the surrounding wall) were hot enough to cook waffles on. Amid an adrenaline rush complete with pounding heartbeat I managed to get to the breaker box and start shutting off circuits. Once I hit the circuit with my AC, the orange glow immediately went away. I took the outlet apart (still stovetop-hot) and poked around inside making sure nothing was actually on fire. The outlet itself and the wires around it were charred and melted. After waiting for about a half hour everything was cooled down again (except the room because the A/C is now off).
It's weird to think of the alternate thread of execution life could have taken last night. If the lights hadn't been off I wouldn't have spotted that orange glow. I would have gone to bed and not noticed a thing, maybe awoken by the smoke detector or my alarm system or smoke or flames. Or worse. This all sure conjures thoughts of how life is just a string of luck - good and bad...
