Somewhere between this side trip to the dumpsters and my going into the building, Glendale had a power outage. I walked up the stairs noticing the emergency lights were on but not sure why because I'd turned off the computer and lights in The Cave not a minute or two earlier. But when I got into my apartment it was clear, there was no power.
Also, the elevator was dead. OMG, I thought, if I hadn't thrown out that garbage I'd have BEEN ON THAT ELEVATOR!
So I went back down the stairs and walked down the street a little to see if other places were out, but I couldn't tell because it was a holiday and everyone was closed. Trader Joe's emergency lights were on also, so I came back and checked The Cave. It was a relatively cool evening, the alarm was intact, so I was not too concerned about it. Then I went upstairs again.
Standing in my quickly darkening apartment, I thought, Now what? There was a Guinness in my fridge, it turns out, an anomaly actually, an impulse buy the previous day. But, after my near death experience, this anomaly took on new meaning and now it seemed almost...divined. Well, I couldn't let that spoil, could I? And snub this proffering of the gods to assuage my near-death experience?
The power was on before I finished it.
PS - Not quite as awesome as this, though. I guess that's one way to do it.