Excitement

So there I was, minding my own business in the office (aka living room), when a fat and lazy black fly buzzed slowly past me and wandered off into the depths of the apartment. Being busy, I didn't chase it down but just let it fly on, hoping it would find the half-open window without my assistance.

About an hour later, I began to smell something burning: just a whiff, but all the more disturbing for that. There is no reason ever to smell burning in a non-smoker's home (unless they use candles, and I don't). I walked around the apartment, sniffing in doorways: definitely the office. No sign of smoke, but the smell was intensifying: nasty, acrid - not unlike an electical fire. Is there a short-circuit somewhere? No sign of sparks. "Oh God, the computers!"

While shutting them down, I sniffed at them all, putting my hand on the heat vents: nothing. The smell had become a stink, quite overpoweringly vile. (By this time I had pocketed my cellphone and the house keys, and was uncabling my laptop to take it with me.)

And then I saw smoke rising - from the floor light, a 300 watt halogen bulb - and understood. The fat and lazy fly had come to a very unpleasant end. So I thanked Heaven for small mercies, turned off the light, opened all the windows wide, and put the lamp out on the balcony.

It'll probably be 2am before my blood pressure is low enough that I can think about going to sleep.