Don't try this at home

[helen99]

I was just finishing up breakfast this morning when I smelled something funny. At first I thought the washing machine had caught fire, so I turned it off quickly. The smell got worse. Then I thought the stove was spewing gas - but I opened the oven and sniffed, and it was just the normal oven smell in there. Meanwhile the smell got worse. I began to contemplate calling 911. I ran to my room to grab my purse where my cell phone was (and to jump out the window with purse and Sithreal in hand if the house blew up), and then realized how fortunate it was that I made the decision to run to my room just then. Seraphim's heat lamp was smoking. No, there was nothing wrong with the wiring or the lamp itself. Something plastic had slipped under the heat lamp, so when I turned the lamp on, it began to melt, and finally to burn. I am so lucky that I didn't leave before noticing the smell. I picked up the smoking piece of charred blue plastic (whatever it was), and high-tailed it out of the house. I opened all the windows, called into work and told them I'd tried to light the house on fire so I'd be late, and put a fan in my room with both windows open. The animals looked like they were alright - just alarmed at seeing me run all over the place and act weird.

Finally when the smell was mostly gone (still bad in my room but elsewhere it's livable) I shut the windows and went outside to see what the hell that blue thing was. I looked at it more carefully and realized there was a floppy write protect tab on the side of it. The rest of it was unrecognizeable, much like an air crash victim whose only recognizeable remains are, like, a nose or something.

So anyway - I determined by the above experience that floppy disks do not smell good when they burn.

That, and I'll need a less powerful and better situated heat lamp. This can never happen again. Poor corn snake - I can't imagine what that must have been like for him.

Comments

[laurelindel.livejournal.com]

Ooo! I am sorry you have ringworm. I'm not too suceptible to it, really. So I have no problems coming by. Let me ask N and B about it. The only way I see them not coming is if they've had rotten experiences with it in the past...

*HUGS*

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Apparently I'm not that susceptible either or I would have gotten it long ago. Ramona (the transgendered mouse) had what I thought was a case of mites for a long time. I didn't think much of it since mouse mites are not transmissible to humans. Wellp, It wasn't mites. I checked the symptoms against a description of how ringworm presents in animals, and sure enough, it shows up as bare patches and greyish spots on the fur. Ducky. I've handled that mouse every day for months - he was my favorite mouse next to Luna (who recently died). Unfortunately when I found out he had ringworm I decided to give him to Asherah. I can't risk trying to treat him and possibly infecting rialian, the cats, the other mice, or reinfecting myself (hopefully I only have it in one place!!!)