More proof that God exists

I have no doubt that God exists, and that he watches over me. This apparently extends to those I love as well. Let me explain. Tuesday night, fairly late in the evening, I get a call from my sister. She's the one in the Toronto area whose basement was destroyed by a flash flood back in August. The walls and floors were just replaced, with the final repairs having been made that same day. Finally, she had the time (and new furniture set up) to put her computer back into service.

Everything was plugged in as per the wiring diagrams she had carefully drawn before disconnecting the equipment several months ago, and when the power switch was turned on... nothing happened. She could hear the computer running, but there was nothing except a blinking light on the monitor. So she called me.

She wanted to know if I could come over right away (I live 250 miles away and it's a couple of days before my wife hosts a large family Christmas party). I said no. She offered to pay for my train tickets. I still said no, and pointed out that a service technician would be much more convenient, and significantly cheaper than me hopping on a train. My wife even suggested that she pack up the computer and bring it to our house this coming weekend. She didn't think it would be safe to carry the computer on slippery pavement to her car, so she said that was not an option. After much badgering, and her insisting that she didn't want anyone else messing with her computer except me, I finally gave in.

We spent the next 15 minutes or so making online train reservations for the next morning (I can't believe how expensive last minute tickets cost - even economy!), and after using her credit card number to pay for the tickets, I remembered an important appointment that would be missed if I took that trip. We then cancelled the tickets, and made another reservation for later on in the day.

So, Wednesday comes, and I do everything I had planned; then rush to catch a 5:30PM train that should get me into Toronto at about 9:15PM. It was 10:00PM when I actually got to Union Station, and because of my current limp, it took me a few minutes to walk to the subway. I finally got to the subway stop where my sister had arranged to pick me up. It was the last stop on the line, and the time was after 11:00PM before I got in her car. I hadn't eaten in several hours, so finding food was a priority. Not much is open at that time of night on a weeknight, so I had to settle for fast food takeout.

By the time I got to my sister's house, it was after midnight. My return train ticket required that I get onto the subway by 10:00AM on Thursday, so I didn't have much time to waste. Luckily, the problem with the computer was very minor, and was fixed within 5 minutes of arriving at the workstation. Since the computer hadn't been used in a few months, there were many updates that needed to be applied. She doesn't have high speed internet, but it is slightly faster than dialup. Using her connection, it took several hours to update the antivirus program, spyware detection program, and browsers (both Firefox and IE had needed to be updated). And once all that was done, there were the general questions that were posed and answered.

Finally, at around 3:30AM, everything was done, and even though my sister was still using the computer to catch up on email, it was time for me to get to bed. No sooner had I stepped away from the computer than we heard a menacing pop followed instantly by smoke billowing from every orifice of the battery backup unit. The smoke was thick and acrid. It was clear that toxic fumes were being created from burning plastic. My first priority was trying to get under the computer desk and turn off the switch on the battery. Smoke continued to pour from the battery, and I worked frantically to unplug all the devices that were plugged into the battery. Each time a device was unplugged, smoke began to billow from the newly uncovered holes. Having finally been able to unplug all the wires, it was time to unplug the battery from the wall. That was difficult to do because of the position of the wall outlet, but eventually, we got it out.

The battery is somewhat rectangular in shape. I picked the battery up with my bare hands and tilted it so that the longer part of the rectangle pointed up. My rationale was that, if there was still an active fire inside the battery, it would be facing up, away from my hands, and away from the lead-acid battery cell. I quickly made it up the stairs, through the garage, and outside, where I gently laid the battery on the snow-covered sidewalk. We headed indoors to open some windows to air out the basement (the smell was overpowering), and eventually went back outside to disconnect the internal lead-acid battery cell from the battery housing.

As far as I can tell, nothing that was done to service the computer had any bearing on the battery. It had not been overloaded (the only things plugged into it were the computer, monitor, and cable modem). Based on what I can tell, that battery would have started on fire approximately three hours after the computer had been powered up, regardless of whether it had been fixed by a technician, by me at my home, or by me in her basement. Only the last option, however, would have resulted in me (or anyone else, for that matter) being present at the moment the fire started.

Any other scenario, and the house would have been burned to the ground, possibly with my sister and her daughter still inside.

Thank you, God, for saving us from all that grief.

(P.S. The trains were running so far behind schedule because of weather, VIA Rail has offered a 50% discount on my next trip!)