November 3, 2013

Power On

Late Sunday night Brian carefully went though his usual routine before bed.

First he plugged in his laptop to make sure it would be fully charged when taking it to work. He also made sure to pack the car adapter plug just in case. Brian then plugged in his cellphone, his tablet computer, his eReader, and his MP3 player to charge as well. Moving to the bedroom he plugged in his electric razor, two different handheld gaming systems, and his trusty electric toothbrush. 


Using seven extension cords and twelve battery chargers on his remaining available outlets he began the tedious task of swapping out over fifty-four rechargeable batteries for his wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, four different game console controllers, wireless headphones, wireless speakers, clock radio, and remotes for his TV, dvd player, blu-ray player, stereo system, and electric fan.


He moved quickly between every USB cable, docking station, and power bar, never needing to pause and flip over a plug so it would fit, or second guessing if the correct battery was double or triple 'A'. In a strange way he was a modern master of electronic efficiency.


Brian nodded in approval of his work. His home was now humming and twinkling with dozens of tiny red, green, and blue lights. Brian stopped by the kitchen to set the timer on his coffee machine before heading to bed and quickly falling into a deep slumber. Around 3:27am Brian perished when a raging fire engulfed his home. Firefighters later discovered a half-melted smoke detector with an empty battery compartment.