For the longest time Brian and I just looked at each other with our mouths open. Then we smelt smoke and burnt rubber. At this point, we still had no idea what had happened. Our first idea was to check the surge protector, but that was fine. We looked at the power brick to my laptop charger, but that was fine too. There didn't seem to be any damage to my computer either.
Scratching our heads, unable to locate the source and just writing it off as some kind of fluke, I reached down to move my computer and power cord out of the way, and then I saw it.
That, my friends, is the remains of the cord that connected from the power brick to the prongs. Whoops. Looks like I managed to get the cord caught in the inner workings of my metal reclining apparatus. My bad.
To be honest I'm surprised this hasn't happened before...we've had this couch for more than 3 years and I use my laptop on it all the time. At first I was really bummed out, since this was about one week after HP had announced it would no longer make personal computers. Great time to need a replacement cord. I tried to assure my husband that it just needed some duct-tape, but he wasn't buying what I was selling. But then I had a brilliant idea.
I work at a robotic manufacturing company. I work with engineers. I work with engineers who have a whole lot of crap that they don't throw away. Surely they must have a power cord thingy-ma-bob!
And so, this story ends happily ever after, as my friendly engineers were able to get me a replacement part the next day, no cost to me. In fact, they had a whole plastic crate labeled "power chargers." So if you ever happen to cut your power cord in half with your reclining chair, I can hook you up.
I laughed out loud. And my father-in-law, although not an engineer, also has a treasure trove of electronic pieces, so I'm all set. Thanks for the offer, though! :-)
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