Help, My Computer is on Fire

I'd like to say that I play computer games to bridge "down" time, but that would be a lie. As a Sacramento short sale agent, I don't have any free time during the week. I work my butt off from Monday to Friday, typically from 5 AM to 7 PM. Yup, I put in 14-hour days / 70-hour weeks on selling Sacramento short sales.

On Saturday, I write several articles and a handful of blogs at my second job, for which I am paid by the New York Times. Not everybody can work at this pace, but it works for me. If I want to take off Saturday, I schedule my articles and blogs for my homebuying About.com site into the work week. But I never lose focus of my primary job, which is to sell Sacramento short sales.

I take off Sundays. It doesn't mean I don't leave my phone on but I don't always answer my phone. That's because most of the calls I get on Sundays are from people who stutter, stammer, get all freaked out that a real estate agent pressed the answer button, and they can't talk and they don't know where they are, and well, they're just plain irritating, if you want to know the truth. So, I forward these calls to my team members who have the patience to deal with these guys.

Sometimes, on Sundays I play computer games. I sometimes play computer games during the week, too, to relieve stress. If you don't think selling Sacramento short sales is stressful, you would be wrong in that assumption. You can't always avoid stress, but it is possible to manage stress. Another great stress reliever is to go out into the yard and pull weeds, although not nearly as enjoyable as computer games. I will have you know that I am a master at many computer games -- Bejeweled, Plants vs. Zombies, Peggle, and Zuma.

Yesterday, I heard a crackling sound. At first, I thought it was water running in my neighbor's yard, but her sprinkler wasn't on. Then I considered it was something going on inside my can of Diet Pepsi, which was sitting on my desk. But no, it was my computer. It sounded like it was on fire. I peered inside the casing, and I could see a bright red light reflecting off the side of my Mac Pro. This was new to me. There wasn't a red light there before.

Is it hot? No, it doesn't feel hot. OMG, what if it shorts out? I ran to get my husband. Help, help, my computer is on fire!!! He peered at it. Then, he looked at my monitor. "What happens if you turn down the volume on your Peggle Nights?"

Duh. There is a fire crackling on the home menu page of Peggle Nights.