Short story idea. Man is at work & is told they will be conducting random tests of the emergency fire alarm system. The test begins. He simply tunes out the strobe lights, pleasant intercom voices telling him to evacuate, strident beeps, etc. and goes about his daily mind-numbing work. Until by some freak chance a fire actually *does* start. (What are the chances a fire will start during the fire alarm tests? Has anyone stopped to consider the potential effects of this?) As the flames leap up around him & his fellow benumbed coworkers, he is incapable of responding--after all, this was only a test--and he perishes in the flames like a sad human charcoal briquet.
I guess I'm an easy back to stab. "We regret to inform you, Mr. Grow, that we have found yet another knife lodged between your ribs..."
* I walked out of the house & into a downpour, which was seriously waiting for me to set foot outside all day.
* After getting thoroughly soaked (but discovering that yes, you can smoke a tobacco pipe in the rain) I called a taxi cab.
* As I stepped into the cab, the rain stopped.
* Once I got there, there was no venue in sight. I must have got an old address, so I 411ed it, and found out I had to basically go all the way back to my place.
* On the way I got stopped for jaywalking. For jaywalking!
* When I got to the Shellac concert, it was sold out. I trudged home because, well, there's no way in hell a Shellac fan is going to scalp their ticket.