For the last 12+ hours, a “police incident” has been going on around my condo building. The street and alley are blocked off, and there are cops everywhere. Normally this would be cause for concern by itself, but I’m doing just a little bit of extra freaking out: both Ed and I missed being witnesses/directly involved in the incident by mere minutes/a really bad cold.

Details are still rolling in, but it sounds as though someone was roaming up our street breaking windows and throwing bottles around. He was armed with a knife, and was at our building door while a strata meeting – that I was supposed to be at, but had skipped because I’m sick – was happening in the lobby. Something happened, and the guy broke one of the lobby windows (possibly while trying to get in). The strata people went to the elevator for safety while they called the cops.

While this was happening, Ed was being a nice husband and getting me a sundae from McDonald’s to soothe my angry throat. He took the back stairs to the parking lot, got my sundae without incident, and made his way home again via the front stairs; passing one of our neighbours on way. While he was in the stairwell, the lobby window was broken and the strata went into hiding while Knife Guy continued down the street towards the McDonald’s, where he was eventually shot and killed by police.

I was supposed to be at that strata meeting, but because I wasn’t, Ed was out getting me ice cream and somehow JUST missed being involved or a witness in a bizarre dance of fate – while he was on one side of the building, Knife Guy was on the other. Those positions were reversed a minute later as Ed made his way home, and Knife Guy met his unfortunate end. Neither of us knew the full extent of how close we came to Actual, Serious Danger until this morning when all the pieces started falling into place and the timing of the incidents solidified – it was really, really close. Scary close. Too close.

The strata was moved off-site for questioning, and didn’t return until 2am. Police officers canvased our building, asking if anyone had seen or heard anything. The street and alley are still closed, as is the McDonald’s. All night we listened to people try to drive around the roadblock, and get yelled at by the police asking what the fuck they thought they were doing (the answer was “I want to go to McDonald’s” every time). Windows are boarded up, there’s real yellow police tape everywhere (so similar to the Halloween tape surrounding my cubicle, but so much more real), and things seem much quieter than usual (although I’m normally not home at this time of the day, so what do I know).

I’m working from home today, going with common sense instead of the preferred opposite. I don’t really want to be here – I have a lot of work to do and there are packages waiting for me at the office full of EXCITING THINGS – but my head is kind of floating (when I close my eyes the world lurches), I can’t breathe very well, and I basically look and feel like hell. I got sent home from work yesterday (twice), so I guess it’s good that I’m here right now – I have cats, Diet Coke, computers, armed guards outside my door, and no clothes on. Today I will sit in the dark, write a dozen wiki articles, and concentrate on getting better so I can attend the Halloween fun at the office tomorrow (as well as open the EXCITING THINGS piling up on my desk). I will also be grateful that neither Ed nor I were involved in last night’s craziness, regardless of how close the calls were. And I will think twice about ever asking for ice cream again, because it evidently comes with bad mojo.

Too many fatal going-ons. It sort of makes me miss the relative sanity of drum circles and Dumpster Olympics.