THAT WAS EXACTLY IT. First my scare (I was concerned that I might be having a heart attack, BUT I WASN'T), and after that it was all these little things -- the laptop, the leashes breaking (which scared me more than anything else), the camera, the vacuum cleaner stopped working -- but taken one right after the other, it was just A CUMULATIVE MESS. I was reminded of the line from the movie History Boys -- "It's just one fuckin' thing after another."

Oh my god. :-P