One of Those "Interesting" Days

All started out very nicely this morning. Not only did we get about 3/4 inch of rain, but we got an inch of snow. The weather geeks were wrong again--the snow level was about 1000' lower then predicted.
After feeding the horses, I came in to feed the cats and myself. My oatmeal was cooking in the microwave and the furnace was on, and then, the microwave and the furnace disappeared. This was not a good thing.
I checked the circuit breaker box on the house but all circuits were on. I flipped them all off while I went down to the workshop to drag out the other microwave & carry it back up the hill and flip the circuits back on. I had my suspicions about the old microwave. It is about 20 years old and I think I heard it make a funny noise yesterday. I found a plug that was on, figuring out that over half the house was without electric now. My oatmeal finished cooking on the bedroom floor.
I played w/the circuit breaker some more but to no avail. At 8 o'clock, I called the person I know at the outfit that services my heater/AC & he agreed that since the furnace is on its own dedicated circuit and that since other circuits were down, the problem was in the circuit breaker. The breaker is as old as the house, age 27 years, so no surprise that it finally died when something went wrong w/an appliance. Or it just finally decided to die. He did recommend an electrician whom I promptly called. He will be out tomorrow morning.
The outlet for the refrigerator was dead, so I got a short extension cord and ran it from an outlet that was working. I also have kitchen lights and all the electric in the west two rooms as well as the stove in the kitchen.
I am probably a bit paranoid or obsessive or something, but I did not want electric in the house while I am gone today. If part of the circuit board is bad, I do not trust the rest and with the cats in the house I decided to take no chances. So I flipped the master switch on the main circuit board that comes off the electric line. It has two big breakers, one for the house & one for the workshop/tack room and water well down below.
With no furnace, my house was a cozy 55 degrees when I left this morning. Since I usually run the house 60-62 in winter, it wasn't really that bad.
When I get home, I'll flip the master breaker, plug the refrigerator back in, and get on with the usual. Tomorrow I'll wait for the electrician to call, drive out to the pavement & bring him in, and then spend the big bucks getting a new house circuit breaker board.
It's always something...