I had commented at the time I felt like things had been hit with some sort of EMF glitch. I was wondering at first if it was another of the PG&E transformer blowouts, similar to the one that fried the neighborhood's electronics, a few years back. But that wouldn't explain the clock or the laptop... I kept thinking about how there are EMF bursts that can take out electronics remotely.
Well, apparently I was onto something. There were a couple HUGE solar flares, described as "solar tsunami," that went down in that timeframe. Zap. I've watched the animation on space.com, and it's SERIOUSLY impressive. They are expecting some serious aurora activity from all this. And for some reason, my neighborhood seems to get weird electronic glitches, as it is...