Maybe its my fault for taking the bulbs out 3 years ago, and assuming that I should just be able to put them back in when I wanted to ...
I was cleaning out the jeep the other day, and I stumbled upon the bulbs for the under-dash interior lights.. So, seeing as it's winter, and I wouldn't mind being able to see things in the dark when I open the doors for a change, I decided to put the bulbs back in.
In blindly pushing the bulb in and twisting to seat it properly, I managed to short the two terminals together in the bulb-socket. With gravity already pulling down on the positive terminal, (since the sockets are upside-down) it didn't take much for me to touch it to the negative terminal, without even realizing I did so.
Scared the crap out of me when I had no analog gauges and my new radio didn't work anymore. Glad thats all it was. Fuse #17 in the PDC under the hood.
So, out of spite, I took the sockets out tonight, and tucked the connectors up under the dash.