Catastrophe!!!

I came home from work last night and turned on BJ's computer, but it wasn't talking to the internet. BJ's computer also wasn't talking to the home theater computer in the family room. So, I went in the family room to reboot the home theater computer, but it was already on.

Uh oh.

Mary Grace wanted to watch a movie, but I couldn't get the receiver to come on, and no receiver means no sound.

Uh Oh.

Turns out that our cable modem, our router, our switch, and our receiver all bit it yesterday. We had strong storms, and I think we either got hit by lightning or a power surge came through the cable. All the TVs are fine, but 3/4 of the things that are toast were connected to the cable.

UH OH.

It's exactly enough stuff to make us unable to watch any of our DVR'd shows - without the router the computers can't talk to each other, and we can't watch them on the computer in the family room because it doesn't have sound.

I'm just glad that it didn't take out the projector.

So, I'm writing to you right now from BJ's laptop with a wireless aircard. That's fine for the weekend, but it won't work on Monday when he takes the laptop and the aircard to work, and the freaking cable company (Comcast) can't get here to replace the cable modem until WEDNESDAY.

I think it's my fault, because I was just saying to BJ at lunch, right before the storm, that I thought we should take a vacation to a cabin in the woods somewhere and completely unplug. He balked. Who knew that *I* am really the one who can't unplug!?

So, if you have trouble getting in touch with me, or if you have an e-mail that goes unanswered for weeks, don't worry. I'm not ignoring you, I'm using dial-up speeds to connect to the internet. Our home phones use the internet, too, so they're kaput. It should forward you to my cell phone.

I have a feeling the girls and I are going to spend a lot of time at the library on Monday! They have computers.