Rose, Izzy and Lenore resting on the steps, posing for their return-to-the Net photo

June 13th, Friday (that’s fitting) – Warm, sunny. Hey, we are back, and struggling towards normalcy. We took some direct lightning hits Tuesday that left a couple of big craters around the house and wreaked havoc inside of it. The car was knocked out, as was Net and TV satellite dishes, and most appliances, phones and utilities. Lots of damage.
  Will be a few weeks getting back to normal but patched together (thanks Kurtis, Melissa) a temporary Net hookup.
  The biggest blast hammered the rear of the house, and sent me and the dogs running and I had to get to the four wheeler and head out for help. Another hit the barn. It is good to have friends in a storm like that, and mine came running. Electric fences are out, as were phone wires, etc.
  Annie has been at the farmhouse for days helping me get things up and running. We lost the clothes washer and dryer and I’ve been stringly laundry out on the stone wall. My car is in the shop, and insurance adjusters are hanging around. I’ve spent about three days on the phone with various tech support and customer service operations and that is a total nightmare, as many of  you know.
  The animals are all fine, although Rose has been sleeping on my head since the lightning strike. The donkeys were ratted, Elvis didn’t seem to notice 60 mile an hour winds raging around him.  Lenore is continuing her love affair with Brutus, and has also befriend the other ram, Rumsfield (I know this is what everybody really cares about).  Photos will follow.
 After this happened, I made a note to myself: be patient, no whining, remember what real suffering is like. Did a lot of reading, walking, grazing, photo taking and began obsessing on sun and green leaves. Still, I don’t like not writing, and I just marvel at what a complicated and unresponsive mess most companies are, how difficult it is to communicate with them. Corporatism has not been good for me, and I kept thinking about how the elderly or other disadvantaged people can possibly handling dealing with our supposedly more convenient world (oops, I’m whining).
  I am lucky nobody got hurt, and in a couple of weeks all will be well. One day soon, I will even write again.