I'm finally back online

It's been an interesting week. On Monday I took a dog to the vet and when I got home about 3:30 the power was out. It was out all evening. About 9 the power came back up but about that same time it started storming and the wind was blowing HARD. The power was only up for 30 mins then back out again. It still wasn't back when we woke up Tuesday morning. Thankfully my alarm has a battery backup that goes off even if the power is out so I got the kids up and ready for school. I drove them to the bus stop in the truck. I thought a tree might be down in the road and they might have to wait for the bus. Last time that happened he had to go back to the bus barn for a power saw and help and was about 45 minutes late. I turned on the radio so we could listen while we wait. The bus normally comes at 7 but by 7:20 there was still no buss. I guess I was right that a tree was down so we continue to wait. 15 more minutes pass and still no buss. By now I'm wondering what is going on but the house phone is down (as well as the power) and without electric to run the my cell booster I can't even get a cell phone signal. I start up the truck and we drive run up the road about a mile. There is a big hill there were I can get a signal. I try calling the school no answer. Hmmmm.... I've been listening to the radio and nothing about the school being closed. I try to load the local news webpage on my phone. It takes a while to load but nothing shows up on the news page. By now its about 8am and the buss is an hour late. There hasn't been any news on the radio about the school being closed and there is nothing on the tv news webpage but I still can't get anyone at the school. We wait a bit more. Finally around 8:15 it posts to the local tv news webpage...the school is closed. So we go back home. The phone comes back up sometime during the day up but the power is still out. Tuesday evening I decide I'd better get the generator hooked up so I can cool off my fridge. I get it out of the shed and moved to the house but I can't get it started. I call my neighbor to come start the generator (hubby is working out of town). He had to drain the carburetor but after that it started right up. So we were gtg and watched a movie while the fridge was chilling since the generator was running anyway. While the neighbor was here I found out a semi had hit a power line that had gone down in the storm Monday night and got tangled in the line. The weight of the truck had managed to pull down about 20 electric poles leaving everyone in a wide area without power. They think it will be a few MORE days before they get power back up. Wednesday morning we get up again with no power. I start the generator and turn on the tv so we can check to see if the school is closed again. Sure enough no school again Wednesday. I run the generator for a few hrs so I can charge my cell phone and cool off the fridge again. I let the kids play a video game on the tv since I already have an extension cord ran through the living room. (Yes, I do have extension cords everywhere.) Wednesday evening finally...OH OH OH the light are on!!! The kids are out side playing so I yell and them through the window and they run in doing a happy dance. I go upstairs to turn on the computer but there is a red light blinking on my dsl modem uh-oh. I call the phone company to check the status of the dsl. There is an outage. Won't be fixed until tomorrow. Well at least I have power. I can use my cell phone a bit. Thursday I take the dog back to the vet for a checkup. He had warts between his toes that had gotten painful for him so we're having them treated. I make a stop at Wal-Mart to get a few things. I'd decided to get another battery powered lantern for the house and needed more D-batteries for the radio and flashlight. Bad timing. There are no D-batteries at Wal-Mart. None at all! I hadn't planned on going to Lowes but its only a few miles out of my way so I go there to get the batteries. I get home about 4 just as the kids are getting off the bus. JW (the oldest) checks the internet. It's still off. I call the phone company again. Yep, still down, won't be fixed until 9pm. At 9:30 it's still down but I'm tired so I go to bed. Finally Friday morning the dsl is back! I can actually get online! Thankfully it was only the power and internet. We were never in the path of a tornado and had no wind damage. We are all healthy and all the animals are fine. Please keep those in Joplin, MO in your prayers and also Dardanelle and Vilonia Arkansas who where both hit by tornadoes Monday night. It's been a crazy spring but I have much for which to be thankful!