Further technological challenges (This is starting to ressemble Lemony Snicket much too much!) As I start writing this posting, I am sitting in a house with no electricity, no heat and no running water. This is how it happened ... I live on a rural acreage. I had noticed that some trees on our property were threatening our electic power line. So over a period of a few days I carefully cut down those I dared to remove. Then I hired a contractor to remove four trees that I judged to be beyond my ability. I explained that I did not want the trees to fall on the propane tank or the power line. He assured me that his crew could handle the job. We attended a wedding on Saturday, and when we returned we found that three of the trees had been cut down, bucked up, and neatly piled. The fourth had brought down the power line! I phoned the contractor, who told me that he had hired an electrical contractor to do the repairs and that we should have power before dark. Sunday morning he told me the same thing. We would have power before dark. Our friends Alan and Kathy Hill took pity on us and invited us to their house for lunch and afterwards Alan brought over his 1750 watt generator so that we would try to save the food in the freezer and refrigerator from spoiling. We ran extension cords from the generator to these appliances, and it worked well. We still had no furnace, lights or running water. That evening I had expected to attend a training meeting for family history consultants, but I didn't feel right about leaving my wife alone in the cold and the dark. She urged me to make my home teaching visits, and volunteered to come with me if my usual companion was unavailable. I think she was hoping to get out of the cold , dark house! I phoned him and he was available. I phoned three of the families I visit and they were available - so off I went, leaving my sweet wife in the cold and the dark. When I returned home, she said that the generator had run for 5 hours on the tankful of gas. She asked about us possibly buying a generator, and we will check into it. Then Monday, the tree surgeon explained that the electrical contractor was having trouble buying the necessary parts on the week end. But we would have power before dark. (I copied the above from the paper I had scribbled it on.) Our "off-the-grid" experience ended in the late afternoon of Monday. The electrician re-strung the power line, installed the replacement parts, and asked me to phone the power utility to re-connect us to the grid. Their service man arrived about a half hour later, and installed a new meter and re-connected us to the transformer. We are back! It is amazing how much more I appreciate warmth, lighting, running water, and my computer, after having been without them for a few days!