Mark,

  I'm finally back online after being down from June 19 through July 5.

  Severe thunderstorms blasted across Arkansas, with hail over 4 inches
in diameter in west Arkansas...tornadoes in southeast Arkansas...and
hurricane force winds elsewhere.

  One such storm uprooted a huge tree just up the street, causing it to
fall on power lines. That pulled apart the power pole across the street,
and ripped the electric meter off the north side of the house.

  The night of the storms wasn't too bad, for the rain...but the next
day and night, apparent temperatures were over 100 degrees. It was like
taking a hot shower, then climing into bed naked and wet. I didn't even
get 5 hours of sleep that night.

  Realizing people die in conditions like this, I was able to get a room
at an area motel. But, since the insurance company (who considers it a
catastrophe if they have to pay a claim) noted the house was "livable"
(it still had running water and no other damage, except for the electric
meter and indoor panel noted above), they won't pay the $950 hotel bill.
Add to that I had to pay my Mom's $1900 income tax bill (she's dying in
a nursing home), so that wiped out a planned trip to Albuquerque for a
ham radio event in September.

  If that wasn't bad enough, I have a huge stone in my bladder that was
MISSED several months ago, so I have surgery on the agenda.

  But, I'm back online, with Window 10 Pro 32-bit...and so is the BBS.
However, summertime thunderstorms, and brownouts with high heat indexes
(causing folks to run their air conditioners) may mean downtimes for the
BBS (I don't want another "local hotel vacation". The commercials for
the Generac Generators are deceptive in the price...they do NOT include
the installation fees, and I can't afford that right now.

Daryl

===
 ■ OLX 1.53 ■ Weatherman: "Front coming in"; I guess rear going out.
--- SBBSecho 3.07-Win32
 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - tbolt.synchro.net (1:19/33)