Winter Fun in the Flatlands

The gods (or God for my monotheists friends) were evidently angry here in eastern Iowa this week. Last Sunday I had just finished writing a term paper for American History and was working on a 15 page paper on World War I aviation for my history colloquium when my six month old laptop had a stroke. At first horrified, I sprang into action to revive the dying patient, but to no avail. Stunned and amazed I then went through all five of the steps of grieving.
Monday I grabbed the bull by the horns and spent the day at the PC reconstructing the History paper that was due on Tuesday. That gave me three days to do the same with the WWI paper. No Sweat!!!!
But nooooo! An Iowa ice storm rolled through town and Tuesday morning the Salmon Shack went dark when the local electrical grid also stoked out. Being without electricity is normally no big deal. We have back up heat, I had plenty of beer in the house, and I made a tent in the den for my daughter to have a camping adventure. I once spent two years in an Alaska cabin with wood heat, no plumbing, and no TV so living pimitivley is not a problem, but by day two things began to get a little desperate. Fifty percent of my grade relied on this one paper! Oh the humanity!!!
On Wednesday the lady that lets me live with her called me down off the roof where I had stamped out "HELP US !" in the snow, and gave me a couple good face slaps. "Get a grip you idiot and take down that "Where's FEMA?" sign in the front yard!" she yelled.
I went out to my old Alma Mater, Tall Corn College and Technical Institute, and spent the afternoon in their computer lab to begin reconstruction process on the term paper.
By Wednesday night the lights were back on and tragedy was averted. The paper was turned in on time on Friday, the "Geeks" gave the laptop hard drive an upgrade and salvaged a semesters worth of work. But most importantly, a new snowfall covered up the "help us" sign on the roof.