Well I called the UPS people on Tuesday 24th and actually had a pleasant experience with their Tech dept. It took a long time to go through everything and the girl on the phone had never had a situation like mine so we had to go through the Engineering Dept.

Good news is however that they found a fix and it was easy. I am pretty sure it was their last resort....unplug machine and take it in another room and plug it in there.

Once I did that it booted right up!!! So computer is back up and running!!

The insurance company took care of the claim with no problem.

I called the Hyundai dealership after talking to insurance company to see if I could tow the car there but they don't do body work. Recommended Dennis' Auto Body- the body shop that does all of their work so I called there and spoke to Durk who was fantastic. He got my car towed to his shop within about ten minutes and told me to tell the insurance company it was there and he would take care of everything.

I rented a Jeep so now I have wheels and things are looking much brighter!!

After some serious thought I realized that all of this could have been so much worse
The lightning only damage THINGS--its just stuff--- my house didnt get hit...I didnt get hit--- nothing really bad happened-- I just lost a bunch of stuff that can be replaced.

The car accident also could have been worse-- if the car hadn't made that slight curve it might have gone into the house across the street.... I could have been seriously hurt or killed by it knocking me down...

So I am glad that I have put things in perspective and I feel much better about it all now.

Whew things have really been horrible for the last few weeks...Bev's passing, the lightning strike, and Suzie's Mom.....and on Monday July 23rd i had a most horrible day.

I went to install the UPS battery backup I had purchased when I bought the new computer but the software wasnt compatible with Microsoft Vista. So I went on line and wrote the tech dept of the UPS and they sent me a download link so I could install the software. IMMEDIATELY upon installation, the new computer crashed and wouldn't boot up at all!!!!!!!!!!!! I totally freaked out....I tried unplugging it but that didnt help so I called my son but couldn't get him at work or at home.

I didnt have a clue what to do but I knew this was serious and was terrified that the hard drive had crashed and I had lost everything again. The Acronis back up drive software wasnt compatible with Vista either so I didnt have the back up drive connected!
tother slight turn and ended up in my next door neighbors front yard where it stopped THANK GOD!!

I didn't realize the door was totally screwed until I managed to drive it back into my driveway... the door was so sprung it couldn't be closed and there were scratches on the passenger side where it had scraped the mailbox.

I WAS DEVASTED....I HAD WRECKED MY CAR!!!!

Called JP told him I wouldnt be coming to drum class(!) my son,Scott who still wasn't home, my next door neighbor to tell him that there were tire tracks in his lawn..he came right out and the tracks werent bad at all but I felt like I should tell him about them anyway. He was more concerned about me than his lawn. The mail box neighbor just moved in and I hadnt met him and he wasnt home so I left a note on his front door telling him to call me and I would pay for the damage(which again was minute)to his mailbox.

I was totally lost....no computer, no car...trying to get my brain to work to figure out what I had to do to report to insurance company.... it was just awful.

My son called later that night -- totally freaked that I had been hurt.... and was relieved to know I was ok. He couldn't come and check out the computer so we made plans for later in the week for him to come and take a look at it.

Computer less and car less --plus no TV!!! So I cleaned the garage!!!

It is hard to loose an old friend-- Bev passed away on Friday July 13th...

we had been friends for over 30 years and there is an emptiness in my heart that will take a long time to heal.

In the last couple years we had drifted apart due to a total misunderstanding on both our parts really...but it caused a rift that simply tore a major hole in our relationship.

She had fought a long, hard battle for over ten years with cancer...but it finally took over almost her entire body and there was no chance of recovery, or remission.

I got the call Saturday morning just as I was leaving to go drumming with JP. He had a job with a store in town that was having a big side walk sale and they wanted him to drum both Friday and Saturday....

I was the only other person he had asked to drum with him and I didn't feel comfortable not supporting him so I basically ran away from my sadness and spent the day in the unbearable heat,drumming.

Sunday my dear friend Suzie's 89 year old mother was rushed to the ER with heart problems. I didn't hesitate to get to the hospital as fast as I could..Mom is so dear to me and I knew the situation was grave. Her heart would simply stop beating for several seconds and then start again --it was very scary and each time it stopped beating we all weren't sure it would start again.

We spent several hours in the ER but there was finally a bed available for her on the floor so we made sure she was comfortable and stayed with her for another couple hours.

By the time I got home I was totally drained and exhausted both physically and emotionally.

Monday was the viewing for Bev at the funeral home...my son Scott was good enough to take me...it was very hard-- Bev was cremated but seeing all the pictures of her simply broke my heart and I realized just how empty my life had been without her presence the last couple years. Our misunderstanding seemed so damn stupid now...

There were tons of people at the funeral home-- old rugby friends I hadnt seen in ages.... it is weird how a death brings people together...

Tuesday was the funeral... I honestly didn't think I would make it through it. So many memories flooded over me....so many good times....she was always "there" for me-- I could ALWAYS count on her.... and now she's gone forever and I didnt even get to see her or tell her goodbye......