Surviving stormageddon online

Still without power 24 hours after a disastrous winter storm pummeled Pennsylvania, this photograph illustrates the challenges of bringing a Verizon cell phone signal to my house in the Monongahela River Valley.

I had to tape this fancy adapter with a mood light holding the broadband access device to the window in my front door at that exact location to stay connected. It's the only place in the house where the thing would work.

With all these candles in this room, I feel as if I am in a 1980s Sting music video. Meanwhile, the ironing board desk has no logical explanation, either.

Thank goodness I have some auxiliary heat in the form of a natural gas wall-mounted heater.