Normal. Or what passes for it around here.

After several days, the situation at the house has improved.

We're now to the point where there's just a hole in the roof.

And, yes, that's an improvement.

The tree is still down in the back yard. Or what's left of the tree after getting it cut up to get it off the roof.

The phone line is still down. Oh, the phone works. Mostly. Touch tone doesn't work, for instance. Pulse dialing does, as do incoming calls.

And the DSL works. Mostly. Download speed is supposed to be 6 Mbps. It's 3.5 Mbps, which is on the low end of what passes for acceptable. Normal for here is between 5 and 6 Mbps.

But, like I said, the phone line is down. On the ground. It runs from the house, across the yard, to the road, across the road on the asphalt, and to the pole on the other side of the road. We still have Internet access, though. For now.

The cable is still down. Oh, we are picking up the channels on the TV and TiVo. But the cable is down. It runs from the side of the house, across the ground, until about half-way to the road, where it droops from the other lines running across the yard.

But, we have power.

The electrician got the box on the wall yesterday. And the building inspector signed off on the work today. The power company reconnected the house and got power back to us late this afternoon.

Still waiting on the insurance company to send someone by. But the delay isn't entirely their fault. So, I'm trying to be patient.

Hope to hear from them soon. The cable folks said they'd have a man by Thursday to fix the cable. The phone company said they'd have the line fixed by Monday upcoming. And, yes, they know the line is laying on the road.

So, the good news is that 5 days after the storm, there's a hole in the roof, we haven't heard from the insurance company, the phone line is laying on the road, and the cable is down.

Yes, that's the good news.

That sums up what kind of week it's been.