A couple of nights ago a major thunderstorm rolled in after we had fallen asleep. Several thunderclaps rattled my senses. Even worse, a bolt of lightning must have hit close to a phone line as a surge of electricity knocked out the base station of our cordless phone, the modem in my PC and the router that connects all of our computers. Luckily the computers themselves were not damaged from what I can tell; but I was forced to go out and buy a new modem. We will also do without a router for a while.
At this point we have an old stand-by phone hooked up to answer calls, but we do not have an extra answering machine. For that matter, the phone is hooked up downstairs in the kitchen, so we may not even hear it if we are upstairs.
Please be patient if you are trying to get a hold of us.