Monday Morning Musings
Posted on August 10, 2014 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet
We were hit by lightning. No kidding!
I was driving Betty around to yard sales on the weekend and ended up at a house in the country where this goat resided. This was not a farm. The yard had all kinds on interesting animals. As she tells me ( repeatedly! ), you never know who or what you are going to see when you’re on the hunt for stuff that other people are trying to get rid of.
We had a very interesting weekend as many of you know. Our house was hit by lightning late Friday afternoon. I was home at the time. You always see people being interviewed on television after some natural disaster and they have trouble finding the correct words to describe what they heard. Include me in those numbers. We’ve all heard loud thunderclaps, especially when they are nearby. Magnify this sound by a factor of 10 and it will give you some idea of the force of the hit to the house. The house shook. I shook. Truthfully, I was unaware that we had been hit until Betty arrived home from work.
You see, the lightning struck the upper reaches of the side of our house and knocked out power to that area alone. Had the power gone out downstairs, I would have been inclined to go looking. When Betty came through the back door, I knew something was wrong. There was concern ( alarm ) written all over her face. “We’ve been hit by lightning” she said. I registered a look of surprise and then went outside to see the mess in the yard and the gaping hole in our house. The arrival of the fire department certainly caused quite a stir in the neighborhood.
It’s not very often that a story just lands in your lap. I already have this one sketched out and believe it or not, there were some funny aspects to the whole affair. Once we realized that no one was hurt and that the property damage was not insurmountable, we found dark humour everywhere we turned. As you know, our house is for sale and we thought that we could add the line “air conditioned” to the description.
One of the interesting things about the lightning hit was that we lost internet, cable and telephone. With cellular devices, this is not a huge issue but it was still weird not being able to access services that we take for granted. It was particularly problematic for me with my writing as I was unable to post my Saturday story. We hope to be up and running with these services mid week.
So, my Saturday story, “Bugged” will appear tomorrow. I have a few others in the queue as well including the lightning story.
Thank you for all the messages of concern on the weekend … and the birthday wishes. From your responses, it is evident that natural disasters are more popular than birthdays! ( although some days, Betty considers me a natural disaster ).
I know what Betty wants for her next birthday: a firemen’s calendar! We were both extremely impressed with the response and professionalism of our local fire department.
Have a great week.
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