Lightning struck! Our tree! It blew the plastic coating off the kiddy swing. It blew a hole in the ground. It hit our electrical lines. It set off our electric smoke detectors. It flipped the circuits in the kitchen, and blew out our tenant's TV and DVD player. Thankfully, we all survived unscathed.
There has always been tension in my relationship with Bill re: my tendency toward hypervigilance (car seats, smoke detectors, stray balloons, diving into murky water). We had just come back from a 5-day stay in the Finger Lakes region of NY. It was quite clear that we were at the epicenter of a raging thunderstorm. Bill and the kids were taking their time getting into the house, but I of course was totally freaked and hunched over and shoving madly to get inside and close the door. As I literally shoved him out the way, Bill snapped at me to chill out in serious irritation at my supposedly irrational behavior. He tried to go out to fetch more luggage from the car. "Are you INSANE?" I shouted. I won out, but there remained much tension at my general level of hysteria. Then about 5 minutes later, as I busied myself about the house and tried to appear calm, IT struck.
And I was vindicated. For now and all eternity.
There was a huge flash and immediate boom. Amazingly, the kids didn't cry or freak out, probably because there were several extremely close strikes leading up to the big one. The smoke detectors went off, and Amy came down looking dazed and confused, and the fire department couldn't tell me how to turn off the beeping, and we sort of stumbled around each other wondering if the house was on fire and how to turn off that awful noise.
I think maybe over the next several months, we will all develop superpowers.
Click on the thumbnails for a better view of the wrath.
from the photo, i can see no apparent impact on the swingset -- must not have been that bad
Posted by: Bill | June 28, 2005 at 09:40 AM
OMG! I do think of you as the most lightning-vigilant person I know - and you ARE vindicated!
alerted to this post via bill at facebook,
caroline
Posted by: Caroline | September 22, 2008 at 12:57 PM