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Well, that was exciting
May. 13th, 2007 09:01 amLast night we were in the family room, watching the Return of the King on television and checking emails. A thunderstorm brewed rapidly, and I shut down the computer. I was standing next to the computer, looking at the TV, when lightning struck very close by.
Instead of a flash and then a boom, it was a flash-boom, followed by the aroma of burned wood. We jumped into action, fearing a strike on the house -- which in retrospect was silly, as the lights would have blown if we'd taken a direct hit. As it turned out, the tree next to our house -- not more than 15 feet (5 meters) from where I was standing -- was struck, and you can now see the track of the electricity down the trunk. This tree is on the property line, and both yards are littered with bits of bark that exploded off the tree. We didn't know this at the time, as the rain was quite heavy and the lightning was still quite fierce. I won't admit I went outside in a dangerous storm with a flashlight just to check the surroundings. Nope.
Some of that bark struck the window in the upstairs bathroom, leaving a nice big hole. It's a non-standard size window which means extra $$ to repair. We found this out when sonny boy broke it a while back. At least it broke only one pane, and didn't leave us open to the elements as the inner window was untouched. We didn't know about this until after The Boy came down this morning to tell us.
The strike also tripped one circuit breaker, shutting down a fan and a light. It also seems to have fried our answering machine, which is in the family room and was physically closer to the strike than I was (by a few inches).
ETA A light bulb blew in the basement, and our DVD player was fried. Strangeness abounds. Such are the vagaries of electricity.
( A few photos )
It was one of those sudden violent storms that surprise everyone. It was a big surprise here, all right. :-)
And on a lighter note, Happy Mother's Day to all mothers, grandmothers, aunties, sisters, daughters and other loving rellies. This is our first Official Mother's Day, as mothers, so I'm sure we will celebrate by having a nice quiet brunch at home. As per usual.
Instead of a flash and then a boom, it was a flash-boom, followed by the aroma of burned wood. We jumped into action, fearing a strike on the house -- which in retrospect was silly, as the lights would have blown if we'd taken a direct hit. As it turned out, the tree next to our house -- not more than 15 feet (5 meters) from where I was standing -- was struck, and you can now see the track of the electricity down the trunk. This tree is on the property line, and both yards are littered with bits of bark that exploded off the tree. We didn't know this at the time, as the rain was quite heavy and the lightning was still quite fierce. I won't admit I went outside in a dangerous storm with a flashlight just to check the surroundings. Nope.
Some of that bark struck the window in the upstairs bathroom, leaving a nice big hole. It's a non-standard size window which means extra $$ to repair. We found this out when sonny boy broke it a while back. At least it broke only one pane, and didn't leave us open to the elements as the inner window was untouched. We didn't know about this until after The Boy came down this morning to tell us.
The strike also tripped one circuit breaker, shutting down a fan and a light. It also seems to have fried our answering machine, which is in the family room and was physically closer to the strike than I was (by a few inches).
ETA A light bulb blew in the basement, and our DVD player was fried. Strangeness abounds. Such are the vagaries of electricity.
( A few photos )
It was one of those sudden violent storms that surprise everyone. It was a big surprise here, all right. :-)
And on a lighter note, Happy Mother's Day to all mothers, grandmothers, aunties, sisters, daughters and other loving rellies. This is our first Official Mother's Day, as mothers, so I'm sure we will celebrate by having a nice quiet brunch at home. As per usual.
