Somebody's watching out for me. Or else they're pissed at my neighbors.

At least if I believed in deities that would be my interpretation.

Last night we had one of our worst electrical storms ever. And that's saying something in an area that frequently clocks lightning strikes between 10K and 25K per hour.

I am usually the idiot out there trying to get footage of it, there is something so incredibly beautiful in nature's violence.

Last night was another story. My weather radios never blasted out a warning, which is unusual because they are constantly broadcasting whenever there's bad weather in the forecast.

I had both the front and back doors open because the breeze finally broke up the suffocating heat and I wanted to monitor the weather.

I lost the satellite signal.

Then my home phone.

My broadband was next, of course, and then the power went off.

I went out on the back porch to make sure my car wasn't parked under the big elm tree that's just waiting for a reason to come crashing down on it and the house.

My hair began to stand up and my blood ran cold because I knew what was next.

Lightning struck the house next door.

20 feet from where I stood.

My ears are still ringing - seriously.

I ran for the door and made it back inside just before it struck the nursing home storage building behind our house.

I was worried about my neighbor, she is on disability and lives alone, so I went out on the front porch (I know-stupid) but she had run out of her house and I wanted to tell her to get inside or bring her into my house if hers was on fire.

I felt my hair begin to stand up and sure enough, it hit again, a direct strike on the house across the street.
This one x-rayed my eyeballs.

I screamed at my neighbor to get in her house or her truck if she could get to it.

Lightning repeatedly struck our neighborhood, there was at most a one second delay between the flash and the KA-BOOM, I could even smell the ozone in the air because I was too chicken shit to approach the front door in order to close it.

It was terrifying, and the storm wasn't moving away like they usually do after 5 or 10 minutes.

Now remember I love storms - I've got pictures of funnel clouds, multiple lightning strikes, wall clouds, floods, lots of hail and a really neat video of my tripod being hurled 20 feet through the air by straight line winds. I always grab my Panny when I hear thunder.

But I was so freaked out this time, I forgot all about my camera.

I called bbf in Tennessee just to hear a comforting voice (again- stupid of me, and selfish, he worried about me all night since he couldn't make it home) and kept him on the phone for the next 15 minutes while the storm raged all around me. I still can't believe I had cell phone reception.

I stayed inside until I saw the fire trucks pull up next door. I went over to my neighbor's house and she was scared to death. She had water coming in through her fuse box and the entire back wall was hot to the touch. My neighbors across the street joined us on the porch while the firemen checked out both houses. My neighbor on the other side came running over to see if we were all right, she was really shaken since the last storm took down a huge tree in her backyard and it fell 6 inches short of her roof.

Long story short, lightning struck all around my house but never got me.

Nor did it hit my neighbor on the west side.

They are jewish and you all know what I am.

God certainly has some poor aim. Guess he's been hitting the sauce a little too much lately. :evilgrin:

Every time I heard a lightning strike I heard KA-BOOM while the electricians heard KA-CHING!

was just trying to scare you back into line...he sensed the good in you and thought you could be turned from the dark side...

Yep, that's him all right.

God basically let his whole family get whacked just to try to win a bet...

who needs gods to fear when nature can scare the excrement out of you! ;)

I've never been that close to a strike, must've indeed been scary, glad you and no one else was hurt.

It sure got my adrenaline pumping.
My cat Beaker hides under the bed during storms, I felt like joining him last night.

(I can't believe I wrote that. I'm horrible.)

And I say that with much love and affection. :hug:

:hug: :loveya: