We're alive! And happy to be so. We were struck by lightening. Or, to be more accurate - Dad and the house were struck. The neat parts?
1. We have a very cool hole in the roof. It is similar to a large bullet wound. Smaller at the entry point, bigger at the exit (from the attics perspective). The song, "There's a Hole in my Bucket, Dear Liza -Dear Liza" will NOT leave my head because of it.
2. Our mirrors -in your kids' bathrooms - have burn marks. How does glass look burned you ask? I don't know how to explain it. But they are burned. Pals has a cool jagged crack throughout it that looks suspiciously like lightening. That wall (where his mirror is) sits right where the lightening rod cord runs down the house and into the ground. He doesn't want to replace it. He wants to keep it that way to show friends. I'm glad. I'm nervous to take it down and find yet another problem that needs fixed behind it. Ignorance is bliss. And it's a very good thing that none of you kids are in the habit of brushing your teeth at night, ;) or are overly concerned about hygiene in general, because if any of you had been washing your hands at the time you'd be toast. Mirrors may look cool burnt, but people not so much.
3. Dad can truly say he's had high voltage go through him and lived to tell the tale.
Dad was sitting at the computer, Maddie was in the kitchen, Jesse and I were at R.S., Calder in the living room, Kate huddled in the entry way, and Hy and Pal... ? when it happened. Usually we unplug all of our computers during a bad thunderstorm, but this one hadn't kicked in too hard yet. Maddie's main memory of the event was that suddenly all of the windows went white with bright light. Every window. She said she felt she was in the middle of an atom bomb. Calder's main memory was the sound. He said it hurt your head it was so loud. Kate's main memory was wiped out, as I'm pretty sure she fainted AND emptied her bowels. Dad almost followed in Kate's footsteps. The volt went through the mouse, into his arm, down his body, and out his privates. I thought that little piece of information was funny. Not to be crude by dwelling on it, but don't you think it interesting that it didn't go down a leg and into the ground? I tease him that it took the shortest route out. Hahahaha. I still giggle thinking about it. But, moving on - Dad couldn't move for a bit. Then he tingled from head to toe all night. It shook him up. And, I'm fairly certain that if his heart had any middle age blockage, it's probably been blasted free and his ticker is good for another 40 years or so. That's a pretty cheap bypass if you ask me. He was praising Benjamin Franklin and the invention of the lightening rod quite vociferously when I came home. Thanks to it (which by the way, once the bolt traveled down the lightening rod's path and into the ground it blew a plate size hole in the ground uncovering the rod), and the surge protector he is still alive -albeit tingly. And I try not to let that worry me. I like to think on the positive side and imagine it will have more of a Hulk, or Mr. Bionic effect -Ande even mentioned perhaps a Harry Potter effect- then say a James Otis one (remember the Founding Father struck in his doorway who was never quite the same in the head afterwards?). Dad's only fear is that if he were ever to father another child that it would come out with three heads. Fortunately, no children are planned at this time to suffer that fate. But as for the rest? Only time will tell...
Dad blames me. The day before we had a Living Scripture salesman come to the door. I told him I hated the New Testament and wasn't interested (it sounds worse that it was.) Dad mentioned at the time that he thought I should be struck down for that. Apparently the Jokes on him...
Now for the not so fun part - dealing with after effects.
Did you know that electric volts have a delayed reaction to some of your appliances? Up to a month! (The washer, dryer, and refrigerator have now been added to our prayers - second only to blessing you two in the field.) We're seeing the beginnings of this slow death already. It took out the t.v. the day after. It took out the phones and wiring. It took out the electricity/wiring to parts of the house. And worst of all the air conditioner/heater took a direct hit. Or we think it did- as it's right under the hole in the roof. We're still waiting on the electrician to make the final call. MAYBE it was spared, and just the wiring to the monitor is gone. But he hasn't shown up yet to tell us definitively. Which means we can't call the air conditioner repairman yet.... (The electrician is still dealing with the homes that were taken out in the freak tornado that ripped through Calera two days before.) So we sit. And wait. And roast. And sometimes we grumble. (Because when we are roasting we can only remember how much money this will all take to repair, and not that we were blessed by being spared from fire, ....or say.... death.) But what's money, right? And, since we're scheduled for some doozey thunderstorms during the next three days, maybe it's yet another blessing in disguise. Maybe we'd just be hit again by another strike and all the repairs would be for naught. But after MONDAY, if the electrician STILL hasn't shown up, I'm quitting the Pollyanna attitude for good.
And that's where we are as of this moment. Don't worry about the hole and the upcoming rain- Dad and Calders ingenious solution was to put a rubber floor mat over it until he gets time off. Hmm. Kind of sounds J.Otis-y doesn't it....
Dad came home with another story to make me laugh last night. He knows he has to have some good ones for me at times like this, and this one did not disappoint -
A rancher called in at closing last night to say he had a cow that was struck by lightening "or something". He didn't really want to admit what else the 'something' might be. And Dr. Hardy assumed, since he was calling for help, that it was still alive and asked if the client could bring it in. The rancher said, "I can't. It's dead. ....but it's eye still looks alive!" It was kind of freaking the said rancher out. Dr. Hardy said, "Sooooo, do you want a necropsy?" "NO! NO! NO!", he did not want a necropsy under any circumstances. That would require cutting it open, and that in turn may release something disastrous that could quite possibly infect all of Red River County. He and his son had gotten violently ill just by being near it, they didn't think cutting into it was a good idea. The man was VERY concerned that something unearthly was inside of it. Dr. Hardy just kind of said, 'Uhhhh...." and waited. The rancher decided he would just like Dr. Hardy to come out and 'look' at it to see what his professional opinion of the 'live eye' was. He also asked if he was aware of all the blue lights that had flashed in the sky the night before. (And apparently there were many calls to the police station by different people about said blue lights) So, what would you do?? I anxiously await the ending of the story as well, as this didn't happen until closing and Dad was on his way out the door. Kind of a cliff hanger, isn't it? Truly just the kind of story I need to take my mind off of my own mayhem and disaster of the moment. (And I don't dare laugh - remember Jesse, Maddie, Pal and I saw our own weird blue light just over a month ago- and who's to say 'never'? Nobody thought we'd be struck by lightening either!)
Alright then, until I have more news- your loving and ALIVE father says 'hello' -
Love,
Mom
