One Heck Of A Storm

When I was growing up, mother dear always got into bed, pull the covers over her head, and would whimper/yell/cry from fear of thunder and lightning storms. When she was little, a lightning bolt hit near their home and the energy coursed through the house. My grandmother was sitting in the kitchen, where her feet happened to be on a strip of metal that held the linoleum in place. She was essentially hit by the strike and thankfully survived with minor burns.

The continuation of Mom's fears weren't completely unfounded. There were two houses in our development that were each struck twice. So much for lightning never striking the same place twice. Some in the neighborhood attached lightning rods to their houses as a preventative measure. My father rejected that idea reasoning that a lightning rod would attract the lightning.

Since that time, we haven't really had any storms like that. Our weather has been much milder since the time I grew up. Until this summer. We've been getting hit with whoppers, seemingly one right after the other. We had a terrible storm here on Friday as you can see by the video I took and posted below. I apologize for the sideways video as it is my "directorial debut" and I just wasn't thinking! Aside from the hail, most of which was pea size with some up to golf ball size, there was a lot of thunder and lightning.



After I took this, the hail was getting larger so I went out and brought the car into the garage. I was afraid of the lightning, and used an empty plastic pot to protect my head from the ice balls which were coming down so hard it was as if someone was above and throwing them down.

There were trees down all around the town. Powerful winds and lightning took their toll. In our yard, we had a lawn full of leaves knocked off the maple tree in the front. Mom was out AFTER DARK later that evening obsessively picking at the leaves.


So I went out early Saturday morning and raked the yard to remove her temptation. I haven't had the energy to rake the larger back lawn and she hasn't attempted to do it either. With any luck, the folks that mow the lawn will be here tomorrow and the whole kit and kaboodle will be bagged and toted away!
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