Thunder & Lightening

Heaven: Where thunder will always rumble nicely in the distance.
Hell: Where thunder horrifically crashes nearly simultaneously upon seeing the flash of lightening.

Today: a 30 minute exercise in trusting God despite fear.

Yikes, that was close! I'll be checking the woods to the south of us for smoke for a couple days. But it sure has brought a nice cool breeze in the aftermath. The temperatures dropped a good 20 degrees. My neighbor noted a 30 degree drop on his thermometer.

I have a lightening story for you. But first, here's a little background. When we were building our house, once we came into July, the monsoons came and we could set our watch by the daily rain. We'd get up around 6:00 a.m. and start working. Every day around 1:00 p.m. it would start to rain. We planned our work and rest by it. We'd head inside the antique mobile home we were living in, fix some lunch and then usually take a nap. (It's hard work building your own house. Especially when there's just two of you.) Around 4:00 we'd head back out to work some more, usually quitting around 7:00 or so. That summer, I think we lived off ham sandwiches for lunch and cheese crisps for dinner. We were exhausted. We got hooked up with satellite early on. We didn't have a phone or running water, but we had satellite. In the evening we'd put gas in the generator and watch some news and then a movie, often having to stop mid-way to refill the inexpensive generator.

As construction advanced, we began taking our afternoon siesta in the basement where it remained a nice 65 degrees. At first we had to climb down a ladder, before The Fisherman built the stairs. We even hauled the dogs down with us. One afternoon the rains brought a thunderstorm right over us. We were all asleep when we heard the LOUDEST crash of thunder either of us had ever heard. Waking from a sound sleep, we were disoriented and totally freaked out. It was so loud The Fisherman actually thought a plane had crashed into our house.

Months later we had gotten to know our neighbors who are both teachers and spent their summers at their cabin to the west of us. Great people. We were over at their house for dinner one night, it must have been that Fall, and we got to talking about lightening. Fred said, "Boy, there was one strike last summer that I was just sure had to have hit your house! I watched it and, man, it looked like it was close! Right where your house is!" Oh yeah? We remember that one, too.

So, I'm thinkin' our house has been hit by lightening. Once is enough, thank you. Today was the next closest I've experienced here. Let me just say: I. Don't. Like it!