Most of us, though not all, have had our share of lots of rain, storms and or tornadoes. One or the other and combinations too. We have been fortunate this season in that we have not had tornadoes in our area. We did, however, have a couple of serious thunderstorms! One which blew through at about 2:30 AM.
Like the earthquakes in California, I have also become conditioned to harsh, booming thunder, that shakes the house and makes the windows rattle. Upon occasion, I have even witnessed it hit the ground or fire huge snapping thunder bolts into the pine woods behind our house.
This particular storm was different in that I was awake and bumbling about in the kitchen and dining area at that wee hour of the morning. I heard the storm, but wasn’t concerned until it BOOMED right outside our dinning room windows! On the tail of the boom, there was an almost immediate explosion over the kitchen sink! One of the overhead sink lights was gone out. Just one, but it sounded like an M80 when it went, and right as I was walking by the sink. I shrieked of course, and then quickly ran to the dining room door to turn on the backyard flood lights. Nothing happened. I tried the dinning room lights. Nothing.
Bob came in and checked the breaker box and found the thrown breaker. Resetting it fixed the problem. Crisis averted I thought, but no…
Later that day we tried to turn on the television in the dinning room and it wouldn’t turn on. Bob checked the breaker box and nothing else had been tripped. “Strange”, he said.
Further investigation revealed that the signal booster, television, cables into the TV and out of the TV and into the computer that provided the feed to the TV, and ultimately the computer itself, were all fried! Later we would find out that the standing TV antenna out by the corner of the house had been hit.
That is what acted as a lightning rod and fed the electricity into the house via the coaxial and into all our equipment. And, most thankfully, not our house.
Just like this
The bold black line is the path of the coaxial from the TV antenna to the computer
I also discovered in the morning, that a monster oak in the neighbors pasture had taken a direct hit too!
LOL! I never noticed until this moment how much of an accent I have picked up after 16 years in Alabama. No doubt some of my Cali friends will get a big laugh out of this.
And then this week we have discovered that one of the flood lights was toasted at the base as well. Only one, not both, though both are in the same fixture.
What else may we find as time goes by? Hopefully that was all of it.
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Over then next few weeks I would like to catch you up on what other things have been going on here. Some within the last year and some even longer into the past. Title form will look something like this: RE (whatever): so this is what happened (some time frame from the past).
Life on the Farmlet 
Lightning strikes are no fun, even when damage is minimal. I live next to a marina, and those tall, metal masts are occasionally struck. When it happens, fried electronics are a common result. It’s odd that only one of your floodlights was toasted, but life’s full of mysteries. Here’s to a storm-free spring!
Hi Linda, yes please, a storm free spring would be great. I could just imagine watching those masts catching lightning! Scary. As for the floodlight, Bob said it had something to do with them being in line, so the first in line fried and then popped the circuit before the other one could get fried too. Sorry to write back so late, but I’ve had much “two handed work” to do before this Friday, and I still won’t get it all done before then. You may recall I had surgery on my left hand several years back. Well, same surgery, other hand this time. At least I know what to expect, but a whole month with only one hand is a setback to be sure. Guess I should be glad it’s only temporary.
Sorry! Living in Oklahoma I do understand. I check the expected weather for the week just now before I read email. Conditions rule here until about June 1 when we get stability—and heat.
Have a better week!!!
LOL, Don’t be sorry, I did have a better week, and thank you! 😀
adventure after another and I continue to remember you in prayer
love always for all y’all
🤠♥️
Dear Someone, thank you for your prayers. Would you consider sending me a message through my Contact button above? I would love to know who you are! Thank you. 🙂
We got struck by lightning once. The bang was terrific too but it only melted our telephone and the fuse in the storage heater it was standing on, so we got off lightly.
I’m sorry I missed this, Tom. Been on Vacation and back again, and now prepping for a second hand surgery… Lots to do NOW, because after Friday I will not be able to use my right hand for a month! At least I know what to expect as I had the same surgery on the left hand several years ago. 😛
Oh, I know that kind of thunderstorm! I have a friend who lived on a remote rural property. Their house was once struck hard, and the electric oven *blew itself out of the wall* and even the tiny trickle of power that went to the house phone made it jump off the bench. Nature is not to be messed with. I’m so sorry you have all this damage, and I hope you’ll be able to get it fixed soon.
Good Heavens! Except for the light bulb in the lamp above the kitchen sink ours was very quiet and stealthy. There was no indication of the damage to the electronics or the outside spot light until we tried to use them. As for fixing the damaged items, well the bulbs were replaced, but the TV, TV Antenna, and the computer will not be repaired. They are toast! Literally, now that I mentioned it and think about it. LOL! We are fortunate to have stand ins to replace our “breakfast news” telly screen and computer feed. 😉
You were ‘relatively’ lucky then! We have an induction hob – that was toasted by a storm. We now switch off various circuits during fun and games.
Probably a good idea, although I wouldn’t have a clue which breakers to turn off here… We should consider it and work out the details. Thanks!