Lightning strike

[KBCraig]

I was just getting settled in good at work today when Mary called. Lightning hit our house. It actually hit our favorite oak tree, right outside the kitchen window, and also jumped to the roof of the house and blew some shingles off.

I called the insurance company and got the claim started, then arranged to leave work to check out the damage.

The roof damage doesn't look bad, but I haven't been up there to test the decking.

The tree will have to go. Dammit, it's my favorite tree, and it shades the kitchen. It's standing, but the upper sections are split and fairly well exploded. We found one piece of bark about 40 yards away. It will provide plenty of firewood.

The living room entertainment center sits against an outside wall, about 15' from the base of the tree. Our new (9 months old) 47" flat screen is toast. The AppleTV is toast. The DVD  player (an older DVD/VCR combo) is toast. The business phone is toast. Our router is toast. The stereo in the travel trailer is toast.

Back in the master bedroom, the DirecTV receiver is toast, although everything else is fine. And funny thing: the DirecTiVo connected to the living room TV is just fine. Our bedroom smelled like ozone for 3-4 hours.

No one was hurt, but Mary had tingly hands for an hour or so.

We went to the store and bought a new router and phone. All the computers seem fine. The DSL modem reset, so I did have to go through the setup process again, and Cisco's consumer router products suck at setup. Seriously, Cisco: I don't need or want to install all your crap. Just let me connect to 192.168.1.1, and I'll configure it myself! But, nooooooooo!

[Jim Johnson]

I'm glad no one was injured.

[Becky Thatcher]

Damn.  Shame about the oak tree but glad you are all okay. Poor Mary...that must have been scary as hell for her.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Were you planning on bringing the Oak tree when you moved?

[KBCraig]

Were you planning on bringing the Oak tree when you moved?

Nope, but I was hoping to get more money for a house with a nicely shaded kitchen.

[Tom Sawyer]

My brothers family's place burnt and was gutted in a matter of minutes from a lightning strike. The room his wife had just, 10 minutes before, been sleeping in took the hit.

Sorry for the loss of the large tree, can't get replacement value on that.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Once a bolt of lightning missed the house in which I was in the middle, or what should have been the middle of a nookie session, damaged a big spruce and knocked out a piece of  the upper plate of  our garage where it went into the cement floor a foot and a half from can of gas. 
At first attributed the Dynamite sized blast to....you know, but soon realized it was across the yard.

[Jim Johnson]

It is at times such as these, that we should reflect upon God's intentions, and remember the parable of 'the persist, the nun and the golf outing'.

In which case, I would ask your neighbor what he's been up to.