Big Ba-Da-Boom
Well, we are moved. The majority of stuff was moved last Sunday, and I spent afternoons all week cleaning the old place and transporting odds and ends. Yesterday, with the help of Oona and her mom we finished off the cleaning and moving, leaving the place cleaner than we got it; then returned the keys. So glad to be done with the place.
While we were out, we missed some excitement at our new home. Thursday and Friday both had intermittent rain and thunder storms. I had just barely noticed the big fir tree by our new house, and really hadn't paid much mind to the fact that it's quite a bit taller than anything else around. Or it was taller I should say. Today, what remained of it is being cut down after it got pretty badly damaged when it was hit by lightning yesterday.
No one was hurt, and amazingly no damage was done to our house or our neighbors. There are branches and chunks of tree blown clear across the property, but I haven't seen any signs that they hit anything that mattered. My mother just about had a heart attack I think though, and hours later when we got home she was still shaken up. Not so much by being so close to a lightning strike, as she was at our house painting doors and watching the baby, but more by the bad timing of the strike which put her into a state of sheer terror.
She just happened to have walked outside, just run out to her car in the driveway on the far side of the house. Cadence was sleeping in our bedroom at the front corner of the house and it seemed safe to leave her for just a brief moment. But, of course, in the few moments she was outside, she heard a loud clap of thunder, thought to herself how close it sounded, and then, BLAMMO! the next lightning strike came and blew the tree to bits. I can't even imagine what that looked, sounded, and felt like to be so close. She didn't stay in shock long though, as all she could see was the tree spraying bits and parts falling off and knowing that it was over by the front bedroom where the baby was sleeping. As the neighbors tell it, she took off running, probably faster than I've ever seen her move, yelling "the baby, the baby's in that room!"
Luckily, the house and the front room were undamaged, the baby was amazingly still sound asleep. The neighbor came knocking on the door to tell them the tree was now on fire, and they all vacated the house and went to hang out next door while emergency and news crews converged.
I can only imagine how rattled she was for hours afterwards, to go through that moment of terror and fear over your baby child's, or grandchild's safety would be enough to totally whack your system with adrenaline.
Anyhow, all is well. We had people stopping in the middle of the road and standing outside our house until it got dark, all to look at the tree and snap pictures. The tree will soon be gone and life will return to normal.
And apparently, the tree got hit once before, some 15 years ago or so. So, lightning can indeed strike the same spot twice, but eventually it will probably blow that spot so much to bits that it will have to be removed.
Anyhow, it made the front page of the city/region section of the paper today, a picture and blurb that can be found right here
Ju Ju:: Mouse On Mars:: Autoditacker
While we were out, we missed some excitement at our new home. Thursday and Friday both had intermittent rain and thunder storms. I had just barely noticed the big fir tree by our new house, and really hadn't paid much mind to the fact that it's quite a bit taller than anything else around. Or it was taller I should say. Today, what remained of it is being cut down after it got pretty badly damaged when it was hit by lightning yesterday.
No one was hurt, and amazingly no damage was done to our house or our neighbors. There are branches and chunks of tree blown clear across the property, but I haven't seen any signs that they hit anything that mattered. My mother just about had a heart attack I think though, and hours later when we got home she was still shaken up. Not so much by being so close to a lightning strike, as she was at our house painting doors and watching the baby, but more by the bad timing of the strike which put her into a state of sheer terror.
She just happened to have walked outside, just run out to her car in the driveway on the far side of the house. Cadence was sleeping in our bedroom at the front corner of the house and it seemed safe to leave her for just a brief moment. But, of course, in the few moments she was outside, she heard a loud clap of thunder, thought to herself how close it sounded, and then, BLAMMO! the next lightning strike came and blew the tree to bits. I can't even imagine what that looked, sounded, and felt like to be so close. She didn't stay in shock long though, as all she could see was the tree spraying bits and parts falling off and knowing that it was over by the front bedroom where the baby was sleeping. As the neighbors tell it, she took off running, probably faster than I've ever seen her move, yelling "the baby, the baby's in that room!"
Luckily, the house and the front room were undamaged, the baby was amazingly still sound asleep. The neighbor came knocking on the door to tell them the tree was now on fire, and they all vacated the house and went to hang out next door while emergency and news crews converged.
I can only imagine how rattled she was for hours afterwards, to go through that moment of terror and fear over your baby child's, or grandchild's safety would be enough to totally whack your system with adrenaline.
Anyhow, all is well. We had people stopping in the middle of the road and standing outside our house until it got dark, all to look at the tree and snap pictures. The tree will soon be gone and life will return to normal.
And apparently, the tree got hit once before, some 15 years ago or so. So, lightning can indeed strike the same spot twice, but eventually it will probably blow that spot so much to bits that it will have to be removed.
Anyhow, it made the front page of the city/region section of the paper today, a picture and blurb that can be found right here
Ju Ju:: Mouse On Mars:: Autoditacker