Tuesday, July 04, 2006

It scared the bajeezus out of me

So Carolyn and I are hanging out at the dining room table last night when...

Blammo.

Holy crap. The backyard is sparking and I think, "Oh my God. The tree was hit by lightening and is going to fall on top of the house.

In a confused state of hysteria, I grab Carolyn and run into the basement. I try to flip on the lights, which of course are out, and I stand there, listening for the thump of the huge tree in our backyard hitting our roof.

Carolyn: "It's dark."

Yeah, OK. Stay here, I tell her.

I run upstairs and hear Carolyn again, "It's dark."

I can't leave her in a pitch dark basement by herself. I wouldn't want to be down there by myself.

So I bring her upstairs and see a neighbor looking up at the tree, but he's not panicking so I think it's probably OK.

I see a bunch of stuff by our neighbor's tree and realize it was them, not us, who were ambushed by the storm.

At this point, it's pouring. The fire department comes and we watch from the doorway, but not too close.

Turns out, Ron and Rita's house was hit. The bolt traveled down their tree, through its roots, up their gutter and into their fuse box. The wood seat on their swing was blown to bits by the bolt, with most of it landing in our yard.

I was totally freaked out. Carolyn? She only cried when the firemen left. Penny slept through the whole thing.

It took me about two and a half hours to finally calm down, aka sleep. My heightened fears caused me to become afraid of stupid things, like Ron coming to my door to see if my electricity had returned, or my going into the dark and spooky basement to get candles. What did I think; the ghosts would finally make themselves known during a scary thunderstorm?

That was plenty of excitement for us. Who needs fireworks?

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