Dealing with hail and lightning storms

We had some really exciting weather here in Fish Springs in June and maybe we'll have more of it in July and August. I was most interested in the hail attack we had. We seldom get hail and it was fun to watch it bounce all over our yard. It knocked lots of the flowers off the purple robe locust tree and that made a beautiful purple carpet under the tree.

But we sure don't want the lightning along with the hail and the giant thunderstorm. Do you remember the torrential thunderstorm that was over 20 years ago? There was lots of flooding here in Fish Springs. Our house was hit by lightning one afternoon. It happened on a Tuesday in July and I saw it happen. I also felt it happen and smelled it happen and heard it really big time.

The white flash through my kitchen window was blinding. The concussion as it hit was deafening. The sound was louder than a shotgun blast in my ears. Our smoke-filled house smelled like ozone for a half-hour after it zapped us. It hit the highest point of our house, the peak of the roof on the second floor. There's an entrance and exit wound as it came down the metal corner wall in search of the ground. It blew two holes in the plaster wall. It fused the wires and turned on our forced-air furnace, even though it was turned off for the summer. It broke the telephones, they no longer rang.

It broke the controller in our active solar hot water system and it no longer worked. The receiver on our satellite system stopped receiving. The memory was erased from our computer and the VCR. All the digital clocks in the house suddenly stopped. A light mysteriously switched on in the garage, even though the garage is not attached to our home. My husband went out to turn it off and the electric garage door opener was suddenly inoperable. There were lots of weird electronic problems. We had voltage spike protectors on all these things, but I'm not sure they did any good. I figured it's our own fault for having such new-fangled gadgets in the house.

Now we've never had a problem since my husband installed about a dozen lightning rods on the roof of our two-story house, and that has worked very well all these years.

Don't forget the Fish Springs Volunteer Fire Department's annual spaghetti feed and dance 5:30 p.m. Sept. 12. All you can eat spaghetti and dancing to a live country western band. Cost is $8.

Linda Monohan may be reached at 782-5802.