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It's the whole dang state!
I'm talking three different houses now. Maybe it's following me. My husband actually opens the window shades so he can watch the lightning storms. I'll hover in an inside room with the pets and son, thanks.
I always thought I'd move far away from Maryland when I grew up. Now, my whole family is here, and I can't leave them. I've been working on a mystery, set in Maryland, very speckled with the characters in my birth neighborhood. Oddly, the stuff that really annoyed me about the place is totally endearing to me now.
I still live on the opposite side of town though, hon. :)
posted by
terpgirl30
on July 17, 2005 at 6:18 PM
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lightnine freaks me out.
You ought to just get rid of that lemon fridge and get a different one--you'd come out ahead in the long run!
posted by
Julia.
on July 17, 2005 at 6:00 PM
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It was supposed to happen again today.
And this isn't as bad as my old house. We built a mini estate in a very posh section of an old community. One day the mailman came by and made a reference to the fact that we were living in the lightning belt of Howard County. Everyone seemed to know that but us. Sure enough, with every storm there was a major problem, and we were on well water so that's always fun when you lose your electric.
My son was just 4 and we had a huge storm. I was on the phone, and you heard it crack through the line. We actually have that urban myth relative who was killed by lightning while talking on the phone, so I dropped it. The kids were shrieking. What we heard was a bolt hitting our next door neighbor's house, cracking the fireplace in half. We were on three acres, so it's a good run, both of my cars had died just that die, so I was going to try to make it to her house. Each child had me by a leg, screaming I was going to die. The lady had 3 dogs, and I didn't think anyone was home, and I wanted to break in and let them loose. Luckily, the lady was there. The house was totally gone. If you live in the country and you have a fire, forget it, it's gone.
Not too long after that I saw a little ball of fire travel through my family room carpet and blow out tv's, the satellite dish and whatever was in the line. We didn't know it then, but we moved into the one piece of property that didn't have covenants, so we went ahead and got a rooftop antennae much to our neighbors' aggravation. It turns out the thing served as a lightning rod. It would hit that, then travel to the ground. I'd rather blow up the tvs than have my house burn down.
At yet another house in the same county, when I was very pregnant, a lightning bolt hit the ex's grandparents' barn full of hay. There was a steer in the barn with some newborn kittens. Well, I didn't know it then, but I know it now, cows don't care if they are surrounded by fire. They don't want to leave. I was trying to drag this animal out of the barn, lightning cracking all around me...Now tell me what I thought I was going to do with this steer (Joe)? Popa had just filled that barn with all the hay the day before. It was pretty sad. He cried since he was getting older and losing bits of his farm anyway. It was just one more thing. They had to bulldoze and bury it.
Needless to say, I'm petrified of lightning.
posted by
terpgirl30
on July 17, 2005 at 1:24 PM
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Terp, Sounds rough. I'm still resetting circuit breakers and such from
yesterday and the day before. This place is almost as bad as the lightning in Florida. So far I haven't lost the tv's or cable or pc's, but on the average I lose 1 a year. Good luck and watch the skies.
posted by
I-R-William
on July 17, 2005 at 11:27 AM
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