Frightening Lightning!

I've had a few people comment to me that our lives are nothing like boring, and that I need to post on a regular basis because something weird/crazy/exciting/unexpected is always happening at the Montierth home.  I don't know that that's true because it just seems like "life" to me, but on account of their requests I'm going to try to find something interesting to blog about on a more regular basis.  Having said that, I must admit that we did have a rather "exciting" occurrence last week. 

We've been very blessed with heavy monsoon rains for the past two weeks.  It has been wonderful for our garden, as we've seen our corn stalks grow at least two feet!  Amazing!  However, there's got to be opposition in all things and with monsoon rains comes frightening lightning!

Last summer we received an indirect hit, but it was enough to blow out our phones.  This year has been no different.  Last Monday, as I was standing in our laundry room, I felt a tremendous shock wave hit my legs at the same time there was an extremely loud thunder boom.  My heart pounded as I yelled for Kate and Eliza to see if they were okay.  Remembering last symmer's experience, I quickly unplugged the phones, only to find out later that I was too late!  There was a faint electric fire smell and the computer I had been working on only moments before was black.  I couldn't get it to come up.  We all ran outside in the downpour, looking for smoke coming from our roof.  To my relief (and VERY much to Kate's!), I didn't see any.  I frantically called Lehi at work to see what he thought.  I realized shortly thereafter that he wouldn't know because he wasn't here!  As the storm subsided, we began to realize the damage that had been done.  We had lost one computer completely (the one I had been working on); the other one received damage, but it looks like it might be repairable (with a hubby that's computer literate and some new parts); and our phones were gone.  When the phone repairman came a couple of days later, he found phone jacks blown completely apart and many, many wires fried!  He left, telling me, "This is one of the worst ones I've seen in a while."

Needless to say, I've learned that when thunder starts booming and lightning starts crashing I start unplugging and praying!  I am NOT a fan of lightning anymore!  It's fascinating and it can be beautiful--but, only from a distance--like maybe on TV!