A Shocking Night!

Friday the 15th we awoke to quite a shock!  Around 12:30 am we were struck by lightning.  Though it was some time before we knew where we were hit, the damage had already been done.  Outside our bedroom window (not more than eight feet from where we lay our heads), the TV antenna, affixed to a long pole, was struck by lightning.  The impact of lightning and thunder with no seconds between them will cause a person to sit up in bed with a bit of heart-thudding.

I was warm in bed and quite asleep when it happened, so my reflex was to pull the covers back up and listen for Tom's movements and updates.  He jumped up with a flashlight and started looking for smoke, smoldering anything, black streaks.  He circled the house, not seeing anything in the dark, and then started inspecting inside.  Our bathroom fan popped out of the ceiling, and the force of energy erupted the push buttons from the bathroom fan timer out of the wall:

The GFI in the both bathrooms was dead, along with CFL bulbs over the dining table.  The front security light switch was fried:

I continued to listen to Tom pad around, switching things on and off.  He joked about never being so relieved to hear the ice maker kick on in the night.  Admittedly, the smell was unnerving, for which I did get out of bed just to check it out.  Eventually it went away.  After Tom came back to bed, he "punnily" said he was too charged up and was going to watch TV.  I never heard it come on, and he was back to bed soon enough to say that the old TV and digital converter box and DVD player had all been fried.  The VCR was still okay.  I can only presume it was because the charge went through the coaxial cable and lost its fizzle by the time it reached the VCR. 

We made it to Santa Fe and back with our replacements after church on Sunday.  Unfortunately, the TV screen was discovered cracked upon turning it on, but Tom has even taken care of that.  We have survived the strike and will soon have a new whole-home surge protector.  The antenna is probably going to be moved and mounted differently, too, rather than serving as a lightning rod.  Oh - and no surprise that when thunder struck this afternoon, I jumped in my seat and nearly pissed myself!  How fun!