Lightning Strike

I am not sure what it means when your house gets hit with lightning, except that the deductible is lower then when it gets hit with hail.  What I do know is that it is never a good sign to come home from getting some margaritas with the ladies and seeing a) the step stool, b) a flashlight, and c) some string in the hallway.  Just FYI people.  However, I came home from going out and saw just that.  Mark says to me, "don't worry, I have an idea."  This is also not a good thing...

So, while I was gone, Mark was sitting watching some tv, when yes, there was a storm, and yes, there was some loud thunder and bright lightning, but it wasn't really anything remarkable.  But then the smoke detector went off.  That is also not a good thing.  So, Mark went up to investigate and found this:





Many of the phone jacks/cables were black and the modem had been"shot across the room".  Also, the desk top computer that we had plugged into that modem no longer turned on.

Mark then went into the attic and saw this:





The way Mark describes it was "I looked up and saw the sky." which if you are in your house, no, not a good thing.

He then went outside and saw this:



The siding was blow into the trees.  He also saw this:



Gilbert caught a rat.  Not a mouse, a rat.  Mark is usually a liberal hippie when it comes of the lives of vermin, but inasmuch as our house just got hit by lightning, he let Gilbert enjoy his toy.

The next day, we saw this:





Really, we can't say enough on how lucky we were.  Not only that no one was hurt, but we had roofers out the next day to put a tarp up, and AT&T out the day after to repair internet and phone lines.  PLUS, for some reason, this was the catalyst to do many upgrades and clean out rooms and closets, which was also needed. PLUS, now we can tell people, "yeah, we had a lightning strike."