Wow!

Here in Wichita Falls, TX, we have the neatest thunderstorms! I love watching lightning and listening to thunder! A few weeks ago, we had one that was accompanied by lots of wind. There was a tornado warning that went with it, too! Neat! :)
Unfortunately they usually happen between the hours of 10 PM and 6 AM (when we're sleeping, of course!)

Story #1
We had another amazing thunderstorm last Wednesday night. We were woken up at about 5 AM Thursday morning by this loud thuderous BOOM!!! I'm mean it was killer loud! My eyes flew open and I watched the lightning flashing. The rumble (of the thunder and the shaking of the house!) lasted for what seemed like FOREVER, in actuality it was probably only like 45-60 seconds.

I thought my house had been hit by lightning! But there was no smoke, so probably not.

And then the firetruck came. It flew through our neighborhood the siren and lights blaring. I jumped up in bed and peered out the window... to watch it turn on the next street over! It being 5 AM, I wasn't wearing much and didn't feel inclined to follow it to see what's up...

Story #2
When we got up like an hour later, our internet (my lifeline to the world!) wasn't working! Hal messed with it for a while, and then decided it's probably AT&T's problem to fix. And he went to work. I called AT&T to report that our internet is down, and got in touch with someone in India or somewhere. 45 minutes later, I'd managed to convince her that my problem was indeed from somewhere other than my computer/modem connection, and she reported my problem.

The people investigating the problem called me back a little while later and told me, via automated voice system, that there is no problem.

When Hal got home, he called the company and did his "I know what I'm talking about! There is a problem!" routine. They scheduled an appointment for a repair man to come out the next day.

On Friday, the repair man came out to my house, hooked his little computer sensor thingy up to my internet line and SURPRISE! There's a problem! We had no signal! So he went out back to our phone line box (I'm not sure what it's called really) and there was no signal there either! So, he got his ladder off his truck and climbed my power pole... There's no signal there either! Up the row to the next pole, and the next... after climbing five poles, he finally found the problem...

The conclusion to both story #1 and #2
The telephone pole just up the block from our house was hit by lightning.

Which fused all the telephone wires together, effectively ruining all of our neighbors phone and internet connections luckily, the repair guy was able to fish out my two wires and fix my internet. (Which makes no sense to me... If the whole bundle was fused together, how was he able to pick out the yellow and green wires and make my internet work again?) However he did it, my problem was fixed! Yay!

Also, when the lightning hit the pole, the current traveled up the phone line and lit his house on fire. Hence, the firetruck! (The repair guy learned that while he was fixing my internet and the people that live around there told him all about it!) Neat, huh?

I'm so very grateful that my house wasn't lit on fire! Whew!!!