Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Slowly, but surely

We are slowly getting everything fixed again. The lightning traveled through our phone line and fried the internet modem and our ethernet card in the computer. The sound does not work so it may have done damage there also. Our dish receiver was fried and had to everythig replaced except for the dish itself. The converter box in the house is not working so a new one will be put in tomorrow which means that we will have TV again. The weather is not cooperating though since it is creeping up into the 90's and it is supposed to be 106 by this weekend. I am hoping it will be fixed very soon. My week has been spent calling people about the damage or waiting for the people to come fix something. Last Saturday there was a city water line that broke and flooded a corner of our yard and the city had to dig down to it and fix it. They said that it was not from the lightning, but just bad timing with everything else out. That also meant no water for four hours. Our neighbor was nice and let us use her bathroom and drinking water while ours was turned off. The kids have been entertained by all the repairmen coming by and they watched intently as they dug down to the water line. We all had a family moment watching them repair the line and chilled outside eating chips especially since our house was hot inside. It is kind of intriguing seeing what the lightning affected and what it didn't. I have pictures of the roof and there is also a crack in the boy's wall from the lightning as well that I will post later. I have not tried that part of the computer to see if works yet. The kids finish swimming lessons this week. I don't think their teachers believed them when they told them that their house got struck by lightning.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Lightning strikes!!

There was a huge thunder and lightning storm last night and we were right in the middle of it literally. Our house was struck by lightning. It was the weirdest thing that has ever happened. I was standing in the kitchen when it happened and it was like a light bulb flashed and shattered above my head with a big bang. All of the smoke detectors went off for a couple of seconds and a toy started playing music across the room. Sebrina raced down the stairs and she was shaking so hard and her heart was racing that I could feel it. The power in half the house was off and there was a burning smell in the laundry room. I went out in the rain and looked at the house to make sure it wasn't on fire. All of the boxes with the wires from the phone and sprinklers were blown open on the side of the house. The lightning hit the overhang outside the master bedroom. There are raised shingles on the roof and there is wood that is splintered underneath the roof. The garage door opener is fried and so is the mother board to our furnace. We just got our lights back on and the A/C is done until a part is ordered. The modem for the internet is fried and we keep finding more things. We are so lucky that there wasn't a fire. We did jump in the car when we saw smoke down the street. The kids were so scared and were wide awake so we drove to the smoke and saw a huge stack of hay bales fully engulfed with flames. I am feeling very blessed that nothing worse happened and I am thankful for our safety.