| Wednesday, August 17, 2005 |
| Lightning Strikes |
I dragged the boys out to the golf course two days ago to hit balls on the range.
A storm had passed by only minutes before we arrived. So when we pulled into the parking lot we noticed that everyone had come in off of the course but were starting to make their way back out.
We purchased our buckets of balls and went to the van to get the clubs. Taking the clubs out of the trunk, lightning struck nearby. It wasn't enough to make us jump; but I told the boys that we'd need to stay near the clubhouse for another ten or fifteen minutes.
While on the veranda of the clubhouse we watched as the storm turned and came back over the course. Lightning began to strike closer and closer and the rain returned.
But this is what happened that I needed to write about: For the first time in my life I saw lightning actually strike the ground. For all of my life lightning has stricken all around--near and far. And on a couple of rare occasions it may have stricken as close as just a few tens of feet away, but I've never seen the object that it struck.
Two days ago I saw lightning strike a small mound in the middle of a golf course! It didn't hit nearby trees or a telephone pole or even a house. It struck a small waist-high mound. The thunder shattered the air almost immediately after the strike and smoke billowed up. On second thought, the smoke may have actually been steam that resulted when the lightning vaporized the rainwater on the mound. Whatever it was, it was awesome!
Ethan cried and Jacob reminded me how stupid I was to bring us out (That's Jacob's way of hiding his fright). It's suffice to say that I was shaken, too.
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posted by Joe Napalm @ 5:20 PM   |
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