When Lightning Strikes

It's common talk around the water cooler by now that we have had some crazy storms this summer. We've had tornados hit in our general vicinity. We've had flooding and winds and all sorts of craziness. Bad storms are becoming old news around here. So it wasn't surprising that Thursday night we were expecting another storm. We had one wednesday night too, so why not Thursday?

I went to bed in normal conditions. No wind, no rain, no storm. Sometime during the night I awoke from a sound sleep to a sound unlike any thunder I had ever heard before. I don't even begin to know how to describe how it sounded but it was loud and close and really freaked me out. I remember my voice saying out loud, "What the heck was that?" Then I clung to John as my racing heart gradually resumed it's normal rate. After that initial "wake up" boom the storm was there. It was thundering, lightning and raining alot but nothing like that explosion to start it all. I didn't think much of it after that and eventually fell back asleep.

The next morning when I went out to my car to go to work I discovered what I think we heard and that is a tree getting struck by lightning in front of our apartment building. I saw splinters of wood strewn all over the parking lot and then saw the tree stripped of bark all the way down in certain parts and charred. Creepy. So I can tell you that when lightning strikes close to home you'll know it. And even if you're asleep, it will wake you up cause it's a crazy terrifying sound.