Lightning

Up close and personal! I will tell you that I have never in my life experienced an event like what happened last night. Once again, violent storms left Alabama and headed right toward us. I guess Georgia is the new tornado alley! In any case, there was one storm I watched go from Rome, GA all the way to the house. It had softball size hail in it, violent wind, and heavy lightning. Olivia, Kelly and I just sat down to eat just before this monster arrived at our doorstep at 70 MPH. I just so happened to turn to watch Olivia, because she was choking on her drink (she is still a little sick from the other day). I was watching Olivia, glancing out the back glass door (which is nothing but a forest behind the house) when all of a sudden lightning hit a tree about 40' from the house. The tree lit up orange and purple, for about 1 second, it was quick. The thunder was incredible. The flash of light from the lightning was blinding but it was gone so quick you didn't notice the brightness really, if that makes sense. In any case, after that lightning was hitting all around the house, so we went to the basement. Just before I got to the basement, I glanced outside. Our houses are about 150-500' apart, small subdivision. I could not see any houses for the rain and hail, as well as the wind. Looked like a small hurricane. In about 30 minutes, the sun was out and it was beautiful. That tree is stripped of most of the bark, black in places, and I hope it doesn't fall. It was an old, old Water Oak. Lesson learned, don't ever seek shelter under a tree in a thunderstorm!