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And Yet Again

I was just heading over to the hospital about 3 PM to replace a bad modem--likely toasted in last night's lightning--when it started to thunder and lightning once again. By the time I was done and heading home, it was really pouring, and I could only drive about 20 mph as the rain was blowing right at me. When I got home I remembered the plastic covering the windows and ran right in without putting up my umbrella. I was soaked after ten steps and ran in the house to find most plastic coverings holding up fine. I went around with tape reinforcing things, but with the exception of Dustin's room, things were good. His window is so far below the second floor eve that the rain easily hits the window with just a moderate amount of wind. And, since the plastic was taped on the inside wall, water was able to enter. I pulled up the throw rug, put down some towells, and cut my losses there. During that time, Ellyn ran home from school. She had been teaching a photography class to the seventh and eighth graders. She was drenched since she didn't have an umbrella, but she didn't know I was home, and knew we only had plastic for windows. At that point I ran over to the hangar and shut down my servers and other computers, as well as unplugging the HF antenna and phone lines. We lost power before it was all over, and had one lightning strike within a tenth of a mile. I don't know how much more of this I can take. It wouldn't be so bad, but I really dread loosing something to lightning because it's so hard to replace here.