Sunday, August 3, 2008

Lightning from heaven

SOOOO. Our house got struck by lightning on Thursday and we've been without internet/phone/cable. I also dropped our cell phone in a glass of water (excellent timing, I thought) so even our one cell phone was acting funny. The cable guy came today and fixed it. It took him 4 hours. He had to replace our modem and our cable box and rerun the underground cable line. Now our television audio input cables are shot, as is our PC (although we didn't use it anyway), one telephone, one of the garage door openers, the microwave, the kids' bedroom light and fan switches, the switches in the monkey bathroom, and goodness knows what else. The same storm that sent that lightning also created a hole in our side yard right next to the retaining wall. The surface area is probably 3 feet by 1 foot, and the dirt just sank right in. It kind of makes me wonder if the whole house isn't built on a sinkhole.

Life is, needless to say, a little hectic right now. I have to go buy a new wireless router (also destroyed by the storm) tomorrow so Ryan and I can finish our work. I mean I guess it could have been a lot worse.

To end on a happy note: Julian is practically crawling now! He's actually moving forward several shimmies at a time instead of backward. At least something is going right around here!:)

Caryn

8 comments:

Anna Farley said...

You know what? Shawn is at camp in Shocco Springs right now, and I think he got hit by the same storm. He sent me a text on saturday telling me that there was a tornado warning, and everyone had to go to the "safe zone" until it had passed. Talk about an unnerving experience!

Shannon said...

Aahhhh!!! That's so scary! I saw that storm on the news and didn't think anything of it, I'm stupid. Were you guys in the house at the time?? That would have scared the shit (sorry Mom) out of me. Are you going to have to get an electrician to fix all of that?

But hey, YAY for Julian crawling! Maybe he was inspired by the lightning...it just showed him he better learn how to move fast.

Carynanne said...

You kiss yi'mudda wi'dat mouth?

I haven't figured out how we are going to get the electrical outlets fixed. We have figured out a solution for the TV that costs about $35, and we bought new phones and a new router yesterday. It'll all get fixed eventually.

Adena said...

That is insaneness. I will say if there's anything good about living in Lynchburg, it's definitely the lack of severe weather. *KNOCK.ON.WOOD*

Adena said...

By the way, is there an origin for the phrase, "you kiss yi'mudda wi'dat mouth?" A movie maybe?

Colleen said...

The electrical outlets and such will have to be repaired by an electrician if you want your house to be safe. It will probably be a bit costly, but it will be worth it knowing your house won't burn down because of a faulty outlet. You can call an electrician and just get an estimate; maybe get several quotes. I certainly wouldn't want to mess with the electricity! It sounds like the lightning may have hit the ground next to your house. You should find out if your house is properly grounded because it seems strange that it would have sustained that much damage if it was. I sure hope that's not a sinkhole, but then, you aren't in Florida, the land of the sinkholes! At any rate, at least noBODY was hurt.

And hurray for Julian! He was so close to crawling when he was here last week! He kept getting in the right position and then sitting back again.

Colleen said...

By the way, check with your homeowners insurance once you get an idea of how much all of this will cost you; they should cover this (minus the deductible).

Mrs. F said...

I'm just happy you are all alive, cause someday I wanna meet your kids.

But dang. That stinks.