Too Close For Comfort...

Thursday night we had 3 storms roll through our area that brought lots of lightning, thunder and rain.  All came with "severe storm" alerts on the tv and cell phones.  The first two went slightly west of us so we escaped the 6 inches of hail, flash floods, and high winds.  I did sit on the porch and watch the storms roll past wishing they had hit us as well - who doesn't love a good storm?

As we were alerted to the third storm, I stepped outside to see Elmer working on getting the chicken coop upright as it had been blown over by the one high gust of wind we had gotten with the second storm.  With the wraparound porch, you can't see sky until you get to the end so I started walking toward the back porch to check his progress on the coop.

I looked up at the sky and couldn't believe what I was seeing.  Black and grey clouds were moving to the north east faster than I have ever seen clouds move.  It scared me!  Elmer was up at the chicken coop trying to upright it with the buggy.  He had it running and couldn't really hear what I was saying as I started yelling at him, "Get inside!  Look at those clouds!"

He gave me the "I can't hear what you're saying so quit yelling at me" look.  So, I yelled louder.  "Turn around and look at those clouds!  Can't you see them?  Get inside!"

He gave me the look again and yelled, "JUST A MINUTE!"  Obviously annoyed that I was yelling at him.

About 2 seconds later, I watched as a lightning bolt hit in the draw just up behind him and at the same time as the lighting hear a HUGE crack.  No thunder, just the lightning and the crack.

Well, I've never seen Elmer move so fast!  His shoulders went up, his head ducked and he jumped in the buggy and headed to the house.  He got out so fast he didn't even shut the buggy door.  I then told him how close that lightning bolt had come to hitting him and scolded him for not listening to me.  While he said the experience made his butt pucker, he was very upset that when the chicken coop blew over the 2 eggs inside broke.

Living in Garden Valley, we had several experiences where lightning hit "too close" and we're all very respectful of what can happen.  I think now, Elmer may have found that same respect!