Lightning Strikes as Often as it Wants

KA-WHAM!

The room lit up pure white like the sun. There was no real thunder, just this incredibly loud, immediate cracking sound that was one with the light, that shook the water bed on that solid concrete slab like Jello (tm) during a massive earthquake. A noise and light that compressed you flat into a purely two dimensional figure. I blinked a few times - I couldn't see for several seconds. Gradually the constant flicker of the Texas thunderstorm reasserted itself upon my flash-blinded eyes. By then both kids had awoke, jumped from their beds, run down the hall, and were landing on top of us.

Despite the fact this had to have been within feet of the house, we never found anything that showed signs of having been struck, scorch-wise. We did, however, lose:

• The transformer for the electric fence, which fused right along with the fuses - I think the 1/4 mile or so of wire for the dog pen made a great antenna.
• The hidden fence transmitter - the 1/2 mile or so of antenna cable, amazingly enough, acted like an antenna.
• An antiquated, 2400 baud modem. It needed replacing, but the timing was lousy. The 100 feet or so of outdoor phone wire acted like a you know what.
• The keyboard driver chip in my HP VT200 clone terminal connected to said 2400 baud modem. Huh? Oh well, back to the televideo 950. After I buy the fastest modem I can find.

KA-WHAM!

This time I'm in the office, which has no windows. The power goes out for a second, but it gets brighter at first. There's a fairly loud Pop! right in front of me. The UPS screams for attention. Power comes back after a second or two.

The MOV on the ISDN line's surge protector blew. That's it inside (outside, it fried the electric fence power pack again) - everything else is now on Tripp-Lite, the APC UPS, or both - this includes the ISDN line. Waited for the storm to pass, plugged the ISDN straight into the wall, and ran to the store for better comm line protection. Couldn't find gas-discharge tube surge protectors, but I'm about to order some.

Copyright 1995 Miles O'Neal, Austin, TX. All rights reserved.