So... normal day... Church, home-cooked white chicken chili, then Andrew heads off to go and finish up a couple of odd jobs on the other side of town.
Once Andrew is gone I get a burst of energy, also known as "nesting, and I start to pull the sheets off the bed, do the laundry, clean the bathrooms, and do the dishes. Not all at once... just bouncing from one to the other when I need a change of pace. I turned on the movie, "Beautician and the beast" for background noise and started "nesting".
In our master bedroom we have a skylight... which is really nice when you can see the stars at night but really annoying when it is 6 am on a Saturday morning or when it is 100 degrees outside in the middle of June. I heard a few sprinkles on the skylight and looked up, confused, because it was still sunny outside. I walked downstairs to check the weather but there seemed to be no rain in the area. I opened the front door and saw a little dark cloud just above our town home and just blew it off. I'm from Texas... no big deal.
So to give you a visual... I was standing at the bottom of our stairs beside the love seat... watching the TV. Then, I heard the loudest CCCRRRRAAACCCCCKKKKK! Simultaneously, I looked upstairs to see my entire master bedroom light up like the 4rth of July. The next thing I know, Ginger had jumped from the big couch, onto the coffee table, onto the ottoman, onto the love seat, and then onto me. I was mid "duck and cover" when she buried her little claws into my neck. After the sheer panic had left my body I thought, "OMGoodness... did lightning just hit my house?"
I ran upstairs to check for damage and there was nothing. No electronics were zapped or on fire so I made my way downstairs to see where we had been hit. Just when I came around the corner at the bottom of the stairs I heard Ginger crying and saw big clouds of black smoke in my kitchen. Like an idiot, I ran right into the kitchen to see what was on fire. I could not for the life of me find the fire! Then I opened up the back door to see smoke coming up from underneath the house.
So here I am, completely freaking out!!! 5 1/2 months pregnant, with a puppy, my husband is gone... is not answering his phone... AND we live in a town home complex with a bunch of 80 year olds. PERFECT.
So who do I call next... my mom.
She of course tells me to call 911. I did and 5 minutes later I heard sirens. Ginger was in full-on panic mode at this point. She and I both were shaking standing in the 100 degree weather outside of the house. Two fire trucks pulled up and ran up to me with an oxygen mask. I must have looked SUPER freaked out. I pointed to the back of the house and only got out, "it's under the house" and they were off. I ran back there with them to see smoke coming out of the basement door. They opened the door and then yelled, "we got fire!"
Gearing up, they whipped the water hose around the house and sprayed down the entire basement.
Apparently, the lightning hit the deck, went into the dryer vent at the base of the deck, and then caught the insulation under the house on fire. The combination of finding it so fast, calling 911, and the fire department only being about 1 mile away, the fire was put out in a matter of minutes and there was virtually no harm done. Just a whole lot of smoke.
The firemen were baffled at how nothing in the house was ruined and they could not figure out how there was a fire in the basement but no where else. I knew that it was by the grace of God! My neighbors were running (more like walking... they are 80 yr olds, remember) to our house, wanting the juicy details. They were not surprised to hear that lightning had struck our house, because all of them were wondering if their house had been the one hit when they heard it.
The only thing that was ruined were the speakers on our living room TV. And of course, my pride... the entire Hermitage fire department has now seen my underwear drawer. That's what I get for doing laundry when lightning strikes my house. I can guarantee that I will NEVER let that happen again!
Andrew finally got home when the firemen were loading everything up. Poor thing, he was freaking out because all he heard was me screaming on the other line of the phone. And he was drenched from head to toe because he had been pressure washing... www.middletennesseepressurewashing.com :)
Andrew, Ginger, Selah, and I are all doing fine. I did inhale a whole lot of smoke though. They told me to just take it easy. And of course, I did take pictures.... I needed proof. :)
Whew! What a day!
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