Good Thing I Wasn't Standing Next To The Pony

Friday's weather included a triangle with a big ! in it. I thought there might be thunderstorms, so I clicked on it. And only found a heat warning, plus a 60 percent chance of rain by evening.

Heh, heh! Those weathermen who want to be called meteorologists sure have a good thing going. They can PREDICT the weather. They just can't tell us what weather we're actually going to get. I found that most troublesome when I was WORKING, and counting on a snow day that never materialized after I stayed up celebrating half the night

Anyhoo... it was hot as blazes (90 in the garage) when I left for town. Once I got there, it was even hotter (101 in line at Dairy Queen). A DAY HOT ENOUGH TO MAKE THE DEVIL SIGH. That's a line I like to steal from the song Watermelon Crawl, by Tracy Byrd.

Dark clouds had been moving in during my outing. They were right over me as I left Dairy Queen with a 2-piece chicken and pretzel sticks. By the time I hit the city limits just past Farmer H's Storage Unit Store, T-Hoe's mirror-thermometer said it was 81 degrees! The temp had dropped 20 degrees in five minutes! That's never a good thing.

The day got darker as I headed for the Mansion. Dusklike as I pulled into the garage. When I opened the back hatch for The Pony to get the groceries, I heard raindrops plinking down on the concrete of the carport. JUST IN TIME!

It was raining harder as I patted the dogs and headed up the porch steps. The wind picked up, blowing the rain sideways, sending little clumps of leaves off the trees. Juno had run to her house. She doesn't like storms. Jack seemed nervous, but not enough to miss a treat of grease bread. He hides out in hay bales over by the goat pen, but now he was trapped on the porch. I assume he went to lie in his hole under the Gator under the carport, or went to one of the dog houses on the end other end of the porch.

I was standing at the cutting block, sorting groceries to put away, talking to The Pony, who was scratching a crossword lottery ticket... when IT happened.

CRACK!!!!!

I felt a jolt as the front yard lit up with white light. The Pony swore that he saw a RED flash in the back yard through the kitchen window. My arm-hair waved like sea anemone tentacles, from their perch atop my goosebumps! I was SHAKEN! The adrenaline was pumping! I've never been so close to being struck by lightning. The flash and the CRACK were instantaneous. I fully expected to see a tree split in half in the back yard. "The Natural" himself could make a baseball bat from it! But The Pony ran out to look, and saw nothing amiss.

Not sure I would have taken that chance if I was him. Not-Heaven, no! I wouldn't even want to be standing next to him. I'm not walking beside him as he enters our voting church, either... if he's still here at election time.