Maine is not known for huge thunder and lightening storms but we sure have had our share this summer. On August 1, we had a storm that equaled a lot of the storms that you see in the south. Weather is changing everywhere.

The next morning (Tuesday), we had a few small storms and then the weather started to clear with just a few dark clouds hanging around.  We ate lunch and the hubby went out to work on the new shed and I had some computing to do. I was answering an email from my Nicatous website and was in the middle of a thought with my hand resting on the medal body of my MAC when all of a sudden, I felt a huge shock start in my hand and arm. I pulled it away from the computer and could feel the electricity go though the top of my body and out my head!

At the same time all of this was happening and before I really could process what had happened, there was a huge clap of thunder that shook the entire camp.  I sat dazed for a few minutes realizing that it had been a lightening strike that had happened and then went out to tell my husband and to see if he was ok.  He was coming off the staging because he had seen the tree right next to the camp get hit with the lightening.

Needless to say, we went back into the camp and waited out the storm which didn’t last for more than another ten minutes. We went outside after the storm to see what damage had been done. The tree was hit up high and it cracked it opened, then seemed to go back into the truck of the tree. From there it traveled inside until it came out again just below the where the limbs stopped and it left a more closed crack in the bark there and again must have traveled inside the tree and down to the ground where it then heading toward the camp. There was actually a small ditch in the ground where it went from the tree to the camp. It went directly to a ground rod that was buried in the ground and attached to an old broken CB antenna at the top of the roof line. Evidently, it also came in through the wiring too, since I got zapped. There was a smell of ozone in the air, both in the camp and outside.

Lightening created a small ditch from tree to camp

It was a bizarre experience and I hope that I never have to have that experience again. Luckily, the camp didn’t catch on fire. Me – I’m still the same.  I am not any smarter, don’t have better eye sight or super powers – I’m the same old me! The good news is that the same old me is here to write this and incredibly, I am writing it on the MAC. For some reason, both the computer and I made it!!  Whew!!