Kachow!

The other night the tornado siren went off for just a minute because a storm was on a speedy rampage through the area. Shortly afterward as we were going about our business, there was a sudden BOOM! No reverberations like you usually hear with thunder. I screamed, or so Jake tells me, and dropped the dish I was washing in the sink as I heard Tessa's absolutely frightened screams. She was almost disoriented when I immediately ran over to pick her up and calm her down. She is not easily frightened with thunder, but I could not blame her for the tears on this one. Cole had been on his dad's lap, so he didn't seem bothered. That BOOM shook our house enough to knock one of the clocks off the wall.

And the next day, between two and three doors down the street, next to our alley, we find this:

HOLY COW, right?!?! That poor tree was obliterated by lightning! On the other side of the alley there were charred remnants from where it had been hit --of course I had to go and touch it since I don't remember ever having touched anything that had been struck directly with lightning before. Someone had been hard at work that morning cutting down limbs so that the alley was cleared. The house looked like it was in fine shape. I'm so glad that it was, and that the electrocuted tree didn't smash through a window or the roof or something.

Here's Tessa on the other side. The bark was stripped clean off with the trunk splayed. Crazy, I tell you. The four of us had gone on a walk to see the tree and to just get out. I would have had a family picture taken by it, but Jake is apparently "uncomfortable" with traipsing across other people's lawns. :) So, I grabbed his phone and the girl, and left him with Cole for a moment.

After I made Tessa get her picture taken, Jake and I were still marveling over the tree. Tessa then yelled out, "Daaaaad, you said this was a walk, not a look."

Fine, fine.