Four Thousand Strikes

Last evening I planned to put Muffin down at her normal time, enjoy a nice little murder mystery, get caught up on my comments and maybe even catch up on some knitting too. Then, a major thunderstorm rolled through. Right around Muffin's bedtime, of course.

Muffin takes issue with thunderstorms. Though it didn't start with this event, it has certainly gotten worse since the time last summer where I insisted that we watch the storm from our front door and wound up witnessing a lightening strike on the tree across the street. (is that a run-on sentence? possibly)

Oh yeah, and there was also that time when we were caught in a tornado on the way home from a visit to her dad's. (which, by the way, happened in this particular neck of the woods) So, yeah - there is a reason for her concerns.

Knowing that there was no way on God's Green Earth I could persuade her to go to bed during the storm, I broke out a puzzle and tried to keep her distracted. The storm wasn't bad at all - just a standard summer thunderstorm. Some flashes, some distant booms, some rain. Nothing horrific or traumatizing.

Definitely not like The Night of Four Thousand Lightening Strikes

Catchy title, no?

It happened a couple of weeks ago and I'm lame for not posting about it at the time. It was pretty fucking dramatic but I suppose I had some other snarky thing to say... Anyway, here's what happened...

Muffin woke up from her nap at the usual time and we prepared ourselves for an afternoon at the pool. I sprayed us both down with sunscreen, collected the pool toys, folded up the towels, strapped on the flip flops, grabbed the keys and THEN looked out the window. It was black. Black with flashes of lightening. Terrible weather for a pool outing.

I called the Y to verify that the outdoor pool was closed and I could hear the "Hell YEAH it's closed!" tone in their voice when they confirmed. I hung up the phone and started damage control. My little girl doesn't like it when plans are abruptly changed. I managed to dodge the bullet by offering a trip to Blockbuster for a NEW MOVIE to watch! (insert lots of happy excited noises from me and a seriously skeptical look from Muffin)

As we were getting in the car I noticed that the sky had actually gotten worse. Which I didn't think was possible. It wasn't darker - but the flashes were certainly more frequent. I prayed that it would just go around town and destroy some unsuspecting farm or maybe a golf course (no offense to either).

We squealed into Blockbuster and I had to rush my indecisive five-year-old into a major decision.

She was all: "A new Barbie movie or, perhaps, a new Backyardigan DVD... Ooo, Diego!"

And I was all: "Sweetie, we need to go. We need to go NOW. OK. That's it. Mommy is picking the movie! Get in the check out line!"

We checked out and drove home as fast as possible. I tried to stay calm for her sake because it was literally raining lightening. Raining LIGHTENING! I've never seen anything like it. We screech into the driveway and I could see the lightening rain on the street behind us.

I ushered Muffin inside, unplugged everything (not that the stupid satellite TV would have worked anyway), collected some candles and took out a new dot-to-dot book for Muffin. Then, I called my Mama. I was scared shitless and worried that another freaking tornado was about to hit. She hopped on the computer, verified that a genuine monster of a storm was over our heads and assured me that there were no signs of twisters. *Whew*

Muffin and I endured the lightening rain for almost an hour. Then, just as the weather was starting to clear up, my mom called me to say that they had just heard about our amazing storm. She said that the weather channel reported almost four thousand lightening strikes in a half hour. And I replied: "I TOLD YOU IT WAS RAINING LIGHTENING!!"

So, as I said, last night's storm was really nothing in my book but it still gave Muffin an excuse to sit up with me, work a puzzle and cuddle on the couch. In a way, I suppose I should be grateful for the occasional storm that gets us out of our routine. Hmmm... that could be a metaphor for my life.