Photography: Manu Mohan, manumohan.com

(Updated on Aug 23, 2011 here)

Wednesday, June 15th sitting in my office listening to thunderstorms approach. Normally I would enjoy the light rumble of thunder in the distance, but the following story might explain why I am uncharacteristically filled with dread.

We got hit by lightning on June 5th. It struck just a few feet from Carrie and I. We were standing in our basement because of high winds and a tree had already fallen and destroyed our outdoor dog kennel near the house. We have a large window in the basement that goes from floor to the ceiling where we stood watching the wind blow when Fzzzt-Kapow! It was so close that we saw the bolt (up close and personal) before we heard the thunder. The bolt ran down the length of one of our largest oak trees and jumped to the ground about 15 feet off the ground right in front of us. It zapped the ground at the edge of our cement porch and directly in front of us. It was so bright and so loud that I thought the glass would shatter in our faces – fortunately, it did not. When we turned back to the window, there was what looked like glowing pieces of metal on the ground like sparks under a welder. Admittedly, standing where we were was not the brightest thing to do, but we did it and we’re here to talk about it.

When the lightning hit, I had left my TV on upstairs. We heard the smoke detectors beep once or twice and the UPS (power supply) beeped as well, and though the lights may have flickered, they remained on. We went around the house smelling for smoke and checking things… the TV was still on. Carrie thought she smelled smoke so we checked the attic and made another round of the house. Everything seemed to be fine, but as time passed, little things started turning up with damage. Then bigger things.

One of the first things I checked was my Macintosh computer in my office. It booted up just fine but would not connect to the internet. I checked the connections and sure enough, the hub/switch that connected the MAC to the server was not working. I plugged the network cable directly into the router and was able to connect. Okay, I need a new switch. Knowing that Carries computer would not connect to the internet I decided to wait until I fixed the switch before checking her computer. I checked the server and it seemed to be working okay but would not know for sure until the switch was replaced.

Because of where the bolt of lightning hit, I checked the DirecTV satellite system… and as expected, it could not obtain a signal. The cable from the satellite dish to the house is buried along the edge of the cement porch in the back, right where we saw the bolt enter the ground, so I was not surprised when the system would not work. Fortunately, we pay the extra few dollars a month so when something like this happens; they come and fix it for $50 instead of actual cost.

Other than those two things, everything else seemed okay so I watched the end of the race. Oh, except for the clock in my room – which had advanced one hour but was working fine otherwise. (weird)

On Monday, I ran into town and picked up a new switch for the network. It’s a simple install but as with computers, I had to reboot the server and MAC for it to work properly, and it did. So the switch installed, I turned on Carries computer to check things out. Her computer is used to not only manage the events calendar for the magazine, but also has all of our accounting files. Sure, I backed those up last month, but that was before the last round of invoicing. There was a time when my MAC was the most important computer, but since the hiring of the new designer, it seems Carrie’s is more important these days.

Her computer came up fine, but would not connect to the internet. I clicked the little icon that is associated with the network card, selected diagnose and the computer reported that the network interface card (NIC) was missing. Great! Apparently the lightning got the NIC too. Makes sense because the NIC is plugged into the switch I just replaced. Oh well, another $25 to get things right again.

Let the weirdness begin!

Carrie’s computer had turned on just fine, that’s how I knew the NIC needed replaced. Putting a new NIC in the computer is fairly easy and went just fine, but after I put it back together and plugged it in, pressing the power button had no effect. I pressed and pressed that little round button but nothing happened. Of course, I removed the NIC and tried again… nothing. What? It worked yesterday, why not now? Baffled, I called my friends at PC Gurus, a local computer service company and they said bring it in. We did.

The fine technicians at PC Guru’s declared Carrie’s computer dead on arrival. (Yeah, the motherboard was fried.) That nice little Dell computer that turned on just fine a few days ago was toast and there was nothing I could do about it. I have been into cooking lately, but frying a computer is not something I really needed right now.

So I ordered this sweet little HP from Wal-Mart for less than $500. Spent the past two days getting the computer up to Carrie’s standards – moving accounting files, favorites, documents, music and configuring Windows Office for her. (Tech note: I thought I could just move the outlook.pst file from her old hard drive to the correct location on the new one – fail! Outlook created an alternate and I still had to import her mail ‘stuff’ from the old file.) Oh, and finding the QuickBooks company file was a bear… but I found it and everything as all hunky dory.

Another apparent casualty of the lightning strike was our BOSE home theater sound system. I narrowed it down to the remote interface module. The symptom was simple, it would not turn on. Since I could only turn it on with remote (design of system), I made sure it was working and learned a neat little trick to make sure. Take a digital camera with the live view screen on, and point the remote at the camera and press the on button on the remote – you can see a light through the view screen if the remote is working. Try it, it’s cool!  There were a few other things I tried and was sure it was the interface module… the customer service rep agreed. Well the part for the BOSE came on Monday too – that one was free! YEA!! The fine customer service rep sent me the part under warranty even after I told him it failed right after a lightning strike. Feels good for a change, I spent a pretty penny for the system and was rewarded with great customer service.

The satellite was toast as I suspected so I called DirecTV and ordered an HD upgrade knowing that they would have to install a different dish and receiver. So instead of the $50 deductible, it only cost $21 for the guy to come out and do all of the work. SWEET! Since I have vowed off of cable news, I returned the receiver in my office saving $6 per month, so the HD package will only cost an additional $4 per month.

I had some weirdness from the fax machine and thought it got hit too. I tried to call it and it wouldn’t ring. I plugged the line into my phone and I got a dial tone and was able to call the line. Plugged it back into the fax machine and it would not ring or answer. The solution? (Yeah, this is weird too.) I simply attempted to send a fax and that seemed to wake up the connection. I’ve received two faxes since. (We’re haunted I think.)

Now the most difficult task is still ahead of me. We have an aerial antenna that we use a lot and it’s not working at all now. This is really strange because I was watching NASCAR (Thanks to a Facebook friend who encouraged me to replace my Sunday football by watching cars make left turns for hours.) when the lightning hit and I still got to finish the race. But when Carrie turned on her TV to watch the morning news the next day, no signal. I replicated the NASCAR set up and sure enough, no signal. So I guess I’m going to have to climb that tower and start replacing parts and running new cable. Oh well, it’s something I’ve been putting off anyway. Long story but simply put, the main line runs into the master closet where it plugs into a signal booster, then back into the attic where it’s split and run all over the house. I’ve wanted to change the system to consolidate the connections and reduce the length of the wiring, and hopefully improve the signal. We enjoy channel 5 in Nashville because of the high definition Titan’s football games!! But apparently, a solid and boosted system is required for our local channels too because we live so far out in the woods. (4.5 miles from I-65 is way out there I guess. (grin))

Sometimes when lightning strikes, it creates havoc. At least we didn’t get hurt… that was really close.

As always, thanks for reading!

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