Zap and a whiff of ozone

We had a special visitor last night.

It was the hand of G-d delivering a death blow to our house, our satellite system, televisions, pool pump, and who knows what else.

Both of us were sleeping when it happened but our neighbors were standing on their patio watching the storm when they heard a very loud clap of thunder and then saw the lightening and a giant puff of smoke arising next to our pool. Our neighbor friend kindly called to tell us we had been electrocuted. When I innocently got up around midnight, I found a nice note from husband on the bathroom counter telling me about our visitor. I also found two of our three TVs offline.

After arriving home from work this morning, I spent quite a bit of time on the phone calling our insurance claims office, the satellite company, the electrician, and our friends to tell them the pole which used to hold their basketball hoop in back of their house next door was lying on the ground in a million splinters. I guess they also had a visitor in the night.

Apart from the uncertainty of what was damaged, we are experiencing withdrawal symptoms because the satellite repairman won't be able to come to the house until next F.R.I.D.A.Y. What on earth are we going to do until then without television? Will we actually have to start talking to each other?

We experienced a similar situation in February during an ice storm when our electric line to our house was downed and we were without power for a week. We survived that mess and I guess we will survive this one also.

I keep telling myself that things couldn't get worse, but maybe I'm wrong.

I will know more after the insurance adjuster and the electrician get here tomorrow. In the meantime, I have lots of books to read and we can also listen to the radio. This reminds me of when I was growing up in the 1940s and 1950s -- before we had a TV. Now I'm dating myself, aren't I?