I used to love lightning...

I was in a house that got struck and it was scary as feck-all. I was in my first high school rock band and we were practicing / performing for a few girls we wanted to impress. All of a sudden during our brilliant cover of Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid' the girls screamed, and it wasn't because they liked the song.
I turn around and our bass player's face is now white with fear. Apparently a bolt of lightning had struck the top of the house (we played in the Attic which had windows and such) came through the window and went from amp to amp to amp via the chords. I was facing forward singing
and totally oblivious to the whole thing, but in hindsight it's rather a miracle that we weren't toasted on the spot..How's that for out doing Kiss? Bet those chicks would have really been
impressed [img]wink.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/whatever.gif[/img]

<font color="#cd6600" size="1">[ August 30, 2004 01:45 PM: Message edited by: DARTH POOH ]</font>

...I shall speak with Thor about this on your behalf.

...however, being a Christian, you were kinda asking for it.

[img]wink.gif[/img]

Sorry 'bout the loss of the surround, but look at it this way...you can now join my ranks of Neo-Amish! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Quote:

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Originally posted by DARTH POOH:
How's that for out doing Kiss? Bet those chicks would have really been
impressed [img]wink.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/whatever.gif[/img]

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">...now if THAT didn't get you laid, I don't know what to say... [img]wink.gif[/img]

err.. [img]smile.gif[/img] 'nuff said DA.
"Oh my but why is it glowing??" [img]tongue.gif[/img]

So you're saying I'm probably fucked? Is there a degausser that I must buy for the tv (this thing predates VGA computer monitors)? I doubt it's worth that much, so a sledge hammer may be the best fix for it. That stereo was my pride and joy, though. I talked the manager at Walmart down to $200 for the display model from the $550 original pricetag, and I know it had only been on the shelf for 3 months. It was flawless, save for some grubby fingerprints and dust. Now it may be diorama fodder. [img]frown.gif[/img]

Well, DA, if it was Thor, tell him to work on his aim. I think God got over that cliche a few centuries ago, about the time firearms started showing up in Europe... [img]wink.gif[/img] That, or my mother has some 'splainin' to do.
I can adapt for now, reliving the glory days of single speaker mono sound. Sure, Turok won't hear the Oblivion Spawn sneaking up behind him, and there won't be any of those cool bullet zip effects when watching the Matrix, but sometimes you have to get back to the simpler things in life. The Amish don't have it so bad, in fact you can bet that if Y2K had been the disaster it was hyped to be, you'd be bowing before Supreme Overlord Jebidiah Stoltzfus as we speak. We'll hopefully have it replaced this fall. In the meantime I'm going to buy some black suspenders and grow a beard.
BTW, I have acquired the Unique Thor HeroClix we spoke of. I'm more eager to keep this one, but it puts me that much closer to sending one your way. FYI

We had a splendid romance. On stormy nights when I was young I would sit at the window and watch the flashes and count the seconds before the rumbling of thunder shook the glass. In my teens, the terrible electric storms would be my vice to comfort and subdue the inhibitions of whatever timid lass was in my company, and I had several occasions to charm them with, "it's dangerous driving down this back road in such heavy rain, I should pull over." Even now, I have to stop and really marvel at the power of a thunderstorm. The heralding winds, the blackening sky, the distant flashes that signal the approach, and finally, the full force of a pounding rain and the illuminating streaks that fracture the panorama. Priceless. ...until yesterday.

One such storm blew up as I left the mall, having completed my last-minute birthday present shopping for my wife. I got in the car just in time, because before I even drove to the end of the parking lot heavy drops were saturating the tarmac. I took the back way home, in part to avoid other motorists who generally seem to leave their senses under inclement conditions, but primarily so I could watch the display with fewer distractions. I arrived home quickly enough, but had to wait in the car until the rain slacked off enough to run to the door without getting the merchandise soaked. Once back inside, the parental units who had been babysitting while I was on my quest, reported that lightning had struck the house. Well, it was still standing, so I was skeptical. Mom said she was in the bathroom when a loud bang and a blinding flash filled the room, and Dad thought he heard plaster falling down the petition between our apartment and the landlord's. The landlord had told them his tv got knocked out, too. Of course, the baby slept through the event. Now, there was obviously no blackout or even a dimming of the lights, as the digital clocks on all of the appliances were still accurate and not blinking. The only truly unsettling evidence was the burnt smell upstairs, like the lingering smoke of a lit match, but it eventually went away. Aside from that and mother's embellished testimony of her near death experience, I pretty much blew the whole thing off. They went home then and I tended the fussy little one (ear infections, no fun at all) and tried to scare up some grub for when Mrs. Nostromo came home from work. Over the next several hours, I was distracted between sweet infant and the delightful meal I was preparing (thinly sliced zuchini, soaked overnight in vinegar, dusted with white flour and italian bread crumbs, and pan fried to a golden brown and seasoned, with bottom round steaks done in the drippings, treated with a mesquite sauce), so it wasn't until much later that we realized something was amiss with some of our more delicate electronic devices. First, the cordless phone wouldn't respond, but that was remedied with a quick reset by placing it on its base. The answering machine needed the power severed and restored before it came to. So, I began to consider that there may have been a surge earlier, and so I checked all the breakers and gave a look at all the outlets, especially upstairs, but the only sign of a voltage spike was the "test" button on the outlet in the bathroom had popped out. Ok, must have just been the phone line, then.

Later, we settled down after our meal and prepared to enjoy viewing one of Mrs. Nostromo's b-day presents (added two to her Gene Kelly collection, really starting to hate musicals). But something wasn't right. The tv is old - early 80's floor model - and it's been degenerating for a while now, with the fluxuating pallete and the purple spot that slowly grows out of the lower left corner of the screen, but it works. However, there are now a rainbow of growing spots like melted Skittle stains. Great, well, "An American In Paris" is B&W anyway, but now it was tuity fruity. I had known this set wouldn't be around much longer, so we just shrugged our shoulders and resolved to get a new set for Christmas. But then we went to switch on the surround sound. Silence. There was power in the Aiwa shelf system's stereo head, lights were on, but no signal. The digital GEQ didn't ripple, the speakers only hissed very quietly. I pushed the Dolby button, and it says "OFF." I pushed the surround button, and it says "OFF." I went to run the speaker test, but it didn't respond. I have volume control, power to play cd's and cassettes, lights and memory settings, but no sound. I began to weep.

So, there wasn't a severe enough power spike to trip any of the breakers or surge protectors, and there was no blackout. What the hell happened to my fucking stereo? Then it dawned on me, lightning packs an EMP, which invisibly destroys miniaturized circuits. So with a little hope I took the head unit apart hoping to find a burnt wire or a blown fuse, but no. I figure the chips are scrambled like eggs at Denny's, so it's a call to their service line today to see if I have any warranty coverage for this. Fuck. How am I supposed to live without surround sound? What's funny is what was damaged and what was spared: ancient tv - a little goofy, but works; state-of-the-art stereo system - baked; phone and answering machine - hiccupped, but recovered; the 7-yr old laptop they're next to - completely unharmed; VCR and DVD - no noticeable quarks; baby monitor - fried completely. I don't get it, but it pisses me off and from now on, lightning sucks. I say we ban it. Frickin' over-glorified laundry static piece of sparky shit.

Just venting a crappy weekend. Hope yinz had funner times.

Yup, the EMP is what created the tutti frutti pattern on your TV. A degausser should remedy that.

An emp and power surge from a bolt of lightning is just that.. Like lightning. It skips and hops around, moving from one compnent to the other, skipping over bits and pieces, jumping from one electronic component to the other whilst the one in between is unscathed. Similar happened in a situation not too long ago with me.

Lightning stuck the attenae outside.. It had fried the R/F module in the tv, but everything else worked fine. It destroyed the motor in the dvd player, if not more, but completely missed the vcr entirely. It had fried the motherboard on my computer, yet that was hooked to a surge protector. Nothing else, but the phone, which got some residual static until it finally died 2 months later were hit. No breaker trips, no power outage, nothing.

The landlord wants to find one of those degaussers. We were talking about it last night with the other tenant, and we all got hit. Between the three apartments, we're estimating 2 or 3 grand in damage. I hate lightning.

wow!! That sucks Nostro, but you tell one hell of a story!!!