When Lightening Strikes...

Here in the great state of Texas, we have weather of all kinds. One of the greatest things my parents taught me to love was the sight of a storm rollin' in. I've never been scared of lightening or thunder.. I've always loved it. My mom tells stories of sittin under her tin roof porch and listening to the rain pelt the top. 
Sunday night, we had one of those Texas sized storms. A huge storm with huge wind, LOUD thunder and LOUDER lightening. It woke me up in my bed around 2 AM and I listened to the storm for a while. You know all those analogies about what God's doing up in the sky? I think my favorite is to think about God bowling. The thunder is the ball rolling down the lane, and the lightening is when God bowls a strike... because, obviously, God is going to bowl a strike every time. Duh. 
Duck Dude, however, had a little bit different experience. He, too, was woken up by the storm. The thunder woke him and Koal girl up.. after listening for a minute or two, he decided to peek out his bedroom blinds and take a look for himself. The exact second he looked outside, a huge lightening strike hit right in front of him. He said he literally jumped backwards on to his bed from the sheer noise and sound of it being right before his eyes. (he also wanted me to state for the blog, on record, that not a lot of things scare him.....) He told me it took him several minutes for his heart rate to settle and realize he was ok. It knocked out the electricity for a second, but it came back on and he finally went back to sleep. 
Yesterday morning, he went out in his garage to and opened his door to see this. 

 It turns out the lightening did not strike the middle of the street, like Duck Dude thought. The lightening hit the neighbor across the streets huge pine tree.... and split it straight down the middle. This is the house of a single mom with a daughter in high school. So, of course, my Duck Dude goes over and says he will take the tree down for her. 

I got over there around 4 o'clock and saw that the other half had fallen in the road. I walked into the house, told Duck Dude, and he said it must have just happened, because it was still standing when he went for his run a little earlier. 

Our other neighbors were over there looking at the tree with their young children. They were teaching a science lesson. The boy could not really ever understand why he couldn't play baseball in the lightening. Check out the tree little boy... if that's what lightening does to the tree, imagine what it would do to you! In fact, you could see where the lightening strike traveled all the way to the ground. The bark was stripped in certain places and that almost red looking line goes all the way down. 

This is my favorite part of the story. With the other half of the tree now laying in the street, Duck Dude just knew it was the perfect opportunity to go buy that chainsaw he's been looking at. He went and bought it, came back, and he and two other neighbors worked together to take that big, beautiful pine tree down. The kids stayed and watched it fall and yelled, "TIMBERRR!!" while I sang the Kesha song in my head. It's going down.. I'm yelling timber... you better move.. 

I know I've already mentioned the fact that I am going to miss my little 800 square feet of fun, but yesterday was such a positive reinforcer that Duck Dude and I chose the most perfect little neighborhood for us. Where neighbors can come together and help each other out and enjoy themselves while doing so..... even when lightening strikes.