Neanderpundit

In the old snapcap thread,Tam posited that she had a liklihood of losing a firing pin due to failure to use a gun condom snap cap similar to her liklihood of getting struck by lightning. This is risible on it’s surface; because of the unpredictability of lightning it is impossible to protect against it except by staying in an area where lightning will never strike, i.e., in a gun safe or faraday cage. Snap caps don’t restrict any activity (like living in a faraday cage would) and do not change the function of the firearm in any way. Enough, this isn’t what this post is about!

This post is about being hit by lightning. I have not yet been hit, but I expect to be hit, some day. Seven members of my family have been hit, and several co-workers. Most of these have been indirect hits- my sister was hit while talking on the phone, through the phone. My father was hit by a branch of lightning off a tree that was hit. Both grandfathers had been hit directly. An uncle and a few others hit indirectly. A co-worker got shocked grabbing the door handle of his car while the building he was parked next to was hit, not fifty yards from where I sit right now.

All of the people in my family who have been hit by lightning cannot wear a watch, either due to oils on their skin damaging the watch, or the watch becoming magnetized while wearing it. I’m of the “magnetized’ variety- in fact the only watch I’ve ever been able to wear are the all-stainless Swiss variety. We all regularly notice streetlights going out around us, not once in a while but every single time we are in a car, at least one streetlight will burn out as we drive under. This has been happening to me for years.

So whatever the cause, I expect to be hit by lightning eventually. And I can only hope it’s one of the indirect hits; the direct ones are often fatal. I don’t want to end up a permanent fixture of God’s own presto hot Dogger. I’ve been shocked many times (“Electrocuted” means killed, I haven’t managed that yet) invariably because of a Stupid Previous Owner Trick on a house or a machine, so I know what to expect on a small scale, and I’m not anxious to repeat on a large scale.

Still.

I love a rainstorm, the more sturm and drang the better, and I love to see lightning hit close by. I know others in my family have the same fascination and attraction. Wonder if there’s a causality there.

Apparently it’s only the day shift that can’t run an ROV, the guys on nights were brilliant. I was watching the whole deal go down last night, and it was amazigly impressive.