Lightning Strikes Twice

In our usual mid-Atlantic way, we've been hit by a few intense thunderstorms lately. On Tuesday night, our school was hit by lightning. It knocked out the phone lines, our media retrieval system, the fire alarm, and several of the air conditioners. When I got to school, the fire alarm was going off, and I found out that it had gone off 47 times that night. Yikes. We didn't even realize that the media system was affected until we tried to play a video around 10:00. The technician spent most of the day Friday trying to fix it, but pretty much all he got done was the diagnosing of the problem. Hopefully, they'll be out again next week to fix it. We only have 7 days of school left, so I am not terribly concerned. Wednesday evening, our house was hit by lightning! I was giving a piano lesson in the front room, and a thunderstorm was just getting revved up outside, but it was hardly worth worrying about. When the lightning hit, it was the brightest light, the loudest sound, and a pretty strong vibration. As far as we can tell, it hit a vent on the roof and jumped to the roof itself then through the electrical systems in the house. The electrician came out Wednesday night just to check everything (1/2 the electrical was shot) and then again on Friday to repair the rest. Today, a roofer repaired the outside damage; then the AC guy came to fix the transformer that got fried. The insurance adjuster was here most of the morning. We're still waiting on the phone and internet and alarm system, but our awesome neighbors gave us their WEP key so we could use their wireless. We are making progress!