I’ve never been that scared of lightning, because statistically speaking, it always just seems like such a long shot. Out of all the tall trees and metal objects, what are the chances lightning will come for me? Not likely, I’d say.

Of course, my husband insists on hooking up all our devices to surge protector strips, which I understand is the thing to do, even though power surges never seem to happen in real life.

Guys, I regret to inform you that a power surge has happened in real life.

Friday night, we had just finished ditching AT&T completely and switched our phones over to T-Mobile, and were sitting down happily to watch Avatar: The Way of Water after a long and stressful week without internet, when suddenly, there was an extraordinary crack with a flash of light and noise that rattled the whole house.

I’d never experienced anything quite like it. Thunderstorms are often loud, but never like that. We sat there a minute afterward, as various lights and appliances came back on and then we realized the terrible truth—our house had been struck by lightning.

We started looking around, seeing what the damage was. There didn’t seem to be any fires, which was good. I understand now that you are supposed to call the fire department in this situation, which I didn’t realize. But still no fires thus far, so I feel like we’re probably in the clear at this point.

Lots of breakers and outlets needed attention, which wasn’t too bad.

But here’s the bad part—the brand-new modem from Xfinity that was powering our working internet had been fried and was completely dead. We all died a little bit inside when we realized we were once again without the internet.

The internet was not the only casualty in this little misadventure. The lightning had also damaged our reclining couch, our mopping roomba, and worst of all—our hauntingly beautiful piano. Sometimes when I feel sad, I like to sit at the piano and play minor chords till I feel better. But if you feel sad because the piano got damaged in a freak lightning strike, there’s nothing you can do. Minor chords on the guitar don’t work at all. It’s a completely different vibe.

And we had all these things hooked up to power surge protectors, but it wasn’t enough protection. Apparently.

Anyway, Xfinity came out and fixed up the internet and we’re still working out replacements/repairs for the damaged items, but I’m sure we’ll get there eventually. But how very odd to have it happen right after the Great Internet Outage of ‘23.

Assuming the internet can continue to function, my primary work this week is to continue drafting Somewhat Unreal. It’s at a tricky stage because I mostly know what’s going to happen next, there are a few details that I think will have to be discovered once I get there. That happens sometimes when I’m drafting. I always have the broad plot outlined, but some details just reveal themselves throughout the process.

Also, remember if you want your free copy of Somewhat Before, just sign up with your email. It’s a good addition to the Bookland family, so if you liked Somewhat Alive, you’ll definitely want to read this one, too.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, we did have an electrician come out yesterday and install a whole home surge protector. Just in case lightning tries to strike twice.

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