Mood: Fuzzy
Listening to: Ghostly song in my head: 'The Rhythm of the Rain' by The Cascades
I was going to post a collection of links to other blog posts, but decided to sit on the project for a while - there are a few things I want to have 'mature' in my thoughts.
I'm also feeling a little dazed after surfing around on the internet, for no reason I know of - sometimes the happenings you read about in the newspapers and other people's strong opinions on various topics just get to you, and instead of fighting back, you want to curl in a ball. For the time being, anyway.
It doesn't matter just now, because I have another story. I could have told it several weeks ago, but needed to find out the end of the story for myself first.
Midnight Chills
One night I was working late (till 3 a.m.) My ears were tired and I was resting them by not wearing hearing aids (those things can get quite uncomfortable before many hours are up). That means I couldn't really hear much at all - there's some sound but it's hardly even recognizable as 'sound' - it's more like a bubble of nothing, or lying back in the bath with your ears under water (only worse).
So, around 3 a.m. I turned off the computers and went to bed on the sofa as usual. Turned off the lamp and started to lie back. There was a violent white flash.
Startled, I sat up, and felt a loud, thudding rumble - it seemed to rise through the sofa. How was I hearing that, and what was going on? It seemed so 'wrong' for that time of night that I was scared. I picked up Sharky the cat when I went to investigate. He didn't seem to object.
I looked outside, and the rain was coming down so hard that there was a light spray rising through the trees. Nobody was about; no lights were on. Another brilliant flash (causing a parked car to flare in sympathy) caused me to drop the blind and retire.
It was 'just' a thunderstorm. At least I now knew what it was and felt able to go back to bed. But what a thunderstorm!
I hesitate to say I've never been through a storm as bad, as I may have forgotten or not been aware of similar storms when I was a child or sleeping. But this is the worst I remember going through. I know people have it worse in other places, quite naturally and regularly, but in this part of Scotland it's fairly unusual, at least in this period of time.
The rattling crash I felt in my bones had still upset me, and I was worried my failing PC had exploded. That had to be checked out too, and I went to see how the computers were. Fortunately everything was quiet in the nursery.
There you are - in case you've always wondered. When there's an apparent disaster in the middle of the night, my first thought (after "where's Sharky?") is "how are the computers holding out?"
I'm not sure what I would have done if they HAD exploded and there was an electrical fire in progress - gone screaming for the neighbours, possibly. Oh, wait - the fire brigade is only across the road. I could have run there in my slippers.
Anyway, all seemed quiet in the house, so I went to bed and pulled the downie over my head. Sharky lay next to me. I could still see the lightning flashes - they were directly out of a Gothic movie and seemed to shiver through the windows every 30 seconds or so. This went on for ages, but finally I fell asleep, thinking "must get up early - bound to be a flood. This I have to see."
The disturbed night meant that I woke late - and when I finally looked outside, there was no flood - just the mud left in its wake. There were muddy footprints all over town for several days after, including some of mine, and some muddy trolley tracks as well (courtesy of Bluebird). According to the local paper, there was over an inch of rain in one hour, and soil was washed onto the roads from the nearby fields. That doesn't sound much rain to me, but what do I know? I do know the mud was something we don't get every day, and the rain I glanced out at around 3 a.m. was coming down like a misty waterfall.
The story isn't finished.
Next day I went out to feed some cats in an old house in town. As usual, I pottered down to the basement, and it had a very large puddle in it. I had contact details for a family member of the people who owned the house, so I got my mother to ring up, and the guy said he would pop over and have a look. When the owners of the house returned, they said it had been bad and there had been some damage, but it could have been a lot worse if we hadn't let them know.
That same day I bought a new Scart cable for my TV set-up, and tried to use it at night. But my TV picture was largely snow, and I couldn't get digital channels at all. I could watch the video OK - it behaved as though there was nothing wrong. Looked like the TV had been damaged in the storm, though I'd unplugged it - unfortunately forgetting about the aerial. Later I searched online and found quite an old BBC article that said a lady in England got up one morning and her TV set exploded when lightning struck.... though it was unplugged. The lightning got at it through the aerial, and all the plug sockets in the house were blown.
Well - now I know! Don't forget to disconnect the AERIAL in a storm. It's sheer stupidity on my part that I never thought of it, but it's also partly that one reads frequent advice to unplug at the mains, but I don't remember anyone adding "and don't forget the aerial."
No, I don't have the right to blame anyone else for this; my brain just doesn't work properly, it seems. I'm actually very glad that it happened to the TV and not to either of my computers - and that storm was really raging; it was probably stabbing all round the house as I calmly worked - both computers had been on. The first I knew about the storm was when I turned the light out, and everything lit up in a lurid glare.
Anyway... the story STILL isn't finished! I'll wait till you fetch another drink (and maybe some popcorn).
The paper said that people all over town were having problems with their TV sets (and other electrical gadgets). The local TV repair man was quoted as saying that people 'forget' that lightning carries a million volts.
"Wha..?" I huffed, turning pale. "We just forgot to disconnect our aerials. We're dumb that way. But don't accuse us of thinking lightning is just a pretty light show."
Maybe the paper drastically edited what he really said; possibly he threw the paper down in a purple fit when he read that. Anyway...
I can usually work out technological problems when allowed a few days, the internet, some manuals and a lot of brow-knitting, but now I could see no obvious reason for the TV acting up (apart from the storm). I checked the cables and then gave up - couldn't see what I could possibly do about it apart from call the local TV repair man. But Mum kept her head and decided to look at the system bit by bit to try and figure out the weak link. Her first choice was the signal booster. We took it to her house and tried it on her own TV, and it was definitely fried. Ah ha! Weak link.
We changed to another booster, but the television still wasn't working properly. We checked and double-checked all the cables, took things out of the 'daisy chain' of appliances, put them back in, bought new cables; even went up into the loft and glared at the aerial - nothing worked. And yet I had a feeling that my television was in good order.
This continued for weeks. Finally we called out the TV repair man (the same one casting aspersions on the population of Diddumstown). Today he came, looked at the TV, went up in the loft and twiddled with the aerial, and bingo! It was WORKING. Clear picture, clear sound, and Freeview digital TV was back!
How did he do that?
He said some wires in the loft aerial had come loose and had to be 'tightened'. That was all it was. Mum said "oh my, then it was just pure coincidence that it happened on the night of the storm."
"Yes," I said. "Very confusing."
Then I knitted my brow. "And yet.... I'm not sure it WAS a coincidence. The signal booster was damaged."
"Oh, maybe," said Mum. "It could be that the signal booster saved your television. The TV repair man said that lots of other people lost their TVs - the lightning had gone right into them. They didn't know about the storm because they were sleeping, but I told him you were awake and heard a loud bang."
Sure did. I heard something. Maybe that was it. Maybe the loose wires in the loft also helped save the TV by weakening the surge - but it's conjecture on my part. I'm still confused. Maybe it was just that the loose wires happened to kill the signal booster when they 'went'.
I'm only glad the TV is coming with me after all, and that I don't have to get a new one. It's an old CRT (13 years old) but I'm perfectly happy with it - the screen is bigger than I could afford if I got an LCD - and the cats can't push it over no matter how they lean on it...
So... got off lightly, and learned a new lesson. Disconnect the aerial (along with everything else) if it looks even slightly like a storm.
But that's a story for another time.
