Perplexity of Lightening

.....and when we finally understand it, we will be able to simulate it and do away with dirty power..

Good day all! Hope you all have had a good week end! We had the grand finals of the AFL yesterday (Australian Football league, which is nothing like the football or soccer I know). To really, finally, understand the game, I put money on the underdogs...and won! Odds (UK system, so 2.55 means i made 155% return, capital not counted). I'm a fan now.

Morning Spring!  Congrats on your winnings!  Good day to the rest of the village when they get here...

I sure do like a good thunderstorm...

Morning mbailey! I was beginning to feel real lonely!! So glad to see you :)
Me too, I love the awesomeness of a good thunderstorm!
Do you have anything special planned for this weekend?
I'm winding down for bed, it's back to work tomorrow, so 'night for now!

 Sleep well, SpringF!
The postillion has been struck by lightening! (Phrase from a French/English translation book of useful phrases for intrepid travellers in the days when 'transport' was coach and horses.)
I, too, love a good thunderstorm, mbailey. The ones in the Welsh mountains were great as you'd get double the thunder from the echoes off the rock faces. I don't know what it is about lightening, fireworks and things pyrotechic in general - I find them really exciting.
As a child in Africa, my bedroom was roofed with corrugated iron and apart from a low bit of wall, the whole end of the room was just wire mesh to keep the mosquitos out. And me in, presumably. I just loved those tropical storms - watching the lightening and counting the seconds to thes thunder. The rain would hammer down on my tin roof and create a waterfall of shiny threads just outside the wire mesh. I'd wrap up in a blanket and watch in awe while consoling my terrified cat who would be under the blanket with me.Then the rain would stop as suddenly as it had started, the sun would come out and the ground would give up a heady, scented steam of freshly watered earth and battered flowers. 
On the downside, now I'm supposed to be a grown-up, local thunder and lightening usually means a power-out. Where are my torches and candles and oil lamps? I should know these things.
A child was killed last week in his school playground, southern UK, by a bolt of lightening. I don't think it was wrathful Gods punishing him for some childhood misdemeanour - just a random act of nature.

When the technical people come on page .... I have a stinky basement. I can't see any damp, but it's there! The place is rented, so I'm not prepared to spend a fortune. No ventilation except for a small and rather noisy extractor fan. No natural light. I can't believe that the guy who lived here before me used to sleep down there! Maybe he was a vampire with sweaty socks and a liking for over-ripe Brie. Any ideas on making smelly basements fragrant?

The mystery of lightening?
It could just be those old cowpokes on their horses snortin' fire trying to catch
the red eyed cows of the devil's herd, could be.                                                                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVygjGoIUEE

Miss Hazel,Your childhood memory, as always. is a fine tale. There is nothing better that a thunderstorm to cleanse the soul and the spirit. I think the lightening is to keep the eyes of men away while mother earth takes a shower. I could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time.If your basement were a refrigerator, I would advise you to keep an open box of baking soda in it.  Since it is presumably larger than a refrigerator, maybe a BIG box of baking soda?   

Hazel, I'm with Paolos.   Loved your story from your childhood in Africa, and I like the idea of mother earth' shower, too.  Long ago I told a scared little daughter that the thunder was angles moving furniture, redecorating heaven.  She replied that it was ok if that's what they were doing, but she wished they would stop turning the light on and off. 

Rusty--cute, cute daughter story....Hazelyou share such lovely memories with us and make us almost feel that we were there!  You might try an open bag of charcoal in your basement.........

A good slow motion view of a lightning strike.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MUYsIjTKvk

Do you ever notice how easy it is to pick up a misspelling and claim it as your own?

Hmmm, while baking soda, and charcoal do indeed absorb some bad smells, the truth is more insidious; "smelly socks" is most likely a mold. Mold can,and will, make you ill. Haze, you've recently had some hospital adventures, and you needn't have more. Buy an Ultra-violet air machine. I will send you emails with various models and manufacturers, tho mine are Statesided, and different'mains'. The V.O.C.'s (volatile organic compounds) rendered sterile by the particular wave lengths of the ultraviolet light, are the ones that cause things like Legionaire's disease. The air is circulated over the light (shielded from your view-Very Important!) but as it passes, the RNA of the virus,bacteria,and mold, is effectivly killed, and kept from replicating. You will notice an immediate difference in the smells. And, should you find the source of the mold,(usually inside a wall,fed by condensation,or actual seepage)a carefull cleaning will be advised. I have installed many of these I.A.Q. systems (indoor air quality), and they not only stop molds, but have in many cases reduced by 1/3-1/2 the medications children need for breathing problems in the night.

Thanks, dear people. Too right RY! on the mold thing - I'm staying out of there - Meanwhile, my email has thrown a hissy fit and is not working. I know the principle of those ultraviolet things - people who keep coi carp and such use a version of them to keep the pondwater super-clean and clear. No nasty algae. For some reason, a sackful of barley straw weighted down in the bottom of the pond does the same job at minimal expense - any idea why that would be?
Lightening, lightning, however you want to spell it, is amazing. I once saw lightning go down a church spire via the lightning conductor, setting fire to a shrub planted close to where it came to earth. That was pretty impressive.
I was driving home late one night over a Welsh mountain road and there was an amazing lightning & thunder display. Ball lightning was bouncing (really) along the mountaintops around me and I thought I'd be fine inside my little metal box of a car because it has rubber tyres ..... Yeeeee Haaaaa! A nearby explosion that felt like an electric shock and had every hair on my body standing upright with static. Not painful, just interesting. I think I did say to God "Ha!!!! You missed!!!!"

RY~ I just Googled UV air purifiers and have 17 pages of possibilities!

Hazel - I don't know anything 'bout them there UV air purifiers (although I should probably do some research) but I was going to suggest a plain 'ol dehumidifier...  I've had some luck with them and smelly basements...

Spring - My plans for the weekend are non existent since I either broke a toe or a bone in my foot...  My foot is the loveliest shade of purple-ish blue...

I'm so glad I'm not alone in loving a good thunderstorm!

LIGHTENING brings to mind LIGHTNIN' bugs. . .

Once upon a time long, long, long ago – in the days when there was but mere radio and a little while before television and video games and, for most, air conditioning – we would escape the heat of the house and, frankly, boredom, and go outside in search of even a hint of a breeze on warm summer evenings.

Evenings like these right now. (Yes, the calendar says it is autumn but the temperature says it still is summertime.)

We would go in search of amusement.

Just anything to be entertained.

Just anything.

Lightnin’ bugs seemed to be doing much the same.

They would come out, glowing, glowing, glowing.

Faintly. Then brightly. Faintly. Then brightly.

They would be out in abundance, there to light up our warm summer evenings.

By the hundreds they seemed to come.

Flitting here.

Darting there.

Flying here.

Zipping there.

Catch me if you can.

Lightnin’ bugs all about.

They would be there to delight.

Enchant.

Glow.

Amuse.

Twinkle. Twinkle. Twinkle.

See that bunch there? All those over there?

We would race to catch them and, when we did, form a cup with our hands and enclose some of them and then open our hands a little and peek inside and marvel at their glow, their brightness.

Such fun.

Such summertime warm evening fun.

Then we’d let them go.

We would put one or two or three atop a hand and wave the hand through the air and watch them stay affixed to where we had placed them without falling off. How do they do that?

Then we’d watch the trail of light that stretched out behind them.

Eventually, we’d stop and watch them zip away.

Sometimes, we would put them in a jar. With an ice pick, we would punch holes in the jar lid to give them air, then watch their bright, collective glow inside.

Something of a no-cost homemade lantern.

Later, we would release them.

Next night -- when we and they again came out to play -- they were there to refuel our homemade lantern.

Shine, shine, shine.

Glow, glow, glow.

Surely the brilliance of our homemade lantern idea was matched only by the bright, warm glow of the seemingly happy little bugs inside.

Ah, fond memories.

Warm summer nights, weeks, months, years, decades came and went.

More and more and more and more people came to share the space where we and the lightnin’ bugs once came out to play.

But more and more there were fewer and fewer lightnin’
bugs.

As people – with their increasingly inventive, multiplying, toxic ways – came, the lightning bugs went away.

More people, fewer lightnin’ bugs.

Until, eventually, there seemed to be no lightnin’ bugs at all.

No lightnin’ bugs to come out and play, to twinkle, to excite, to bring magic.

So fewer and fewer and fewer homemade lanterns.

And fewer and fewer and fewer fond memories.

But, alas, mankind is ingenious.

Childs’ play, you might say.

The postman comes and brings a catalog and therein is a product surely designed to thrill any child of any age – a jar “lantern” with an array of LED lights inside to mimic those delightful glow worms of our day, our childhood. Just insert the batteries and, Shazam, you have your jar of fireflies. An instant, magical, childhood lightnin’ bug “lantern.”

Just $20 or thereabouts is all it costs. More money, probably, than the three of us collectively saw in our entire childhood.

Surely these mail-order lanterns are well worth the money, for think, think, just think of the many merry moments one of them will bring any youngster.

And, listed in a second catalog that arrived the next day, at something approaching twice the price of the first, is another, surely better LED light “lantern,” one that no doubt will make its proud child owner the envy of all the other kids.

Playtime one-upmanship. My lantern is brighter than your lantern.

Either one, we suppose, is the perfect, unusual gift to thrill, to entertain, to bring magic.

What kid wouldn’t want one?

For, really, what kid wants or needs to be outside on a warm summer’s evening in search of real, live, entertaining lightnin’ bugs that no longer are around to come out and play?

Ah, the store-bought, credit card-enabled, Fed-X-delivered, always lit lightnin’ bug lantern with its special, man-made glow.

Ah, such sweet, fake, illuminating memories.

When I first saw Mr. P's topic, I thought with that spelling that it was about how to lighten one's skin, or about some form of unburdening a load!!

Lightning is the electrical charge that graces us from the clouds during a thunder storm, Mr. P.....Get the spell checker in gear! Some of us are English teacher trained and misspellings like that really jangle the nerves!

It is raining here in N. GA, but only quiet drizzle, not a whopping thunder boomer. Goodness knows, the farmers and plants need the rain. The leaves are falling off the trees, brown and crusty, not turning yellow first, as they should. Yes, lightning is a mysterious and powerful presence, and no doubt responsible for forest fires, house fires, and some deaths. Respect it.

Bluefoot - AKA mbailey~ Ouch! Hope you got it x-rayed and properly strapped up. Failing all else, a bag of frozen peas over the affected foot and Arnica cream to relive the bruising. Take good care of yourself.

Just an old saps favorite song from my younger days....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwDh-xea40s&feature=youtube_gdata_player

lotlot ~ That was a lot of work. Thanks. My little girls still chase, catch and release the real thing. There are those that still treasure such memory making.
  It's a cool and rainy autumn evening in Middle West Georgia. The rain on the roof has been pitter pattering most of the day, PeterLake, and I still didn't think of that song.  You've gotta love the Lovin' Spoonful.

Hazel - No x-ray yet...  I have a appointment on Tuesday with the doctor and since I did it late Friday night (the 28th), I figured I would just wait until then...  I'm sure lots of people can relate, but, IT HURTS!!!  :(

"But the right word at the right time
May get me a little hug
That's the difference between lightning
And a harmless lightnin bug"
Used to sell 100 LBugs to Oak Ridge labs for 35¢
Lightening hit my house once fried all my electronics and my hair stood straight out while the nails came out of the wall in my bedroom. Freaky Friday.
Like the old commercial~you don't mess with mother nature.

Paolos, your 12:11 is hilarious :}

Hazel love your stories, I could picture being there, what a neat experience!

Rusty, how sweet is a child's preception of things.

My other half was in the basement because we had sheeting rain. He was on his knees with a dry wall sponge. I asked him to use the shop vac, to which he replied (&&%^%().

A few moments later, I heard an electrical sound pierce the air and a retort and thud that made me run to see what happened. He got struck by lightning, (in the basement) and was knocked over.  

Lotlot, what a beautiful and sad but true story, where have we gone anyway??? MBailey, I will send you prayer and healing light! My daughter broke her left metarsal and has been in a cast. No fun!!  Be sure to keep it elevated and pamper yourself. Heal well.

Paolos, those summers so long go were the perfect backdrop for the Spoonful....

Last night of the beee-u-ti-full Harvest Moon. I'm sitting at my firepit,glass of wine,and TCM on the wireless speaker. Already heard Boris as the Mummy,Charlie Chan and a Mummy,and now Abbot and Costello and a mummy....think there might be a theme??

I wonder the Pyramids and litening...

Though my first thought was like yours Mooseloop, that the topic had something to do with something becoming lighter in color or shade, it's funny, my second thought was hmmm  ...maybe I hadn't misspelled lightning in one of my old posts...but I knew I had...and looking at this spelling, for just a second I felt a sense of relief. Oh well.
 
As for lightning, we don't get much of it out here...and very little thunder, but when we do, it's in pale comparison to thunder and lightning elsewhere....in fact rather whimpy....a lightening of lightning. Even so, it's a little bit of a thrill as a reminder of what it could be.
 
Thanks lotlot, for the good memories of collecting fireflies/lightnin' bugs. What fun we had as kids. I'll try to remember to ask the grandkids if they know what a lightnin' bug is.

Hazel your african story brought such profound memories of Rhodesian thunderstorms and the smell of ozone ast the first rains, corrugated metal roofing as well, and a newly built dam bursting as for and a half inches fell in forty five minutes on my uncles farm. Good hard thunderstorms cannot be beaten, great stuff. Lightening? Just there to add a little fun like exploding eucalyptus trees...

OOOPS my spell spell chequer even spelt it incorrectly