To Plug or Not To Plug
This morning I woke up around eight o'clock and listened to the wind. My husband was already awake and asked if I had heard it during the night. I hadn't, because after a couple of sleepless nights, this was my turn to be a log. But, apparently, it was windy, to put it mildly. High winds had been forecast because a series of fronts are passing by these days, with gusts of up to 138 kph at Fisterra.
But the thunder in the distance worried me more. As lightning and thunder began to synchronize, I got up and went downstairs to unplug things. I unplugged everything except the fridge, which I would have had to move. Computer, television, heater, coffee pot (can't live without coffee), microwave, they all came off the grid. Then, I went back to bed, and watched the light show.
It seems that every year, a house in our surrounding parishes and towns gets hit by lightning, and has everything that is plugged in go into an apocalyptic shock. I don't remember that happening in Boston when I was growing up, though I was warned to stay indoors, away from lonely trees and gratuitous boats in the middle of a body of water. I was also warned an umbrella wasn't a good idea, and that inside a car I shouldn't touch any metal surfaces. (Yes, it was a while ago. Try finding any metal surfaces inside a car within the last thirty years.)
After heavy thunderstorms, the regional television news will sometimes show us the inside of a house struck by a bolt. Burn marks around every outlet and sad, unusable appliances fill the screen. The homeowner laments what happened, and laments all the paperwork in store with the insurance company. Or, the homeowner laments what happened, and all the money he doesn't now have to buy replacements because he doesn't have homeowner's insurance. I sympathize with the latter, because we don't have insurance, either. (It's not mandatory on all houses, just on the ones paid for with a mortgage.)
Spain has always been a country that believes in Fate. However you try to avoid it, if it's waiting for you, it will find you. Or that's what many believe. Older houses, and by that I mean houses built fifteen to twenty years ago, were never equipped with lightning rods. Nor had their electrical connection grounded. My parents had had to rewire the house once when lightning hit it many, many moons ago. It was renovated around twenty-five years ago. While it was renovated to make sure it doesn't fall down for the next hundred fifty years, the electrical connection was left mostly as it was. It was simply rewired and that was that, though I suspect some kind of grounding was installed. Over ten years ago, a bolt of lightning fell on a nearby transformer and a surge travelled over the line to our house. Before the system automatically disconnected itself (at least that safeguard was installed), we lost the television, the DVR, the then TDT adapter, and one of the lights in the kitchen. That was enough for me.
If there is a threat of thunderstorms during the night, I unplug everything I can before going to bed. At the first crack I hear during the day, ditto. I risk the fridge, but it's cheaper than replacing everything.
But the thunder in the distance worried me more. As lightning and thunder began to synchronize, I got up and went downstairs to unplug things. I unplugged everything except the fridge, which I would have had to move. Computer, television, heater, coffee pot (can't live without coffee), microwave, they all came off the grid. Then, I went back to bed, and watched the light show.
It seems that every year, a house in our surrounding parishes and towns gets hit by lightning, and has everything that is plugged in go into an apocalyptic shock. I don't remember that happening in Boston when I was growing up, though I was warned to stay indoors, away from lonely trees and gratuitous boats in the middle of a body of water. I was also warned an umbrella wasn't a good idea, and that inside a car I shouldn't touch any metal surfaces. (Yes, it was a while ago. Try finding any metal surfaces inside a car within the last thirty years.)
After heavy thunderstorms, the regional television news will sometimes show us the inside of a house struck by a bolt. Burn marks around every outlet and sad, unusable appliances fill the screen. The homeowner laments what happened, and laments all the paperwork in store with the insurance company. Or, the homeowner laments what happened, and all the money he doesn't now have to buy replacements because he doesn't have homeowner's insurance. I sympathize with the latter, because we don't have insurance, either. (It's not mandatory on all houses, just on the ones paid for with a mortgage.)
Spain has always been a country that believes in Fate. However you try to avoid it, if it's waiting for you, it will find you. Or that's what many believe. Older houses, and by that I mean houses built fifteen to twenty years ago, were never equipped with lightning rods. Nor had their electrical connection grounded. My parents had had to rewire the house once when lightning hit it many, many moons ago. It was renovated around twenty-five years ago. While it was renovated to make sure it doesn't fall down for the next hundred fifty years, the electrical connection was left mostly as it was. It was simply rewired and that was that, though I suspect some kind of grounding was installed. Over ten years ago, a bolt of lightning fell on a nearby transformer and a surge travelled over the line to our house. Before the system automatically disconnected itself (at least that safeguard was installed), we lost the television, the DVR, the then TDT adapter, and one of the lights in the kitchen. That was enough for me.
If there is a threat of thunderstorms during the night, I unplug everything I can before going to bed. At the first crack I hear during the day, ditto. I risk the fridge, but it's cheaper than replacing everything.
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