A different sort of fireworks

We had a different sort of fireworks for our Fourth of July this year. They began on Tuesday evening when a summer lightning and thunderstorm swept in along its usual path: from Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland to us. Summer rain here is often light and refreshing but this was a kind of flash flood with heavy rain, thunder and loud lightning for about an hour. As the storm arrived directly over us, one particularly loud bolt hit our bell tower's cross--and luckily traveled down its lightning rod.

Wednesday morning we woke up to a)no telephones, b)half of the computers down, c)half of the A/C working and half out, and d)no sound system in chapel. The computers got fixed first by Brian our local guru; the telephones were back by mid-afternoon; the A/C is not back yet and there's no prediction on the state of the sound system--we're all practicing our voice projection.

As if all that wasn't enough, about 10:00 am on Wednesday itself another smaller and shorter lengthed storm came across the lake from Canada and drenched us again, but without more damage.

Our plants and grasses got a short but intense watering, I saw some downed tree limbs around, and our gutters and creeks were running wildly for awhile. All in all most of the effects were mere inconveniences, but it was enough to make me think about and pray specially for the victims of real disasters around our country on this the anniversary of our independence.

These google doodle artists are so creative!