Tag: Thunderstorm

A Striking Query

I am about to pose a question to you. I already have my answer, however, I hoped you might contribute to the “conversation.” Let me set it up for you.

This morning, Sam and I are sitting in the living room drinking coffee. She tells me that we are supposed to be getting some really nasty storms this afternoon. I opened up my weather app and sure enough, it looks like there will be some heavy stuff rolling through.

While the kids eat breakfast, Sam jumps in the shower. When she gets out I tell her that I want to shower early before the storm. She chuckles and says, “You don’t believe that old wives tale, do you?” I stood their looking at her thinking, “It’s no wives tale. It’s a fact.” She keeps staring at me and can’t believe that I don’t want to shower during the storm.

Now, my wife is usually right about things. So I wait a bit before getting ready to shower. I know I want to shower early anyway because rain always slows the drive. As the rain starts, I look at my weather app.

It’s really coming down. I tell Sam I am going to shower real fast. She laughs again and says, “You are not going to get struck by lightning in the shower!” So naturally, I Google it. “Hey, Google. Is it safe to shower during a thunderstorm?” The response read:

I show this to my wife who laughed it off. I know that this was not something that I learned second hand. I want to say that they even told us this in school – probably the same time they told us not to stand under trees during a storm.

So I know the answer to my question. It is not safe to shower during a thunderstorm. So let me pose another question to you –

Did you know this to be true or die you think it was an old wives tale or urban legend? I’m interested to know.

Just Running in the Rain

I shared this on my Facebook page today, and thought it worthy to share as a short blog entry.

I had a doctor appointment this morning. There were some sprinkles and rain showers on the drive there, but they had pretty much stopped when I arrived. They must have been busy, as I didn’t end up leaving my 9:45 appointment until around 11:30am.

As I exit the waiting room, I looked outside and could see that it was a full blown thunderstorm and that it was pouring rain. As I walked out the main door, I stood under the huge awning protected from the rain. There are about four or five people all standing there pondering what they are going to do.

There were older people are sitting on benches saying there’s no way they are walking to their cars in it. One husband said he would go get the car and pull it up for his wife, but she insisted he stay. This led to him saying he wasn’t “going to melt.” There were a couple people my age debating whether to make a break for it, and discussing it with the older people, who encouraged them to wait for it to let up.

As I am observing this, a young mom with two girls about 4-5 years old walk out and the girls are squealing in delight. They are thrilled that it is raining cats and dogs. They both yell, “Yay! It’s raining!” They are not wearing raincoats and have no umbrella. There mom looked at them playfully and says, “Here we go,” and they run out into the parking lot holding hands splashing and laughing together.

My car wasn’t parked to far that a little rain would hurt me, so I followed their lead and rain in the heavy rain to the car. The parking lot was full of puddles and my shoes and socks were soaked by the time I got into the car. For 10-15 seconds, I was 5 years old running in the rain! “Yay! Rain!”

Photo courtesy of iStock by Getty Images