Can we go back to the lightning? It is the one thing that absolutely terrifies me. Ken and I were back in South Dakota on leave and I took our '64 Pontiac Catalina down to rent one of those aluminum car top carriers and have it put on, then I stopped and filled up the tank. A huge, nasty, typical Eastern South Dakota thunderstorm was going on, so I wanted to hurry up and get home. On the way there was a stop sign at 8th and Burnside. I stopped, and at that moment lightning either hit the cartop carrier or the stop sign, nobody is sure which but I believe it was the stop sign. Anyway, whatever it was stopped the wipers, the radio and the defrosters. Smoke started coming out of the vents in the car, and it had that plastic burning smell. I tried to get out, but the door handles were hot and the door wouldn't open. I was in panic mode...I wanted OUT right now. The man who lives on the corner at the stop sign had already called the fire department when he saw the flash and heard the explosion right there. They were there in just a few minutes and got me out by prying the door open. Then the good Samaritan called Ken and he used Dad's car to come and get me.
I wasn't hurt, just terrified, and the car was done. The wiring had all burned out and there was some other damage too, but memory fails me. Ken took me to the hospital to get checked out, just to be sure. It was about a week after that I had my first seizure. And they kept coming. I'd never had a seizure in my life...what was going on. As it turns out, the neurologists believe they were caused by the electrical field of the lightning (regardless of what it hit around me) affecting the electrical impulses in the brain. I dunno what actually caused them, but they are still with me today. Lightning is the one thing now that scares the peewadding out of me more than anything else!
