Large and in Charge

By Jim Hagarty
2016

I am not a big fan of lightning. I think I live in a safe little world, then look up the sky to see a terrifying electrical storm. Perhaps my fear of it is a leftover from my farm days, when weather was a lot more real to a young guy. There were no big buildings around and row and after row of streetlights to put a damper on the light show. On the farm, it was right there for us to see. And it was not in our imaginations. Our barns and other outbuildings were all equipped with lightning rods, devices that would capture and diffuse the energy without setting the structure on fire. I never saw a lighting rod struck by my younger brother did one day.

Anyway, the reason I have gathered you all here today is to tell you that I heard on the radio the other day that the biggest lightning bolt ever recorded was 200 miles long. That is one long bolt, holy mackerel.

That’s it. I need to crawl back under my covers now.

Author: Jim Hagarty

I am a 72-year-old retired journalist, busy recovering from a lifelong career as an unretired journalist. This year marks a half century of my scratching out little fables about life. My interests include genealogy, humour and music. I live in a little blue shack in Canada and spend most of my time trying to stay out of trouble. I am not that good at it. I also spent years teaching journalism. Poor state of journalism today: My fault. I have a family I don't deserve, a dog that adores me, and two cars the junk yard refuses to accept. My prized possessions include my old guitar and a razor my Dad gave me when I was 14 and which I still use when I bother to shave. Oh, and my great-great-grandfather's blackthorn stick he brought from Ireland in the 1850s. I have only one opinion but it is a good one: People take too many showers.