Storms- Thunder and lightning



"In our lives there is bound to come some pain, surely as there are storms and falling rain; just believe that the one who holds the storms will bring the sun.”

~unknown~





Here in Georgia we frequently have evening summer storms complete with heavy rain, thunder and lightning.  Lately these typical summer storms have been happening every day or two and the last one took down this limb.  It wasn't until this morning when I went out to take pictures of the downed limb that I realized why the limb had broken off this healthy tree.

It was kind of obvious once I looked up the reason why; as you can see the tree was hit by lightning.  Wow was I impressed as this was just a typical summer storm.  Even though we heard the thunder and knew the lightning was close we had no idea how close.  This tree is the closest one to our house.

I took this picture from my kitchen window so you could get an idea of exactly how close the tree was to the house.  I would say that we were real lucky with this one.  We have had lightning strike the house and take out our phone wiring. It completely wiped out my surge protector and my computer; so now my computer gets unplugged and I stay off my land lines.  Please do not take for granted that a surge protector will always protect your computer from lightning; as I learned it can wipe out your surge protector making it useless.  Of course in part I did get an updated computer out of it eventually, which has been nice.

We were real lucky this time and our lawn and garden are thriving from all the rain so all these summer storms are not all bad and we have great sunshine during the day.

Enjoy the summer

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Summer storm aftermath

Big old oak tree- no more

These photos are of the aftermath of the summer storm from my last post.  Even though this was a more typical summer storm than we have had lately, it still left some damage of it's own including 3 people who died because of trees falling on them.  Most storms are not this bad as far as damage goes, but with the tornado weather a couple of weeks ago the trees have been weakened.  By now most of the clean-up is done and things are back to normal.  I have noticed that a lot of people have done a lot of clean-up and tarring  down of old buildings.  I'm sure at least some of the reason is to keep the damage down when the next tornado type storm comes by but it has really made an improvement on the way some parts of town look.

House among the trees

Downed old power lines (you have to look hard)

Traveling down I-75

No more sound barrier

Stopping to get gas

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

My personal storm

Now to why I have not been posting recently.  It seems I have had something of a manic-depressive month.  I have have had the joys of my sons wedding, with 5 of 6 kids and 5 of 10 grandchildren at home.  I can't think of anything better than that; to the lows of being tentatively diagnosed with a brain tumor. (MRI has since ruled that out) And just like the leaves in this picture I have been tossed to and fro.

Add like with our spring storms I have cried me plenty of tears of both joy and sorrow.  Sometimes the spring rain is gentle and made you feel like dancing in the puddles and sometimes it is rough and stings and makes you want to go inside.  My son has been happier since he met his wife than I had seen him in years and at the wedding he glowed.  I know usually people talk about how the bride glows on her wedding day but this was a time when the groom glowed equally as bright.  Great tears of joy and if I had been able I'd have been up dancing with my girls, bride included.  Pictures to follow on a post in a few days to explain that one.  I have cried a river of tears for my health, and like a heavy rain I retreated inside.  A bad move on my part as it kept me from sources of comfort and compassion.  My family knowing of my troubles broke through as best they could but I did tend to cut them off too and then I cut myself out of other sources like this blog, my photography and the friends I have made through these sources.  Why is it that at the worst of times we often do the worst for ourselves?  On top of all the medical problems I have; last fall I started having neurological problems and I had them checked out and they weren't too bad so I just dealt with them.  Then the two month migraine and sinus infection which cleared up but then I started sleeping 16-20 hrs. per day; having severe problems with memory and concentration, having severe tremors several times a day, seizures every couple of days, walking into walls or falling if a wall was not handy, constant headache, total lack of control of my blood sugar both high and low, and I can't keep myself hydrated. All this came on quickly and I felt like the Unicorn from the 'Last Unicorn' when she was turned into a human and was therefore mortal when she said 'I can feel this body dying all around me.'  I certainly felt my body falling apart all around me.  To the doctors I went; where the first tests showed that I should have a pituitary tumor.  Okay so this is bad news but most of these tumors are benign are fairly simple to remove, they go up through your mouth behind your sinus, and then my problems could go away, maybe even problems I've been plagued with for years.  I still cried a lot because of the what ifs and then the neurologist starts talking about me having a brain tumor, which is a lot more iffy.  Anyway an MRI was ordered and good news- bad news 'no tumor' the biggest bad news with this is the doctor said that basically I would just have to learn to live with it.  The results were sent to my primary care doctor and he agreed with the neurologist.  I have simply been sick for so long and on so many medications that my brain has basically been fried.  All this took place in amongst and just after the wedding festivities.  I'm in the process of finding another neurologist for a second opinion and trying to come off some of my meds but if I didn't need them I wouldn't be taking them. I can tell you every medicine I take and how it helps me so we'll see how this goes.

I don't want to leave you on such a sad note so I will show you I still have not lost my sense of humor. During one dark and stormy night our lights went out and living in the boonies it gets real dark, but I was hungry and so I felt around for the flashlight (I have recently found phones work well till you can find your flashlight) got me a yogurt and figuring I could eat it in the dark sat in the recliner, turned off the flashlight, and on the first bite- plop- the yogurt went right down the front of my shirt. Flashlight came back on and I balanced it in the arm of the chair and noticed the shadow puppets my feet were making on the wall. My wolf howling at the moon. Hope you get a chuckle out of it like I did.

Johnina

Storm pic

I found this photo of Weds afternoon as the storms were coming in.  This is typical of our spring storms and as I walked out of the doctors office it stuck me how fast a storm can move in, with the bright blue sky followed by the storm clouds so I snapped this shot.  It is my understanding that there is only a 10-15 min warning for a tornado and looking at this picture you can understand why.

Spring Storms Aftermath

I still do not have any pictures to post at first it was to stay out of the way of the rescuers; now I can't bear the thought of going where I have taken photos or had planned on photographing and seeing the destruction.  I drive through that part of  of Spalding county on a regular basis and quite often pick out beautiful places to go back to photograph later and some of which I had not photographed yet and I really don't want to see those places destroyed. I know this is trivial compared to the loss of life (luckily only 2 died in Spalding county- if you saw the destruction in Spalding on Fox news you know lucky is a good word)as of yesterday seven mobile homes were still missing- yes I said missing- they were probably so torn up by the tornadoes that only pieces will be found; 400 homes and 30 businesses were damaged or destroyed. But all this has brought to my mind how quickly lives can change and how sometimes opportunities are lost forever. For those who lost their lives it is the ultimate in lost opportunities both for themselves and for those who survived them.  This is kind of the hard lesson to learn --- to appreciate what you have and treasure what you have while you have it.

Spring Storms Update

Fox news has been showing quite a few pictures of Spalding County Georgia and the destruction there which is the county I live in.  Jeremy got called into work today due to the fact that so many of his fellow workers could not get to work due to blocked roads.  Tom's trip to work today went from a 19 mile drive to a 40 mile drive due to blocked roads. Our neighborhood was certainly lucky as the extent of our problems from the storm is we only lost power for a some time last night.  Johnina

Spring Storms

It has been a while since I have posted, due to my own personal storms, but I wanted to let my friends know that I am fine and survived the horrific weather we have had here.  I would like you to keep the storm survivors in your thoughts and prayers especially for the daughter of my heart, Emily Graves (Jeremy's girlfriend), although she has moved out on her own, her dad and sister are fine even though they were at the family home when a tornado hit and destroyed part of the home.  As of now there are still 7 of her former neighbors, people she grew up with, missing.  The rest of my family who were in the storms path are fine, although Laura did spend some time in her bathroom in the tub with her boys as it was the safest place in the house.  I'm staying inside to stay out of the way of the destruction and rescue efforts so no pics from me, but the news is doing a good job of covering the storms and the aftermath, FOX news in particular is doing an excellent job and is available on the web.    Johnina

Frozen Georgia

Snow and ice

Here in Georgia, we very seldom get winter storms of snow or ice, we quite often go all winter without one.  This winter is quite the exception as we are already on our second storm and our winter storms usually come in February or March, so we could easily get more storms.  This storm was even an exception to the exception as it had both snow and ice.  I ventured out several times to take photos as it was to cold to stay outside for one normal shoot.  The photos I got I think are both beautiful and intriguing.  

Icy limbs and buds

Icy pines

Icy grass through the snow

Walking the dog

Icy car

Monster mouth

Frozen headlight

Please feel free to leave your comment on my photos
Look for the beauty around you and have a delightful day
Johnina ☺☺☺☺☺

Stormy October weather

We have had several days of rain in a row.  I does clear up for a couple of hours in the afternoon everyday so it's not so bad.  The wind however continues to gust all day long.  I decided to try out a new technique to see if I could capture the movement of the leaves during the times when the rain was not falling but the wind was blowing.  I experimented with the shutter speed so that the lens was open longer to catch the leaves as they moved while trying to keep the tree trunks and backgrounds sharp.  Some of the results are below.  Let me know what you think so I can adjust my camera for the best photos.

 My daughter also has stormy weather every fall as she starts school and breaks in new roommates on top of the weather change.  She has already had to cope with snow flurries at night already.  Since she has asthma the weather change makes a difference, but the biggest of her stormy weather is breaking in her roommates to her allergies.  You see she has severe food allergies that can send her into an asthma attack or worse anaphylaxis and it's not just eating the food, it can just being around when the food is cooked.  She posts a list which causes some teasing; it is very long and even if her roommates are understanding some of their friends are not.  They are also not used to being careful in what they eat and fix so they sometimes forget and then she can't breathe.  She really did a good job of describing what it is like for her on her blog

http://snarkandart.blogspot.com/  

I can relate; I have different medical problems but a lot of the same frustrations.  Check out her blog it will give you a different view on life.

  I have been reading the first Dresden files book.  I've read a couple of them and they are just fun, quick to read fantasy books.  This one did have a tidbit of wisdom in it and finding these little character thoughts that really round out the characters is why I still read.  The saying that the book is always better than the movie; I believe to be true almost exclusively.  Anyway here is the quote from "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher that kind of sums up how to handle the storms of life.
'Rain was coming down in sheets.  I could hear it, on the concrete outside and on the old building above me.  It creaked and swayed in the spring thunderstorm and the wind, timbers gently flexing, wise enough with age to give a little, rather than put up stubborn resistance until they broke.  I could probably stand to learn something from that.'  
I think we could all learn to bend in the storms of life so we don't break.


Johnina  :^A