just for the record

I don't do lightning and thunder any more. Not since I was standing outside of a post office branch in Fort Collins, Colorado, in 1979, when a flash boomed out of nowhere, close enough that I heard the thunder before I actually saw the lightning. You know what they say about your hair standing on end in situations like that? It's true. Trust me.

One of the - many, many, many - things I love about where I live is that if we get lightning once every two or three years, that's an event.

I really didn't appreciate the flash that went off within three alligators of me while I was in the car just now...