On Tuesday late afternoon, September 5th, the northwest corner of Lisbon Falls, Maine was the next community to host the severe thunder and lightning show that was going on in the state at that time. Ignoring previous experiences, I took time away from my computer to gaze out the various windows, doors, and even stood on the deck (it has a roof though). The dark clouds rolled up fast and the wind pushed the rain like pellets. A flash boom here, another over there. Flash Boom. Flash Boom. Rolling Boom. Flash all around Boom. These were intense bolts and simultaneous thunder claps, or more like bombs. I watched. What I should have done is unplugged some of the electronics in the house or even opened the main breaker for 20 minutes or so. But no. I eventually went upstairs and sat at my desk facing my computer monitor. At that moment another Flash Boom as I sat down. But that wasn’t it, the strike was so close I could hear the sizzling of energy finding it’s way to earth. Little did I know that the sound I heard was the entrance of some of that charge through the cable line. Right through the cable modem, my router, and one wired Ethernet port on two separate computers. My Dell 990 was one of those, and an IBM 520i server the other. I saw the sizzling arc between the Ethernet line and cabinet ground via a reflection in the window located just 6 inches away from the back of the Dell computer. Luckily the Ethernet port seemed to be the only casualty on that machine, so it is wireless for now. The IBM server port also was toast, but at least it had an unused wired Ethernet port I could change over to. The modem and the router were simply just history. On Thursday, I went over to the cable company and picked up a free cable modem. I had a fall back router of less capability, but that would have to do until I could buy a new router. A few years back, I had moved my electrical service, but had yet to move the cable drop to the same location. Bad on me, as the cable ground was, well, missing. Had the earth ground been in place or I had moved the cable to the same corner as the new service with a better ground, then I wouldn’t be posting this to the world right now. I guess I better get moving on that cable line.
Ramblings