How Do You Deal With Thunderstorms?

The worst thunderstorm I've ever experienced in my life was not so much the severity of the storm, but the location.  K-ster spent his childhood summers on a beach where you can drive out for up to 3 days if you have a camper.  And they did this every weekend and then some.  There were a bunch of families that would go and stay out there for a few days.

I never did anything like that, so it's not something I was too excited to do.

This is not the beach that is down the road from me, but one that is on the open Atlantic and you have to drive about 30 minutes to get there. And then drive out on the beach.  I hadn't ever done it before, so I didn't know what I was getting into.

It's quite a process, driving out on the beach, and it's very time consuming.

It was a 4th of July weekend and I had heard that it was going to rain but he said we'd be fine with the camper.  I wasn't thrilled about going in the first place, especially if I had to sit in a camper because it was raining.  Something about the dampness of the beach with the dampness of rain and an old camper just didn't appeal to me.  Can you imagine?

We got out to the beach and it was sunny and fine and then it was night time.  We set everything up, took out a ton of things from the camper like chairs and tables and a portable toilet (the one in the camper didn't work) with a tent around it.  There were lots of people there and everyone was having a good time. 

Except me, but I was trying.

And then it started raining.  People who didn't have campers left, but we went inside.  And then it rained some more.  And the tide was coming in, much higher than expected and ever closer to the truck.  I really wasn't having fun.

As it rained harder, k-ster said we should move up higher on the beach.  We started packing things back into the camper and then it rained even harder and then lightning came.  And we saw two bolts of lightning at the same time and k-ster decided that was two bolts too many, so we starting throwing stuff into the camper, anywhere we could find room.

We could not get off that beach fast enough.  Somehow, the appeal of staying out on the beach overnight completely turns my stomach nowadays!

When my sisters and I were little, we were really afraid of thunder and lightning.  I remember coming downstairs with my sisters, sitting on the couch in front of the slider (to watch the storm??) and crying about how scary it was.

I also vividly remember the last night I did that, thinking this is so ridiculous!  Why would I get out of bed, come downstairs and watch the storm when I could just watch it from my bed?

So, I didn't bother going downstairs when it thundered anymore.

I seem to remember a lot of thunderstorms in the summer when I was little, but I'm sure I must be making that up.

My friend's dog gets so upset about thunderstorms, she actually breaks through screens to get out of the house and hide in the woods.  Recently, the dog was home alone when it thundered and she broke through a screen and didn't come home.  She found her the next morning, about 2 miles from home, at her barn!  I can't understand why she would leave a place where she is happy (she has another dog) and run into the woods when she's so scared!

I remember it thundering once when we were in school, maybe around 3rd grade, and I was afraid I'd start crying because I didn't like thunderstorms.  I remember wondering if everyone else would do the same thing.  I don't remember anyone actually crying and we didn't lose power, so I guess no one  was scared.  I know it didn't last long.

We had a wild thunderstorm last night.  So wild that at one point, I was sure someone was just standing outside, waving a big, floppy metal sign like they used to do for sound effects in the movies.  I was absurd how loud the storm was.

And more absurd, I actually went back to sleep in the middle of it and slept like the dead. No getting up and watching storms for me!

Do you like thunderstorms?  Do they scare you?  Do you like them?

Linking here:

http://www.adornedfromabove.com/2013/09/wednesdays-adorned-from-above-link.html