Bartender: He’s been struck by lightning… how many times has it been now, Reg?
Reg: S-s-s-s-s-s-s-six…
Chet: Six times?
Reg: S-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-six-sixty-sixty-six times. In-n-n-n-n-n-n-In-n-n-n-n-n-n-In-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n the head!

-from The Great Outdoors (1988) starring John Candy and Dan Ackroyd

Well, I can’t say I’ve ever been hit by lightning s-s-sixty-six times like poor ol’ Reg was, but I’ve certainly been too close for comfort!

Back in 1994, I accepted a three month contract to work in Punta Cardón, Venezuela as a Cost Engineer (don’t ask). This was my first time to get to South America (even though it was only the northernmost tip, but still-), so I was naturally excited about seeing a new horizon. (In case you’re wondering where exactly in the world this is, you can use Google Earth or Yahoo Maps to search for Punta Fijo. Punta Cardón doesn’t seem to be searchable, even though it’s right next door.)

Anyway, for several months I lived in the Peninsula Hotel, a former (with emphasis on former) resort hotel that was (I think – alas, the ol’ gray cells holding this particular bit of information took early retirement) about 10 stories tall. Although no longer resort-quality (nope, not by a looong shot), at least it was comfortable enough for me.

The one unusual thing was the shower stall was big enough to park my horse! (Er, if I had one. And if I could get him up the elevator and into the room. Do horses like to take showers?) Don’t know why it was so big, but with a big air mattress (a single bed would have fit with room to spare) and one of those “sounds of the rain forest” tapes, it would have been pretty relaxing.

But I digress – I was talking about lightning, right?

Well, every time we had a big thunderstorm (which happened pretty often, actually), lightning would hit the hotel. Being the only tall building in the vicinity, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. Oh, no worries about damage or anything, the lightning rods (at least) were well-designed enough to ground the amps, volts, ohms or whatever safely as they were supposed to. Um, er, almost.

The only problem was, every time lightning hit the building (which was practically every single storm!), it knocked the power out, sometimes for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. The good news was that power was usually restored fairly quickly; the bad news was it always took the air conditioning system off-line. Ugh!

Whenever this happened, all the hotel guests had to troop downstairs (since you couldn’t use the elevators – and I was on the sixth floor!) to wait outside by the pool until the repair service arrived. Although power usually came back on right away, it was almost always a several-hour-long ordeal before we had cool air again (which was no joke in that muggy Venezuelan heat).

But this one storm… oh, baby! No, wait, lemme add some emphasis to that: OH, BABY!!!!!!

We were already outside by the pool, but this time – well, it didn’t look like the power was comin’ back anytime soon. (I was right – it took over four hours!) And because of the wind and rain, we had to huddle close to the building (luckily there were some wide awnings to hide under) while the storm raged around us.

Lightning and thunder were literally shaking the ground like an earthquake, when suddenly this one huge bolt whanged down, right in the empty lot next to us! It was so close the eye-searing flash and deafening shock wave hit at virtually the same moment. (Light and sound of lighting bolt cleaving the universe in half!) I really thought the glass wall behind us would break, it was that powerful (lucky for us it didn’t). Talk about your “up close and personal”!

I’ve never experienced anything like it, before or since; it was incredible and deafening and thrilling and frightening and exciting, all at the same time. My hair was practically standing up; the dissipated charge in the ground was that close. Incredible!

At last the storm passed, power was restored, and eventually the air conditioning system was re-started. Ah, life back to, er, normal. But I gotta wonder…

Is there something about me and lighting? Remember our trip to Paris? Does weird weather follow me around?